eProcureAI / Platform / Keep budgets under control
Use caseMost budget overruns are information delays rather than decisions. Telling the owner at a threshold you choose turns an autopsy into something that can still be changed.
The alert names the cause. Not just the number.
Budget overruns are almost never a decision. They are a series of reasonable approvals made against a number that was already out of date.
A budget owner looks at a report showing invoiced spend, sees room, and approves. So does the next person. Meanwhile three approved orders sit with suppliers, uninvoiced and invisible, and the money is already gone in every sense except the accounting one.
By the time the invoices arrive, the overrun is a fact and the conversation is about explaining it rather than preventing it.
Count commitment at approval, so the number people look at includes money already promised. Then alert the owner at a threshold you choose, while there is still time to do something.
Neither requires new data. Both simply move existing information to the moment it can change an outcome.
Being told a budget is at ninety percent is mildly useful. Being told which open requests would push it over is actionable, because now there is something specific to approve, defer or fund differently.
Invoiced spend against allocation, which looks comfortable because it excludes everything already committed.
Each one reasonable against the number visible at the time. Nobody had the information that would have changed their mind.
The committed money becomes spent money, and the position moves sharply in one direction.
A conversation about what happened rather than a decision about what to do, because the moment for that has passed.
Approved orders count immediately, so the figure a budget owner reads reflects money already promised rather than only money already invoiced.
At the threshold you set, the owner is told how much is left and which open requests would take it over, so there is something specific to decide.
Reallocation names the source, the destination, the amount and the approver. It is an event rather than a quiet edit to a spreadsheet cell.
Applying one rule to every budget is what makes people work around the tight ones.
| Budget type | Recommended behaviour | Why | What happens at the limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operating | Warn | Day to day spend should not stop because a code is tight | Exception approval with the shortfall shown |
| Capital | Hard stop | Classification and authorisation matter more here | Cannot proceed without reallocation or authority |
| Project | Hard stop after close | Spending against a closed project causes real problems | Blocked once the project ends |
| Restricted or grant | Hard stop | Conditions are external and not yours to override | Blocked, with the restriction shown |
Hard stopping everything looks disciplined and produces workarounds. Warning on everything produces overruns. The mix is what works.
Where another code has room and the need is genuine. Recorded with its approval.
With a reason recorded, which is far better than an accidental overrun.
Often the right answer, and only available if you knew early enough.
Trim quantity or scope rather than abandoning the purchase entirely.
Which happens more often when somebody has to actively approve an exception.
With the position and the cause already documented rather than described from memory.
Every option for handling a tight budget requires knowing about it in time, which is the only thing this really provides.
Look at a number they can trust and make a choice while it still matters.
Keeps the number honest and raises it before the moment passes.
We will show what the committed position looked like at the time and when the alert would have fired.
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