Overview
Understanding phased versus final approval ensures proper budget control by allowing flexible early-stage updates through snapshots while enforcing a locked, final baseline once budgets are formally approved.
Prerequisites
Build your project budget to save it as an Approval Phase.
Process
Phased Approval vs Final Approval
A Phase Approval saves a milestone snapshot of your budget while keeping the original figures editable. This makes it ideal for early planning stages when changes are still expected.
A Final Approval permanently locks your baseline budget. After this point, any adjustments must be made through formal Budget Reallocations.
Entering a Phased Approval
Important: If you have a Financial Approval Workflow configured your button may say 'Submit for Approval.' You can continue following the steps below. This budget approval phase will be sent through the workflow for approval.
Once you have created and filled out the values within your budget:
Click Approve Budget.
Add an Approval Name and choose Phase Approval for the Approval Type. Type "YES" to confirm and add a note. Click Approve budget.
Using Phased Approval will allow you to save a snapshot of the budget and then continue to make updates using the Original Budget column.
Navigate to the Snapshots and Approval Phases tab. Here, you will see the Project Budget that needs approval. You can click View Snapshot to view the snapshot of the budget.
To proceed with approving the budget shown on the snapshot, click Open Approvals.
You will then see the option to Approve the budget on the top-right corner of the screen.
Entering a Final Approval
Only choose Final Approval if you are ready to set your budget as final and lock in the amounts in the Original Budget column.
Click Approve Budget.
Add an Approval Name and choose Final Approval for the Approval Type. Type "YES" to confirm and add a note. Click Approve budget.
Viewing your Budget Approvals & Snapshots
Once you have approved your budget snapshot, you can find it on the Snapshot and Approval Phases tab of the budget.
Here, you can view the snapshots you have submitted in List or Cards view:
Click View Snapshot to see a view-only display of your saved budget snapshot.
Using the Cards view, you can compare your budget versions:
Choose one version and then click the 3 dots > Compare with another option.
Choose the other version to compare against by clicking the checkbox next to it.
Now, the snapshot cards will show the changes to the values of each category and cost code.
Using phased and final approvals ensures budgets remain flexible during planning but become securely locked once finalized for proper financial control.