Budget

What it does

Behaviours, not fields. Choosing between two modules is choosing between these.

Remaining recomputes on every mention of money, so the figure is current without anyone maintaining it.

Going over does not block anything — it changes the status and the agent says so the next time that category comes up.

Categories come from what the owner actually says, so the budget matches how they already think about the job rather than a chart of accounts.

Every figure is traceable to a sentence somebody said, which is the point and also the thing to be careful about.

How it works

1
The owner states an envelope: "the venue budget is eight thousand". The agent creates the category with Allocated set.
2
Every later mention of money against that category adds to Spent — "we paid the deposit, two thousand four hundred".
3
Remaining and Status are recomputed on write. Nobody is ever asked to keep them current.
4
Going over does not block anything. It changes Status to Over and the agent says so the next time the category comes up.

Best for

Comparing many records across many fields.

Not the right choice for

A phone. A table is the first thing that stops working narrow.

What a row holds

Every field, and what the agent listens for to fill it — which is the difference between a page you type into and one that fills itself.

Field	Type	Filled from
Categoryrequired	text	The thing money is being set aside for — "the venue", "flowers".
Allocatedrequired	money	A figure named as a budget or a limit: "we have eight thousand for the venue".
Spent	money	Anything committed against it: a deposit, an invoice, a payment. Accumulates.Absent means nothing spent yet, which is different from zero remaining.
Remaining	money	Never stated. Derived as Allocated − Spent, and recomputed on every change.Stored rather than computed at render so an exported sheet still balances.
Status	choiceNot started · On track · Over · Deposit paid · Settled	Derived from the numbers, not from what anyone says about them.

What it does not do

A module chosen for something it cannot do costs more than one that was never offered.

One currency per agent. There is no conversion, and mixing them silently produces a wrong total.
No history: Spent is a running figure, not a ledger. To see individual transactions, pair it with Expenses.
The agent will not infer a category from an amount alone. "We spent four hundred" with no category is asked about rather than guessed.
Nothing reconciles against a bank. Every figure is what somebody said, which is the point and also the risk.

Before it works

What you have to provide, if anything.

Nothing. It is usable from the first sentence that names a budget.
To seed from an existing plan, upload a CSV with Category and Allocated columns.

In practice

A wedding planner running four events at once, each with its own envelope.

“The Lauret venue is eight thousand. We have paid the deposit, two thousand four hundred.”

What was said to the agent

What the agent built

A venue line at 8,000 allocated and 2,400 spent, with 5,600 remaining and the status set to deposit paid.

What changed

Catering went 450 over three weeks later and the agent raised it in the next conversation about the event, not at the final reconciliation.

Better with

These do a different job on the same data. An agent can have all of them.

ExpensesLive

Small spending happens constantly and gets reconstructed painfully at tax time because nobody logged it when it happened.

InvoicesLive

The agent bills clients or is billed by suppliers, and someone needs to see what is unpaid without opening the accounting tool.

QuotesLive

Work is won by quoting, and revenue depends on following up the ones that went unanswered rather than writing more.

Who uses this page

Event agency

Qualifies briefs, prices the obvious, and keeps every run-of-show and supplier straight.

Wedding planner

Qualifies couples on date, budget and guest count before you give up a Saturday.

Interior designer

Takes the brief with room, style and budget attached, and keeps every specification findable.

Questions

What data does the Budget page use?

It reads budget_line records the agent has collected. Allocations vs spend by category. Nothing has to be imported first — the page appears once there is something to show.

Do I have to build or configure it?

No. You describe what you need in a sentence and the agent chooses the view and fills it. Custom pages exist for the cases no built-in view covers, and those are reviewed before they go live.

When is a table the wrong choice?

A phone. A table is the first thing that stops working narrow. It is best for: comparing many records across many fields.

Does it stay up to date?

Yes. The page is a view over the data rather than a copy of it, so anything the agent learns afterwards shows up without a rebuild or a re-import.