💡 Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What flags are there for budgets?
There are several budget flags in Brightflag, including Budget Total Overrun, Budget Total Overrun 150%, Budget Total Warning (75%), and Monthly Budget Overrun. These flags help track when a matter exceeds its budget at different thresholds. Additionally, the matter summary tab includes a mini-budget chart that visualizes any overruns based on your selected default view.
Q: How can I report on my budgets?
You can generate a budget report using the Matter Spend vs. Budget Report. This report allows you to track spend vs. budget for different periodic budget styles. For more details, refer to the Matter Spend vs. Budget Report help article.
Q: How can I report on budgets at a more global level?
For a higher-level overview, use Financial Budgets to compare bottom-up budgets (matter-level) with top-down budgets (financial budgets). The Report Builder’s Matter Spend Report also provides the total budget for both phased and periodic budgets.
Q: Which date types are used for the budget charts?
Budget charts can display pending and approved figures based on either invoice dates or billing period dates. The date type selected determines how budget and spend data are presented in reports.
Q: How are vendor budget requests handled?
Vendor budget requests can be submitted for each month or each fiscal quarter. These requests can only be made for current or future months and are not restricted by the budget end date you have set. Once approved, the requested months and quarters are updated on the matter budget, replacing the existing amounts.
For quarterly budget requests, the budget is split evenly across months, with any remainder added to the final month of the quarter. When requests are approved in a batch, all requests in that batch are applied in the order they were submitted. If the months overlap for a given matter and vendor, the most recently submitted month’s value is applied.
Q: Can I change my budget from one type to another?
Yes, a monthly budget can be migrated to a fiscal year, fiscal quarter, or life-of-matter (LOM) budget style. If you need to make this change, contact your Customer Success Manager for assistance.
Q: When editing the budget breakout, how are the numbers auto-calculated after I make a change?
When you change the totals (monthly total, vendor total, or unassigned total), Brightflag proportionally updates the relevant monthly cells.
- If you adjust vendor cells or monthly totals, the system first tries to adjust the unassigned total. If unassigned funds are insufficient, the monthly and/or matter total increases.
- If you adjust unassigned cells, only the monthly totals and matter total will update; vendor-specific amounts remain the same.
- You cannot change the matter total independently—it must be adjusted by modifying individual budget components.
Q: How can I set whether or not my vendors can see matter-level budgets?
Vendor visibility for matter-level budgets can be controlled in Matter Settings under the Matter Form tab.
Q: What flags are there for budgets?
Brightflag applies various invoice budget flags to help track budget overruns. These include:
- Budget Overrun
- Budget Overrun 75%
- Budget Overrun 150%
- Monthly Budget Overrun
- Monthly Vendor Overrun
- Fiscal Quarter (FQ) Vendor Overrun
- FQ Total Overrun
- Fiscal Year (FY) Vendor Overrun
- Phase Total Overrun
- Phase Vendor Overrun
The matter summary tab includes a mini-budget chart to visualize any budget overruns based on your default settings.
Q: When do these flags appear?
Budget flags will only appear when the budgeting style of the matter matches the flag type. For example, if a Fiscal Year budget is set, the Fiscal Year Overrun flag will be used.
Additionally, Life-of-Matter (LOM) flags will always appear when an overrun occurs, regardless of the budgeting style.
Q: What happens when budget requests are approved in bulk?
When budget requests are approved in bulk, they are applied in the order they were submitted. If multiple requests overlap for a given matter and vendor, the most recently submitted month’s value will be applied.