Budgeting¶
The Budgeting page lets you create, monitor, and manage cloud spending budgets across projects. Track actual spend against allocated budgets, configure alert thresholds, and lock budgets to prevent unauthorized changes.
Fiscal Year¶
All budgets in CloudPi are scoped to a fiscal year. The fiscal year start month is a workspace-level setting — every budget you create, every Budget vs. Spend chart, and every fiscal-year selector in the Billing Hub uses this configuration.
- Where to change it: Admin Settings → Workspace (Workspace Admin only).
- Format: A start month between 1 and 12 (e.g.,
1= January for aJan–Decfiscal year,4= April for anApr–Marfiscal year). - Effect: Changing the fiscal year start month updates how budgets and reports group their monthly buckets going forward; existing budget records are not retroactively re-bucketed.
If you need to change the fiscal year, do it before creating budgets for the upcoming year so allocation periods line up cleanly.
Budgets Overview¶
The Budgets page provides an overview of all budget details across your projects.
Top Cards Overview¶
At the top of the page, four key cards provide quick insights into the overall financial status:
- Total Budget — Total budget across all projects
- Total Spend — Total spending for the selected period
- Total Forecast — Total forecasted spend across all projects
- Total Projected Cost — Total projected cost for the budget
Budget Summary Line Chart¶
Below the cards, a line chart displays three series across fiscal months:
- Spend (green line) — Actual spend data
- Forecast (yellow line) — Forecasted spend data
- Budget (blue line) — Allocated budget
The chart provides a visual comparison of actual spend, forecasted spend, and allocated budget for the entire year across all projects.
Filtering Options¶
You can filter budget details by:
- Projects — Filter by one or more projects
- Organizations — Filter based on different organizations
- Project Groups — Filter based on specific project groups
These filters let you view budget data at different levels, making it easier to analyze spending patterns across multiple projects or organizations.
Budget Management Table¶
Below the chart, a table displays detailed budget information for each project:
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Project Name | Name of the project |
| Budget Name | Identifier for the budget |
| Budget Period | Annual or Quarterly |
| Allocated Budget | Total budget amount allocated |
| Threshold | Percentage threshold set for budget alerts |
| Actions | Options to View, Lock, or Unlock the budget |
Actions¶
The Actions column provides options for interacting with the budget. The available actions depend on user permissions.
View¶
Clicking the View icon expands the row to display detailed budget information:
- Allocated Budget — Total budget allocated for the project, broken down by month or period
- Used Budget — Amount that has been spent so far within the budget period
- Forecast — Forecasted spend for the project, including any adjustments made for future periods
- Threshold — Alert threshold percentage at which an alert is triggered based on actual spend
- Alert Notifications — Email addresses set to receive alerts when the threshold is reached
The expanded view shows a detailed breakdown of used budget and forecasted spend over the budget period, so you can track how close the project is to exceeding its allocated budget.
Creating a New Budget¶
To create a new budget, click the Create icon. The Create Budget form opens.
Form Fields¶
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Budget Name | A unique, identifiable name (e.g., Budget_Beta, Project_Alpha_Budget) |
| Project | The project this budget is associated with (e.g., TestProject_Demo, Project_Data) |
| Period | The budget cycle — Annually or Quarterly |
| Start Date | The month and year when the budget period begins (e.g., June 2025) |
| Allocated Budget ($) | Total amount allocated for the period (e.g., $120,000) |
| Escalation Type | Defines how forecast approvals are escalated — by percentage of total forecast, or by absolute amount |
| Escalation Value ($ or %) | Threshold up to which a forecast request can be auto-approved without manual intervention |
Escalation examples:
- A
70%escalation value auto-approves requests within 70% of the approved forecast. - A
$50,000escalation value auto-approves any request within that amount.
This mechanism streamlines approvals, reduces delays, and ensures faster processing of routine forecast changes within acceptable risk limits.
Once all fields are filled, click Create Budget. The new budget is added to the system and made available for tracking.
Editing a Budget¶
After creating a budget, you can update it by clicking the Edit icon. The form opens pre-filled with existing values, letting you modify:
- Budget Name — e.g., change
Budget_BetatoUpdated_Budget_Beta - Period — e.g., switch from Annual to Quarterly
- Escalation Type and Value — e.g., change to Amount with a value of
$100,000
Click Update to save the changes.
Lock / Unlock Budgets¶
The lock/unlock feature ensures budget integrity:
- Lock — Prevents any changes to the budget or forecast. Use this for finalized budgets.
- Unlock — Allows editing, available to authorized users.