#

NOTE: This feature is available in the Professional and Enterprise versions of both Spectra and Stratus Desktop.

Budget Maintenance is used to enter and maintain the budgets (also known as your targets or plan) you want to use on the Dashboard. The software gives you the flexibility to define hundreds of budgets or just a couple, it’s up to you. To open your budgets, you can either select Budgets from the main Maintenance > General (Studio) menu or you can select Set Up Your Budgets from the Options menu on the Dashboard toolbar.

Watch the following video and take a look at the information in this topic to learn how to manage your budgets.

Budget Types #

Here is a list of all the different types of budgets you can track in the software. Each Data Type (also known as a “Key Performance Indicator” or KPI) can be broken down into multiple Group By categories.

Data Types and Group By Options #

Data Type	Group By Options
Average Sales By Initial Order Estimates Invoices – Paid in Full Percentage Receipts Sales – In-House Sales – Total Sales – Web	None Photographer Assistant Sales Rep Booker General Session Type Your Session Type Promotion Session Status Lead Source Client Group Client Status Organization Organization & Grad Year Product Line
Appointment Turnaround Days Average Sales By Session Conversions – Bookings to Actual Sessions – Actual Sessions – All Sessions – Booked Sessions – Cancelled Sessions – No Show Sessions – Placed On Hold Sessions – Rescheduled Sessions with Zero Dollar Invoice Sessions with No Initial Order Sessions Needing an Appointment	None Photographer Assistant Booker General Session Type Your Session Type Promotion Session Status Lead Source Client Group Client Status Organization Organization & Grad Year
Conversions – Leads to Actual Sessions Conversions – Leads to Bookings Conversions – Leads to New Clients New Leads New Clients	None Lead Source Client Group Client Status Organization Organization & Grad Year
Appointments – Actual Appointments – Booked	None Lead Source Client Group Client Status Organization Organization & Grad Year Appointment Type Appointment User
Phone Calls Phone Calls – All Phone Calls – Completed Phone Calls – Open by Due Date Phone Calls – Past Due by Due Date	None Lead Source Client Group Client Status Organization Organization & Grad Year Phone Call Type Assigned to User Assigned to Department
Production Orders – All Production Orders – Completed Production Orders – Open by Due Date Production Orders – Past Due by Due Date Production Orders – Re-Dos	None Week Month Year Assigned To Order Type Order Status Vendor Reorder Reasons
Tasks – All Tasks – Completed Tasks – Created Tasks – Open by Due Date Tasks – Past Due by Due Date	None Week Month Year Assigned To User Assigned to Department Task Type Task Status

Creating New Budgets #

You will need to create monthly budgets for each year, data type, and group by option you want to be able to run budget comparison reports for.

Select the Year, Data Type, and Group By from the toolbar.
In the grid, enter the Group By Sub option. If you are grouping by Session Type for example, select the session type you are creating a budget for.
Enter the budget number for each month. This amount will either be a sales amount or count, depending on the data type you are using.

Note: You may want to export your budget numbers to Excel for review and verification purposes.

Modifying Existing Budgets #

First, change the options on the ribbon to the desired year and data type in order to find the budget record you wish to modify. Once you are viewing the record in the data grid you want to modify, you can simply edit the budget values directly in the grid.

Removing Existing Budgets #

To delete a budget for a particular month, simply change that monthly budget value to 0 (zero). To delete a budget for an entire year, place your cursor anywhere in the row that you wish to delete and click Delete on the ribbon.

Printing and Exporting Your Budgets #

To print your budget, simply click Print on the ribbon. To export your budgets to Microsoft Excel, click Export to Excel on the ribbon.

#