Budget Management
in Procurement
Real-time budget visibility and control for informed spending decisions before purchases occur.
How Stampli supports Budget Management
Stampli’s Budget Management provides real-time visibility and control over organizational spending, allowing finance leaders to make informed spending decisions before a purchase occurs. By integrating budget oversight directly into the approval workflow, teams can instantly see how each purchase request impacts available funds, enforce spending limits, and receive proactive notifications when budgets reach critical thresholds.
The old way: Budget info everywhere but where you need it
Finance teams and department heads struggle to manage organizational spending due to disconnected systems and manual methods for budget tracking. Checking requests against appropriate budgets is time-consuming, error-prone, and lacks real-time visibility into how pending requests impact available funds. Purchase adjustments discussed in isolated email chains create confusion and potential errors due to conflicting information separate from the formal approval process.
Stampli’s approach
Only Stampli transforms budget oversight from a reactive, manual process into a proactive, automated system that prevents overspending before it occurs. Our solution provides immediate visibility into how each purchase request affects available budget during the approval workflow, eliminating the need to reference separate systems or spreadsheets. With automated budget assignments, configurable spending limits, approval blocking capabilities, and real-time notifications, finance teams gain unprecedented control while reducing manual effort. This integrated approach accelerates approvals, improves financial planning accuracy, and ensures consistent policy enforcement across the organization.
Key features
Budget previews
Enables approvers to see the immediate impact of purchase requests on budgets before approval for more informed decision-making.
Budget creation
Allows flexible budget creation based on department or project-specific requirements, or can otherwise be imported via CSV for seamless integration with existing financial planning.
Budget assignment
Budget lines can be automatically assigned according to any user-defined rules when creating budgets such as the department a requestor is associated with, or a specific project the request is for. Budgets can also be manually selected for each request line as needed.
Spending limits
Enforces configurable spending caps independent of available budget to maintain control over purchasing across all departments and projects.
Approval blocking
Provides finance teams with control to prevent approvals for over-budget or unnecessary requests, ensuring spending discipline throughout the organization.
Budget owner notifications
Automatically alerts budget owners when funds fall below specified thresholds, enabling proactive management of financial resources.
Budget tracking
Maintains real-time comparison of budgets versus actual spending to support ongoing financial management and future planning.
FAQ
How does Budget Management fit into our existing procurement process?
Stampli’s Budget Management integrates directly into your current approval workflow, adding real-time budget visibility without disrupting established processes. When a purchase request is submitted, approvers can see how it impacts the relevant budget before making a decision. This eliminates the need to reference separate spreadsheets or financial systems to verify budget availability. The solution works alongside your existing procurement procedures while adding automated controls and visibility that prevent overspending and improve financial discipline across your organization.
Can we set up different budget structures for various departments or projects?
Absolutely. Stampli’s Budget Management offers flexible budget creation options that accommodate any organizational structure. You can create department-specific budgets, project-based budgets, or any other configuration that matches your financial planning approach. Budgets can be built directly in the system or imported via CSV from your existing financial planning tools. This flexibility ensures that your budget structure in Stampli accurately reflects your organization’s unique financial management needs without forcing you to change established practices.
How does the system handle requests that would exceed budget limits?
When a purchase request would exceed a budget limit, the system can either automatically block approval or alert approvers with a notification while still allowing them to proceed if necessary. This gives you complete control over how strictly you want to enforce budget compliance. Finance teams can configure these settings based on organizational policies and can even set different rules for different departments or budget categories. Additionally, budget owners receive automatic notifications when spending approaches critical thresholds, allowing for proactive management before limits are reached.
How detailed is the budget tracking and reporting?
Stampli’s Budget Management provides comprehensive real-time tracking that compares budgeted amounts against actual and committed spending. You can view this data at various levels of granularity—from high-level organizational summaries to detailed breakdowns by department, project, expense category, or time period. This visibility helps identify spending patterns, forecast future needs, and make data-driven adjustments to budget allocations. The system maintains a complete history of all budget changes and spending activities, creating an audit trail that supports financial compliance and planning.