Budgeting

Overview

Budgeting is where Finance and heads of department run an operational cycle. Open Budgeting from the Finance sidebar (/finance/budgeting). You can open it with payroll view or manage permission, or with department or organisation budget permission. Heads of department do not need full Finance access. The nine-lane flow is:

Cycle setup. An organisation admin or allocator creates a budget cycle.
Department allocation. Split the total across departments, then lock.
Salaries come off first. Pay is locked. The rest becomes the leftover pot.
Head of department line items. Spend leftover on named lines.
Rota-linked spend. Publishing a tagged rota draws a line down live.
Recruitment-linked spend. Budget a role (name, grade, PT/hourly, hours, days) → preview → Approve. Hourly stays tentative until shifts complete. Hires can also debit a tagged recruitment line.
Salary benchmarking. Market data feeds pay and recruitment when licensed. Otherwise org pay bands.
HR and Finance oversight. Dashboard, flags, and exports.
Close the cycle. Lock, review variance, roll leftover or reset. Leftover can feed the next split.

Spine: Create cycle → Split by department → Salaries lock → Heads spend leftover → Rota and hiring draw down → HR and Finance watch → Close and report → next split.

Create a cycle

Create a cycle with a name, dates, and a total organisation pot in GBP. People with set-rules permission can choose whether to pro-rate salaries to this cycle. Cycle pay is a separate figure from current salary. When pro-rate is on, cycle pay uses (annual / 12) × cycle months. When it is off, cycle pay uses the full annual amount. Cycle settings also cover department over-allocation, line-item over-allocation, rota overspend (hard-block or warn), and leftover at close (roll into the next split, or reset). Anyone who can open the cycle can read those rules. Changing them needs set-organisation-budget-rules, full budget access, or payroll manage. Closing a cycle makes it read-only. Approved rises stay in the cycle record. They do not change payroll rates by themselves.

Cycle workspace

Open a cycle to work in four sections:

Cycle. Name, dates, total pot (when you can see it), and settings sit side by side. Who-can-see-what and permission keys open from the information control. This is lane 1. There is no fifth tab.
Departments. Propose amounts, then finalise to lock. Salary allocation comes off automatically. Heads spend the leftover on line items (events, recruitment, rota staffing, equipment, or other). Tag a line as rota or recruitment so those workflows can draw it down.
People. One people table. Current salary and Cycle pay are different columns. Every column has a filter. Pay-band Below / Meets / Exceeds meters stay as the local benchmark.
Oversight. Organisation total (when you can see it), salary versus leftover, spend by category, alerts, pay-band mix, and a CSV export in the tools menu. Close the cycle from the header.

Department amounts cannot exceed the organisation pot unless a user has over-allocation permission. Line items cannot exceed the leftover pot unless that same exception applies.

Who can view what

Visibility is by surface, not by a second product. Heads of department never see the organisation total, on the cycle list or inside a cycle. Draft cycles stay with Finance and organisation viewers until the cycle is opened.

Lane	What	Who can view	Who can change
1. Cycle setup	Budgeting in the Finance sidebar	Finance with payroll view or manage, organisation budget view, all-budgets view, full budget access, or a head of department with manage-own-department. Rota-only remaining view does not open this page.	Nobody. The link is view-only.
1. Cycle setup	Cycle list	Same as the sidebar. Organisation totals, remaining, and people counts are hidden unless the person has organisation view, all-budgets, allocate, full access, or payroll view or manage.	Create a cycle: allocate, full access, or payroll manage.
1. Cycle setup	Draft cycle	Finance and organisation viewers only. Heads of department do not see a draft until it is opened.	Allocate, full access, or payroll manage can edit the draft and open it.
1. Cycle setup	Organisation total pot and notes	Organisation view, all-budgets, allocate, full access, or payroll view or manage. Heads never see the organisation total or organisation notes.	Allocate, full access, or payroll manage. Closed cycles are read-only.
1. Cycle setup	Cycle settings	Anyone who can open the cycle can read the current rules.	Set-organisation-budget-rules, full access, or payroll manage. Allocate without set-rules can still save name and dates.
2. Department allocation	Every department pot	Organisation view, all-budgets, allocate, full access, or payroll view or manage.	Allocate, full access, or payroll manage, and only while pots are still proposed.
2. Department allocation	Own department pot	The head of that department plus anyone who can see every pot.	Heads cannot change the proposed amount. Only allocate roles can set and finalise pots.
2. Department allocation	Finalise / lock pots	Everyone who can open Departments can see locked versus proposed.	Allocate, full access, or payroll manage. Over-allocation is blocked unless the person also has allow-over-allocation.
3. Salaries come off first	Salary allocation figure	Organisation viewers see every department. Heads see only departments they manage.	Nobody types this. The system recalculates from HR pay records and cycle pay.
3. Salaries come off first	People: current salary and cycle pay	Organisation viewers see everyone in the cycle. Heads see people in their department only. Cycle pay is not current salary.	Allocate or payroll manage can edit a proposal. Closing the cycle freezes it.
4. HoD line items	Leftover pot and line items	Organisation viewers see every department. Heads see only their leftover and line items.	After lock, the head of that department, allocate, or full access can add line items.
5. Rota-linked spend	Rota week remaining chip	People on a rota tagged to a line item receive view-linked-rota automatically. This permission does not open Budgeting.	Nobody edits the chip. Publishing or unpublishing the rota draws the line down or reverses it.
6. Recruitment-linked spend	Vacancy budget line picker, advertising spend, pending hire, Budget a role	Link-requisition, manage-own-department, or allocate. The picker only lists recruitment line items the person is allowed to see. Heads can budget a role from Departments after pots lock.	The same people can link a vacancy. Pending hire cost migrates when the starter is activated. Role Approve reserves (fixed) or holds tentatively (hourly).
7. Salary benchmarking	Pay-band meter and hiring market range	Anyone who can open People or the hiring form. Licensed market data stays idle without credentials. Empty lookups use org pay bands only.	Pay bands are edited under HR, not here.
8. HR and Finance oversight	Organisation tiles, category table, alerts, CSV	Organisation view, all-budgets, full access, or payroll view or manage for org-wide figures. Heads see leftover and category spend for their department only.	CSV is an export, not an edit.
9. Close the cycle	Close, variance, leftover rollover or reset	Anyone who can open Oversight can see the leftover policy and remaining figures they are allowed to see.	Allocate, full access, or payroll manage. Closed cycles cannot be reopened.

Permission keys

Key	Opens Budgeting	Sees	Cannot
`budget.view_org`	Yes	Drafts, organisation total, every department, People, Oversight, CSV	Allocate, add line items, set rules, or close on its own
`budget.view_all`	Yes	Same organisation-wide figures as organisation view	Change allocations or rules on its own
`budget.allocate_departments`	Yes	Organisation total and every department (needed to split the pot)	Change cycle rules without set-rules
`budget.manage_own_department`	Yes, without full Finance	Active and closed cycles. Own department leftover, line items, and people	Drafts, organisation total, other departments
`budget.allow_over_allocation`	No	Nothing extra. Exception flag during allocate or line-item save	Open Budgeting on its own
`budget.view_linked_rota`	No	Remaining chip on a tagged rota. Granted automatically to that team	Open Budgeting or edit line items
`budget.link_requisition`	No	Recruitment line items the person is already allowed to see	Open Budgeting on its own
`budget.manage_org_rules`	No	Cycle settings and organisation defaults when they can already open the cycle	Create a cycle or split departments without allocate
`budget.full_access`	Yes	Organisation totals, every department, settings, Oversight, close	Nothing in this workspace. Not seeded onto Finance roles
`payroll.view`	Yes (legacy Finance)	Organisation totals and Oversight	Allocate, add line items, set rules, or close
`payroll.manage`	Yes (legacy Finance)	Organisation totals. Counts as allocate, set-rules, and close	Nothing extra beyond the budget keys it already implies

Default role grants

Who	Granted	Notes
Organisation admin	Every organisation budget permission	Can see organisation totals, allocate, set rules, and close
Roles that already have payroll manage	Organisation view, all-budgets, allocate, allow-over-allocation, set-rules	Legacy Finance path
Roles that already have payroll view	Organisation view and all-budgets	Watch totals. Cannot allocate or close
Department manager, manager, head of operations, head of HR, head of finance	Manage-own-department and link-requisition	Open Budgeting without full Finance. Own department only
Rota members on a tagged rota line item	View-linked-rota (automatic)	Remaining chip only
Full budget access	Standalone key, not seeded onto Finance roles	For a person who must see organisation figures without a payroll role

Rota and hiring

When a line item is tagged for rota, publishing a rota draws that remaining amount down. The rota week toolbar shows remaining budget when a linked line exists. If publish would overspend, the cycle can hard-block or ask for confirmation. When a line item is tagged for recruitment, a hiring request can pick it as the funding source, record advertising spend, and hold a pending hire cost. When the starter is activated from a signed offer, that pending cost migrates off the leftover pot. Hiring managers can also Budget a role from the Departments tab after pots are locked. Enter the job name, pay grade, part-time or hourly, hours per week, and days per year, then preview and Approve. That directs the projected cost from the department leftover pot:

Part-time (fixed): reserves the projected amount on Approve.
Hourly: places a tentative hold on Approve. Actual deduct posts when a completed rota shift uses the same role name as the budgeted job. Other shifts in the department do not draw this hold down.

There is no separate Finance or CEO offer-approval chain. Money gating for hiring is this department role budget.

Local salary benchmarking

Campsite does not scrape market sites. A licensed market-data adapter stays idle until credentials are configured. Until then, lookups use org pay bands (and any cached licensed rows). You will see that range on hiring proposed salary, and Oversight counts how many people sit below, at, or above their band.

Getting started

Account

Guides

Administration

Overview

Create a cycle

Cycle workspace

Who can view what

Permission keys

Default role grants

Rota and hiring

Local salary benchmarking

​Overview

​Create a cycle

​Cycle workspace

​Who can view what

​Permission keys

​Default role grants

​Rota and hiring

​Local salary benchmarking

​Related

Overview

Create a cycle

Cycle workspace

Who can view what

Permission keys

Default role grants

Rota and hiring

Local salary benchmarking

Related