Budget

Finance & Payments

Definition

A financial plan allocating expected spend across categories, departments or projects for a period.

Explanation

Budgets set the spending envelope procurement operates within. Requisitions are checked against budget before approval, and budget-versus-actual tracking keeps spend under control. Overspend triggers escalation or re-planning.

Example

The requisition is blocked because the department's stationery budget for the quarter is already exhausted.

Related terms

Cost Center — An organisational unit to which costs are assigned for tracking and accountability.
Budget Holder — The person accountable for a budget and for authorising spend against it.
Approval Workflow — The defined sequence of authorisations a requisition, order or invoice must pass through before it can proceed.
Cash Flow — The movement of money into and out of a business over time.

Related concepts

Procure-to-Pay (P2P) — The end-to-end operational buying cycle — from requisition and approval to purchase order, receipt, invoice matching and payment.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Budget?

A financial plan allocating expected spend across categories, departments or projects for a period. Budgets set the spending envelope procurement operates within. Requisitions are checked against budget before approval, and budget-versus-actual tracking keeps spend under control. Overspend triggers escalation or re-planning.

Can you give an example of Budget?

The requisition is blocked because the department's stationery budget for the quarter is already exhausted.

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