eProcureAI / Platform / Budgets and Charge Codes
Budgets and Charge CodesFinance plans the year, splits it across departments and down into charge codes. From then on anyone raising a purchase sees exactly what is left before they ask for it.
This is the real screen. Charge codes, balances and reallocation, straight from the product.
Most budget reports tell you what has already been invoiced. That is a picture of the past, and people keep making decisions against it.
eProcureAI keeps every dollar in one of three states. Spent means the invoice has landed. Committed means a purchase order is out with a supplier and the money is promised. Available is what is genuinely left after both.
So when somebody in IT opens a request against charge code 4403, they see four thousand seven hundred available rather than a figure that ignores fifty eight thousand of open orders. They find out before they ask, not three weeks later.
Finance starts in the company budget planner with the year's total, then splits it across departments, then down into charge codes. A charge code usually mirrors the account structure you already use in your accounting system, so nobody has to learn a second language for the same thing.
After that the codes do the work. They appear on requests, carry through onto purchase orders, and drive both the commitment and the eventual posting.
They always do. Moving money between charge codes is a reallocation, and it is a proper action rather than an edit. It records where the money came from, where it went, who approved it and when. That is the difference between a budget that can be trusted and a spreadsheet that quietly changed one Tuesday.
Real time commitment visibility changed how we do quarterly planning. We stopped being surprised by what AP was processing at month end.Daphna Shafran, Head of FP and A, Remilk
Finance sets the year's total and works out how much each part of the business gets. This is the one moment where the whole picture sits on a single screen.
Each department receives its share. Department heads can see their own position from this point on, without seeing everybody else's.
Departments break their budget into charge codes, which usually mirror the account codes finance already uses. 4403 for IT hardware, 4404 for software, 4402 for admin.
Requests carry a charge code, orders commit against it, invoices post to it. The balance updates as each of those happens rather than at the end.
Money moves between codes as a recorded reallocation with an approval attached, so the trail explains itself later.
The invoice has arrived, been matched and posted. Every system tracks this, and it is also the least useful number on its own, because by the time it moves the decision was made weeks ago.
A purchase order is out with a supplier. Nothing has been invoiced, but the money is promised and pretending otherwise is how budgets get overspent politely.
The total minus spent minus committed. It is the only figure that answers the question somebody actually has, which is whether they can buy the thing they need.
A charge code is the unit everything else hangs off. Getting the structure right at the start saves a lot of reallocation later.
| Charge code | Department | Covers | Typical behaviour when short |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4403 IT Hardware | IT | Laptops, peripherals, equipment refresh | Warn, then exception approval |
| 4404 IT Software | IT | Licences, subscriptions, renewals | Warn, because renewals cannot simply stop |
| 4402 Admin | Admin | Office supplies, stationery, general spend | Warn |
| Capital codes | Any | Anything capitalised rather than expensed | Hard stop, because the classification matters |
| Project codes | Any | Time boxed work with its own funding | Hard stop once the project closes |
Codes are usually set up to mirror the account structure finance already reports on, which keeps the conversation between procurement and accounting short.
Move available budget from one code to another. It records the source, the destination, the amount, the approver and the date, so the trail explains itself.
When a department genuinely needs more, the increase is recorded against the plan rather than quietly appearing in the balance.
Codes can be closed to new commitments while leaving existing orders alone, which is what you usually want near year end.
Rather than reallocating, a single request can be approved over budget with a reason recorded. Useful when the fix belongs in next quarter's plan.
At the threshold you choose, usually ninety percent, the owner hears about it and the alert names the open requests causing the pressure.
Open commitments are visible at year end, so the carry forward conversation happens with real numbers rather than estimates.
Budgets stop being a monthly reporting exercise and become something people check before they act.
Finance plans, department heads watch their own patch, and requesters simply pick a code from a list.
Keeps the arithmetic current, without anybody exporting anything.
Bring your charge codes and we will set them up live, then run a request against one that is nearly empty.
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