Finance & Budgets
Track your budget, monitor spend by category, and keep finance reporting accurate
The Finance page gives you a live view of your budget health. You can see total budget, current spend, and how each category is tracking against its allocation. This is where you spot overspend early and prepare for committee or board reporting.
Finance overview showing budget categories with spend tracking
This article refers to a live TurfWise screen. Media is omitted here so the written steps stay current across releases.
What this page does
The Finance overview shows your budget year with monthly columns for each spending category. You'll see the annual budget for each category, monthly spend figures, year-to-date totals, and remaining budget.
Categories are organised into two groups based on their code prefix: operations categories (OPS-) and overheads categories (OH-). You can switch between these using the tabs on the page.
Budget health indicators show you at a glance which categories are on track, approaching their warning threshold, or at critical levels.
When would you use this?
- Weekly, to check whether any category is trending over budget
- When an invoice has been entered and you want to confirm it's showing in the right category
- Month-end, to verify totals before closing the period
- Before a committee meeting, to prepare your financial commentary
- When you need to decide whether to rephase spend or cut discretionary items
How to review your budget
Open the Finance overview
Go to Finance > Budget Overview or open /finance directly.
Check the health indicators first
Look at the budget health indicators at the top. These show you the overall picture before you drill into detail. Categories showing amber or red need immediate attention.
Review category spend
Scan through the category rows. Each row shows the annual budget, monthly spend values, total spend, and remaining budget. Focus on categories where remaining budget is low relative to the months left in the year.
Drill into problem categories
Click on a category to see the detailed breakdown, including which invoices and transactions make up the spend.
What happens when invoices are entered?
When you create an invoice on the Invoices page, each line item is mapped to a budget category. That spend then appears in the Finance overview under the relevant category and month. If invoices aren't entered or are mapped to the wrong category, your finance view will be inaccurate.
Budget gaps without explanation cause confusion
When a category is significantly up or down from budget, add a short note explaining why. This saves time in committee and management reviews, and stops people asking the same question repeatedly.
What other finance pages are available?
The finance navigation bar gives you access to:
- Overview (
/finance) -- the main budget tracking view - Invoices (
/finance/invoices) -- enter and manage supplier invoices - Inventory (
/inventory) -- stock levels and product management - Budget Planner (
/finance/budget-planner) -- set up and adjust budget allocations - Reports (
/finance/reports) -- financial reporting and analysis
There are also pages for suppliers (/finance/suppliers), forecasting (/finance/forecast), transactions (/finance/transactions), and alerts (/finance/alerts).
Common problems and fixes
- A category shows zero spend but invoices have been entered -- check the invoice line items. The category mapping on the line items may be wrong or missing.
- Budget total doesn't match what was agreed -- check the Budget Planner page. The annual budget figure is set there, not on the overview.
- Spend appears in the wrong month -- spend is recorded against the invoice date, not the date you entered it. Check the invoice date is correct.
- Can't see overheads categories -- switch to the Overheads tab. The page defaults to showing Operations categories.
- Finance totals don't match external accounts -- TurfWise tracks what you enter. If invoices are missing or amounts are wrong, the totals will differ from your accounting system.
Good habits that prevent issues later
- Enter invoices within a day or two of receiving them, not at month-end
- Map every invoice line item to the correct budget category, even if it takes an extra minute
- Review the finance overview weekly, not just at month-end
- Set up your budget year and categories before heavy transaction logging to avoid later cleanup
- When a category is tracking over budget, decide immediately whether to rephase, reduce, or reallocate
Set up budget structure early
Configure your budget year and categories before you start entering invoices. Retrofitting categories onto existing transactions creates unnecessary work and mapping errors.
Where does this data go?
Finance data feeds into committee reports, project budget tracking, and forecast pages. If you use the Export Centre, financial data is included in CSV exports. Inventory costs also link back to finance categories. Keeping finance accurate means your reports to committees and boards will be trustworthy.
Where to find it
Open Finance > Budget Overview (direct link: /finance).