Review, approve or send back a team budget

Use this when a team below you has submitted its budget, or a budget you approved needs to go back.

You need access to approve budget proposals, or to be a budget admin — ask your Flowstate admin.

You're a team's approver if you manage the team directly above it, or your organisation has named you as a budget approver. A top-level team's budget is approved by the person who started the run. See Choose who approves budgets.

Open the team's budget

Use whichever is nearest:

• Inbox — open the task Review budget proposal for the team.
• Budget requests — go to Finance → Budgets → Budget requests, open the request, and select Review on the team's row.
• My budget — if your own team has sub-teams, select My budget, open the Overview tab, and select Review on the sub-team's row. Rows waiting for you say Ready for your approval.

The Review panel opens beside the list.

Read the Review panel

From the top, the panel shows:

1. The team's figures for the year — its forecast, FTE, Employees, Contractors and Vacancies — each compared with your live records.
2. A note if you can't approve yet, saying why — for example Awaiting submission, or Pending approval when you aren't the team's approver.
3. Open full budget plan, and Send Back and Approve if you're the approver or a budget admin.
4. Merge conflicts, if there are any. See Resolve merge conflicts.
5. Every change in the team's budget.

To see the team's Changes made and Forecast tabs, or to comment on a change, select Open full budget plan. Then select Discuss on a change and add your comment.

For the whole run, use the request's Changes made, Initiatives and Forecast tabs. See Accept the budget.

Fix something yourself

While a team's budget is still being filled in, or after it's been sent back, you can change it directly.

1. On the team's row, select Review, then Open full budget plan.
2. Select Edit my budget. The button has this name on any budget you can change: your own, one you approve, or any budget in a run you started.
3. People and teams opens inside that team's budget. Make the change — add or remove a vacancy, move someone, change an allocation.
4. Select Back to budget request in the sidebar.
5. Let the team's manager know: on the budget's Changes made tab, select Discuss on the change and add a comment.

Once a budget is submitted, nobody can change it, including its approver. To fix a submitted budget, send it back and say what needs to change.

Resolve merge conflicts

A merge conflict means the same thing was changed in two places since the team started its budget: in the team's own budget, and in the plan it rolls up into — the run's base plan, or the budget of the team above. Flowstate can't tell which is right, so the approver chooses. Approve stays greyed out until every conflict is resolved.

1. In the Review panel, find Merge conflicts. Each conflict says what changed, such as Compensation · Salary, and who it's about.
2. For each conflict, select the value to keep. One side is Base plan now, or the team above's proposal when the change came from there. The other side is This proposal. Each side shows the value, who set it and when.
3. Select Resolve. The button shows how many you've chosen, for example Resolve 2 selected. You don't have to choose them all at once.

When every conflict is resolved, the section disappears. The values you chose are used when you approve.

Approve

1. Select Approve in the Review panel, or the tick on the team's row.
2. Confirm with Approve.

The team's budget joins your own team's budget and shows Merged. Then submit your own budget to the level above in the same way.

A top-level team's budget shows Approved until finance accepts the budget.

Send it back

1. Select Send Back in the Review panel, or on the team's full budget plan.
2. Under Comment (required), say what needs to change. It needs at least 10 characters.
3. Select Send Back.

The budget shows Changes requested, and its manager gets a task with your comment. When they resubmit, it comes back to you.

Undo an approval

You can take an approval back until the budget is accepted. The button is on the team's full budget plan, not in the Review panel.

1. On the team's row, select Review, then Open full budget plan.
2. Select Undo approval.
3. Confirm with Undo approval.

The team's changes come back out of the budget above, and the budget returns to Submitted, waiting for a decision. Approve it again, or send it back if its manager needs to change it.

Tip

If a team's approver is away, a budget admin can approve, send back or undo any team's budget.

If something's not right

There's no Approve button. The note in the Review panel says why — usually you aren't this team's approver or a budget admin, or the team hasn't submitted yet.

Approve is greyed out. There are merge conflicts left. See Resolve merge conflicts.

"Cannot approve: … unresolved merge conflicts …" Resolve them first. See Resolve merge conflicts.

"Cannot edit this budget proposal …" The budget has been submitted, so it can't be changed. Send it back instead.

There's no Undo approval button. It's on the team's full budget plan, not in the Review panel. If it isn't there either, you aren't this team's approver, or your organisation lets only budget admins do this.

There's no Send Back button. You aren't this team's approver, or your organisation lets only budget admins do this. Ask your finance team.

The budget has already been accepted. Approvals can't be undone after that. Change the team's budget mid-year instead.