Creating and Managing Budgets

Budgets are essential for controlling your business spending. They help you:

• Set clear spending limits for each category
• Track how much you've spent vs. your targets
• Identify areas where you're overspending
• Plan for future expenses with confidence
• Make informed decisions about where to cut costs

1. 1

   Navigate to Budgets

   Click 'Budgets' in the sidebar to see your budget overview.

2. 2

   Click 'Create Budget'

   Start the budget creation process by clicking the button in the top right.

3. 3

   Name your budget

   Give it a descriptive name like 'Marketing Budget' or 'Office Supplies'.

4. 4

   Set the amount

   Enter the maximum amount you want to spend in this category.

5. 5

   Choose a period

   Select monthly, quarterly, or yearly depending on how often you want to reset.

6. 6

   Link to a category

   Connect the budget to a transaction category to automatically track spending.

dreamteam.ai supports different budget periods to match how you plan:

• Monthly - Most common for recurring expenses like utilities, subscriptions, and regular costs
• Quarterly - Good for seasonal expenses or larger purchases that happen a few times a year
• Yearly - Best for annual expenses like insurance, licenses, or major equipment purchases

Once you've created budgets, dreamteam.ai automatically tracks your spending:

• Progress bars - Visual indicators show how much of your budget you've used
• Color coding - Green means on track, yellow is getting close, red means over budget
• Remaining amount - See exactly how much you have left to spend
• Percentage used - Quick view of your spending as a percentage

Set up alerts to get notified when you're approaching your limits:

• Warning threshold - Get alerted at 75% (default) of your budget
• Critical threshold - Alert when you hit 90% of your budget
• Overspend alert - Know immediately when you exceed your budget

For a detailed comparison of your budgets against actual spending, check out the Budget vs Actual report in Analytics. This report shows:

• Side-by-side comparison of budgeted vs. actual amounts
• Variance analysis showing over/under spending
• Trends over time to spot patterns
• Recommendations for adjusting future budgets