The Budget Management feature in Cognota lets you create annual budgets, allocate spending across teams and initiatives, and track your actual expenses over time. This guide walks you through each step to successfully plan, manage, and report on your budget.
Configure Finances
To get started with Budget Management, you'll need to first configure your finances.
Go to the Settings > Configurations > Finance tab.
Set the following categories:
Platform Currency
Fiscal Year Start
Budget Time Frame
Create a New Budget
Go to the Budgets section in Cognota.
Click Create Budget.
Enter a Budget Name.
Select the Start Year for your budget.
Click Create to generate the budget and continue.
Choose Your Budget View
Once inside your budget, choose how you want to organize your spending:
Team View – Allocate by department or sub-team.
Program/Project View – Focus on learning initiatives and outcomes.
Vendor View – Track external costs like consultants and tools.
Add Budget Line Items
To add a new item:
Select the team, project, or vendor row you want to allocate budget to.
Click Add Line Item.
Fill out the following details:
Line Item Name (e.g., “Workshop Travel”)
Amount per Quarter
Team
Program or Project
Budget Source
Vendor
Add any comments or upload attachments (e.g., quotes, invoices).
Repeat this process for each item you want to include in your budget.
View Cost of Labor for Projects
In addition to your planned budget amounts, you can view the actual Cost of Labor for each project in your Plan table — based on real hours logged by team members and their hourly rates.
To turn this on:
In your budget's Plan table, click the Filters icon.
Check Include cost of labor for projects.
Click Apply.
Using the Program/Project View, each project will then show an additional row with its Cost of Labor, calculated automatically as each team member's hourly rate multiplied by the hours they logged on that project.
For this number to reflect accurately, make sure:
The project is linked to this budget via a line item
The project's dates fall within the budget's fiscal year
Time has been logged on the project's tasks using the Actual Hours Log feature
Team members have an hourly rate set on their user profile
Cost of Labor is read-only — viewing it won't change your budget totals, line items, or any project data. It's there to give you a real-time picture of what a project is actually costing in people's time.
Review Budget Totals and Variance
As you build your budget:
Cognota calculates the Total Allocated Amount (sum of all planned spend).
You can enter a Top-Line Budget (total amount provided by Finance).
Cognota will display the Variance between your allocation and the top-line.
This helps you monitor if you're over or under budget at any stage.
Enter Actual Spend
To track real spend:
Go to the Report tab.
For each line item, enter the Actual Spend per time period.
Cognota will calculate the difference from your planned amount.
View variance by:
Quarter
Year
This view gives you a quick glance at where you're overspending or underutilizing funds.
Adjust and Manage Your Budget Over Time
As your year progresses:
Go to the Manage tab.
Update or edit line items based on new priorities.
Adjust time-based allocations to reflect shifting needs.
You can revise your budget quarterly (or more frequently) to stay aligned with strategy and finance.
Check out this video to see Budget Management in action!
Note: At this time, only Admins will have access to view and edit Budgets.
Best Practices
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