From a plan on a page to a payment with a receipt
Four documents. Each one is a decision somebody made, recorded at the moment they made it.
Declare the budget
A budget is a tree: categories, then line items, each with a planned figure and its own dates. Build it from a template and the whole structure comes with it — you fill in the figures, not the scaffolding.
The budget itself is signed off before anything can be spent against it, by its own approvers. Budget codes are unique, so two departments cannot quietly run two budgets under one name.
Raise the request
Somebody needs to spend. They raise a request against one budget line item. As they pick it, they are shown what is allotted and what is genuinely available — after other people's requests that are already waiting.
Advances are handled honestly: a line is either an advance or a settlement, and a settlement names the advance it draws down. Only the difference hits the budget, because the advance already did.
Approve it
The request goes to the people named on the budget, in order, one step at a time. Each step has a deadline in working days. A step that sits too long escalates — to a named person, to whoever is free in a group, or up the management chain — and can escalate somewhere different depending on the amount.
The decision happens wherever the approver is. On a phone it shows what is being asked for and what is left on the line, which is usually the difference between a request approved this afternoon and one approved next week.
On approval the limit is checked line by line. If it does not fit, it is refused with the number that refused it. If it does, the entry is recorded and the available figure moves.
Pay it, and prove it
Payments are captured against the approved request — one line per method, so a settlement can be part cash and part transfer, each with its own date and reference. The bank slip, cheque scan or screenshot attaches to the payment.
A payment is registered by one person and approved by another. Only approved payments count toward what has been paid, so registered and paid are never the same number by accident.
The maths, in full
Holding back other people's waiting requests is the whole point. Without it, two approvers looking at the same line on the same morning are both told there is room for the same money.
And when money comes in, income raises what is available without touching the planned figure the budget was approved on — with its own approvers, because income is usually a treasury call and spend a cost-centre one.
See it refuse a request it should refuse
The fastest way to understand this is to try to overspend on purpose.