Budget & Cash Flow

Budget and Cash Flow defines a small structure for budgets against actuals by department and month, alongside cash inflows and outflows. Its recommendation is to establish the budget annually, refresh the cash view monthly, and record variances instead of rewriting the whole forecast. The proposed workflow sets a budget, records monthly actuals, calculates variance, reviews cash position, and revises forecasts. This describes a process to design rather than an automated calculation service.

The default is a recommendation. Advice is answered directly, reviews check a supplied process, and requested builds generate artifacts after essential missing facts are resolved. Intake covers horizon, monthly or annual planning, department versus whole-business scope, availability and confidence of inputs, ownership, revision cadence, current records, and whether the desired result is a budget template, cash view, or both. Questions come one at a time; unknowns are not invented.

Use it for a budget tracker, cash-flow forecast structure, budget-versus-actual record, or department budget sheet. It fits Growth stage in the Operate layer. A request can be:

We set a budget once and lost track of the actual position by month three.

It produces empty templates, not financial advice, money movements, or booked transactions. It provides no automation, reminders, or synchronization and does not compute payroll, tax, leave balances, or KPIs. Human legal, tax, and HR review remains necessary before real decisions use the design.

The fifteen fields are Budget Line, Line Type, Department, Category, Period, Fiscal Year, Budget Amount, Actual Amount, Variance, Used %, Linked Expenses, Owner, Status, Notes, and Budget ID. Budget Line and the two amount fields use currency types; Used % is numeric, Variance is text, and Linked Expenses is a relation. Do not imply a built-in formula from the presence of a variance field. Line types distinguish Income, Expense, Cash In, and Cash Out; statuses cover Draft, Approved, Active, Revised, and Closed.

Requested CSV, SQL DDL, JSON Schema, and Notion mapping share one field list. Excel-compatible CSV uses a UTF-8 byte order mark and needs currency and number formatting after import. A workbook requires a specific request. Templates remain empty, with clearly synthetic examples only when requested.

Control guidance keeps budget, committed spend, actual spend, forecast, and cash movement distinct. Amounts need period, department, currency, source, and approval state; comparisons across currencies or periods require an explicit basis. A variance calculation does not explain its cause. Material variances retain owner, evidence, timing, confidence, and next review date; timing differences and permanent changes stay separate, with one-off items visible.

Reconcile opening cash plus inflows minus outflows to closing bank or treasury cash and explain approved timing differences separately. Distinguish accrual budget, invoice commitments, paid cash, and forecast revisions so favorable cash cannot hide unpaid commitments. Cash availability differs from profit. Runway needs a balance source, burn definition, horizon, and restricted-cash exclusions. Scenarios state names, dates, assumptions, sensitivities, and approval owners; forecast changes preserve prior versions and reasons.

Notion output goes to notion-manual-import. Relation targets must be imported first; manual mappings need no connection. Live writes require verified access, target, authorization, and successful operation evidence.

Sensitive review inputs are minimized and templates remain empty. Consequential privacy, legal and disciplinary cases require qualified human review.