How to Create Budgets and Sub-budgets

Mastt's budget management features allow you to create hierarchical budget structures with sub-budgets. The Budget register provides a clear overview of all budget items for easy management and monitoring.

Setting Up Your Budget

Step 1: Add a Budget

• Navigate to your Cost module and land on the Overall page
• You can create a budget in three different ways:
  • Click the blue + Add button in the upper left corner
  • Select Add your first budget in the centre of the page (only visible if you have no budgets)
  • Click Budget in the top navigation, select Budgets to view your Budget register, then click + Add Budget

Result: The Add and Edit Budgets form will open, ready for you to input your budget data.

Note: The Budget register is the main list view where you can also see all your budgets, add new ones, and manage existing entries.

Step 2: Choose Your Data Entry Method

• You can enter your budget data in two ways:
  • Copy and Paste (recommended for multiple budget lines)
  • Manual entry (best for simple budgets)

Copy and Paste from Excel

Note: You’ll see an orange box below the form highlighting the Excel copy-paste feature. Click this box to view detailed instructions about importing from Excel.

Important: The import process creates main budgets only. Sub-budgets must be added separately after import.

Step 1: Prepare your Excel data with columns in this order:

• Column 1: Budget Name
• Column 2: Amount
• Column 3: Status (optional - Draft, Approved, or Closed)
• Column 4: Tags (optional)

Step 2: Select and copy your data from Excel

Step 3: Click in the budget name field in Mastt

Step 4: Paste your data - the system automatically creates rows and populates all fields

Step 5: Review the imported data

Step 6: Select Status manually from the dropdown if it was not included in the import

Step 7: Add any relevant tags if needed

Tips: Tags are optional labels you can add to budgets to help with categorisation and filtering (e.g., tagging budgets by Department, Project Phase, or Cost Type).

Manual entry

Step 1: Enter your budget details

• Budget Name
• Original Budget
• Status
• Tag

Step 2: Click + Add Budget at the bottom to add more budget lines as needed

Step 3: Save Your Budget

• After entering all budget data (via either method), click the blue Save button at the bottom right of the form to finalise your budget

To edit and delete Budgets and Sub-Budgets, refer to this guide.

Setting Up Your Sub-budgets

Important: Understanding Budget Allocation:

The system tracks allocated budgets when using sub-budgets. You can allocate more than the parent budget amount, but this will show a negative unallocated amount. Mastt will alert you if you over-allocate but will still allow you to save the budget.

Step 1: Add Sub-budgets

• Navigate to your Cost module and land on the Overall page
• You can create a sub-budget in two different ways:
  • From the Overall page: Locate your main budget and click the Action button (three dots) beside it, then select Add or Edit Sub-budgets
  • From the Budget register: Click Budgets in the top navigation, select Budgets to view your budget list, click the Action button (three dots) beside your main budget, then select Add or Edit Sub-budgets

Step 2: Choose Your Data Entry Method

• You can enter your sub-budget data in two ways:
  • Copy and Paste (recommended for multiple budget lines)
  • Manual entry (best for simple budgets)

Copy and Paste from Excel

Step 1: Prepare your Excel data with columns in this order:

• Column 1: Budget Name
• Column 2: Amount
• Column 3: Status (optional - Draft, Approved, or Closed)
• Column 4: Tags (optional)

Step 2: Select and copy your data from Excel

Step 3: Click in the budget name field in Mastt

Step 4: Paste your data - the system automatically creates rows and populates all fields

Step 5: Review the imported data

Step 6: Select Status manually from the dropdown if it was not included in the import

Step 7: Add any relevant tags if needed

Manual entry

Step 1: Enter your sub-budget details

• Budget Name
• Original Budget
• Status
• Tag

Step 2: Click + Add Budget at the bottom to add more budget lines as needed

Step 3: Save Your Sub-budget

• After entering all budget data (via either method), click the blue Save button at the bottom right of the form to finalise your budget

Result: Your budget hierarchy is now established with parent budgets and their associated sub-budgets, ready for cost tracking and management.

Troubleshooting & FAQs

Q: What if I can't add a contract against a budget?

You can only create a contract against an Approved Budget. Change the budget status to Approved in the budget form.

Q: What if the Excel paste isn't working properly?

Check that your column order matches exactly: Name, Amount, Status (optional), Tags (optional). Ensure there's no formatting or merged cells in your Excel data.

Q: What happens if I allocate more than the parent budget amount?

The system allows over-allocation but will show a negative unallocated amount. Mastt will alert you about the over-allocation but still permits saving the budget.