Budgets

Plan spending, track variance against budgeted amounts, and set alert thresholds to stay in control.

Budgets help you plan your spending and track how actual costs compare to your planned amounts. By setting budgeted figures for each cost classification, you gain real-time visibility into whether your spending is on track — and receive alerts before overruns happen.

Budget period types

Each budget covers a specific time period. You can choose from:

• Monthly — The most common option, covering a single calendar month.
• Quarterly — Covers three months, useful for businesses that plan in quarters.
• Annual — A full year budget for long-range planning.
• Custom date range — Set any start and end date for special projects or non-standard periods.

Creating a budget

1. 1

   Navigate to Budgets

   Go to Finance → Planning → Budgets from the sidebar.

2. 2

   Click Create Budget

   Click the Create Budget button to start a new budget.

3. 3

   Set name, period, and dates

   Give your budget a descriptive name (e.g. “Q1 2026 Operating Budget”), select the period type, and confirm the start and end dates.

4. 4

   Add line items by cost classification

   Add line items for each cost classification you want to track (e.g. Facilities, Technology, Payroll Wages). Each line item represents a spending category within the budget.

5. 5

   Set budgeted amounts

   Enter the budgeted amount for each line item. This is the maximum you plan to spend in that category during the budget period.

6. 6

   Set alert thresholds

   Configure the percentage threshold at which you want to be alerted (default is 80%). When actual spending reaches this percentage of the budgeted amount, you will receive a notification.

7. 7

   Save as draft or activate

   Save the budget as a draft for further review, or activate it immediately to start tracking spending.

Budget lifecycle

Budgets move through the following statuses:

• Draft — The budget is being prepared. Line items and amounts can be freely edited.
• Active — The budget is live and tracking actual spending against budgeted amounts.
• Closed — The budget period has ended. No further changes are accepted, but the data remains available for review and reporting.
• Archived — The budget has been archived for historical reference.

Line items

Each line item maps to a cost classification and tracks the budgeted amount alongside the actual amount spent. As expenses are recorded against the matching classification, the actual figure updates automatically.

Variance analysis

Variance analysis compares your actual spending against your budgeted amounts. For each line item, you can see:

• Actual spend — The total expenses recorded against this classification during the budget period.
• Budget amount — The planned spending limit.
• Variance — The difference between budget and actual, shown as both an absolute amount and a percentage.
• Alert status — Whether spending has exceeded the alert threshold (default 80%) or the full budget.

Budget suggestions

When creating a new budget, Eleo can suggest amounts for each line item based on your historical spending patterns. Suggestions are calculated from the average spending in the same cost classifications over the previous three months. You can accept, adjust, or ignore each suggestion.

Revenue targets

Budgets optionally support a revenue target. When set, Eleo factors expected revenue into the budget analysis, letting you see whether your planned spending is sustainable relative to projected income. This enables margin-aware budgeting where you can plan both sides of the equation.