Budgets
The Budgets feature enables organizations to track and manage spending against allocated budget amounts. When enabled, users can create budgets, assign purchase order items and request items to budgets, and monitor spending in real-time.
Enabling Budgets
Silkline Admin Only: Only users with Silkline Admin permissions can enable or disable the Budgets feature. Contact a Silkline administrator if you need to enable this feature.
To enable budgets for your organization:
Navigate to Organization Settings → Budgets
Toggle Enable Budgets to turn on the feature
Once enabled, users can access budgets from the main navigation
When budgets are enabled, a new Budgets page appears in the main navigation where users can create and manage budgets.
Creating a Budget
To create a new budget:
Navigate to the Budgets page from the main navigation
Click Create Budget
Fill in the required fields:
Name — A unique identifier for the budget (required)
Description — Optional details about the budget's purpose
Amount — The total budget allocation (required)
Currency — The currency for the budget amount
Include Taxes — Toggle whether budget tracking should include or exclude taxes
Owners — Select one or more users who own this budget (required)
Budget Properties
Each budget tracks the following information:
Name
Name of the budget
Description
Optional details about the budget's purpose or scope
Amount
Total allocated budget amount
Currency
Currency for the budget (can differ from order currencies—Silkline handles conversion)
Include Taxes
Whether budget tracking includes taxes in spend calculations
Owners
Users responsible for managing this budget
Status
Active or Archived
Firm Spend
Spending from sent purchase orders (OPEN or CLOSED state)
Unfirm Spend
Spending from draft or approved purchase orders (DRAFT, REVIEW, or APPROVED state)
Total Spend
Combined firm and unfirm spending
Remaining
Budget amount minus total spend
Utilization
Percentage of budget consumed
Spend Tracking
Budgets automatically track spending based on order items assigned to them:
Firm Spend
Firm spend represents committed spending from purchase orders that have been sent to suppliers:
Includes orders in OPEN or CLOSED states
These are confirmed obligations to suppliers
Shown in dark blue on the progress bar
Unfirm Spend
Unfirm spend represents planned spending from orders that haven't been sent yet:
Includes orders in DRAFT, REVIEW, or APPROVED states
These are pending orders that may still change
Shown in light blue on the progress bar
Multi-Currency Budgets
Budgets support multi-currency operations:
A budget can be in one currency (e.g., USD) while orders are in different currencies (e.g., EUR, GBP)
Silkline automatically converts order item costs to the budget's currency using current exchange rates
Spending is tracked in the budget's currency for accurate utilization reporting
Assigning Items to Budgets
Budget assignments happen at the line item level on purchase orders and requests:
Order Items
When creating or editing a purchase order:
In the line items table, locate the Budget column
Click the dropdown for the line item you want to assign
Select the appropriate budget from the list
The order item's cost (with or without taxes, based on budget settings) is immediately reflected in the budget's spend
Request Items
Similarly, when creating or editing a request:
Assign a budget to individual request items
When requests are converted to orders, the budget assignment carries over automatically
Best Practice: Assign budgets at the request stage to ensure consistent tracking throughout the procurement lifecycle.
Viewing Budget Details
Click on any budget in the budgets table to view its detail page, which includes:
Spend Summary
The top section displays:
Budget amount and currency
Include/exclude taxes setting
Budget owners
Visual progress bar showing firm spend, unfirm spend, and remaining budget
Utilization percentage
Order Items Tab
Lists all purchase order line items assigned to this budget, showing:
Order number and supplier
Line item description and quantity
Unit cost and line total
Order status
Cost converted to the budget's currency
Request Items Tab
Lists all request items assigned to this budget, showing:
Request number
Item description and quantity
Estimated cost
Request status
Managing Budgets
Editing a Budget
To edit an existing budget:
Navigate to the budget detail page
Click the Edit button (pencil icon)
Modify any fields except:
Budget name (must remain unique)
Save your changes
Archiving a Budget
When a budget is no longer active (e.g., fiscal year ended), you can archive it:
Open the budget detail page
Click Edit
Toggle Archive to mark it inactive
Archived budgets:
Are hidden from dropdowns when assigning new items
Remain visible in budget lists (use filters to show/hide)
Preserve all historical spend data and assignments
Deleting a Budget
To permanently delete a budget:
Open the budget detail page
Click the Delete button (trash icon)
Confirm the deletion
Caution: Deleting a budget:
Removes the budget permanently
Unassigns all order items and request items from the budget
Cannot be undone
Viewing Your Budgets
Users can filter the budgets list to show only budgets they own:
Navigate to the Budgets page
Use the filter or toggle to view My Budgets
This shows only budgets where you are listed as an owner
Budget Utilization Tracking
The budget table displays key metrics for each budget:
Amount — Total allocated budget
Total Spend — Firm + unfirm spending
Remaining — Amount - total spend
Utilization — Visual bar showing percentage used
Color-coded utilization:
Green — Under budget (utilization < 85%)
Yellow — Approaching budget (utilization ≥ 85% and < 100%)
Red — Over budget (utilization ≥ 100%)
Common Use Cases
Project-Based Budgets
Create budgets for specific projects or programs:
Assign all orders related to the project to track spending against the project budget.
Department Budgets
Set up budgets for each department or cost center:
Program Budgets
Track spending across multiple projects within a program:
Permissions
Budget management requires specific permissions:
View Budgets — See budgets list and details
Create Budget — Create new budgets
Edit Budget — Modify existing budgets
Delete Budget — Remove budgets
Assign to Budget — Assign order/request items to budgets
Budget owners automatically have visibility into their budgets regardless of organization-wide permissions.
Budgets and Approvals
When order items are assigned to budgets, the budget owners are automatically included in the approval workflow:
Automatic Routing: Budget owners are added to the default approval chain for any order containing items assigned to their budgets
Approval Position: Budget approvers appear early in the approval workflow, after default approvers but before threshold-based approvers
Deduplication: If a budget owner already appears in the approval chain (e.g., as a default approver or threshold approver), they are not duplicated
Visibility: Budget information, including utilization and spending, is displayed in the approval guide widget to help approvers make informed decisions
For more information about how approvals work, see Approvals.
Last updated