Configure a budget
In Optimizely Configured Commerce, you can configure budgets to define enforcement levels, budget periods, and optional cost codes. On the storefront, go to My Account > Budget Management and click Configure Budgets.
Administrators can set budget amounts for any user; however, only users with the role of Buyer 2 can submit a request to go over budget or receive a notification that the current purchase exceeds the defined budget.
Budget enforcement
Use Enforcement Level to control if a budget impacts users during the shopping experience. The default is No Enforcement. You can only have one budget enforcement level active at a time.
- No Enforcement – Has no impact on budget validation during the logged-in user's shopping experience.
- Customer Ship To Level – Validates budgets against the selected ShipTo and the logged-in user's role.
- Customer Level – Validates budgets across all ShipTo's for the logged-in user and customer combination.
- User Level – Validates budgets against the user record.
Note
The setting Budgets From Online Orders Only must be set to Yes to select the enforcement level. You can activate this setting globally or for a specific website. If this setting is No, ERP orders also apply to budgets.
Dropdown behavior by enforcement level
The User and Ship-To dropdowns on the Budget Management page are enabled or disabled based on the selected enforcement level:
Enforcement level | User dropdown | Ship-To dropdown |
|---|---|---|
None | Enabled | Enabled |
Customer | Disabled | Disabled |
Ship-To | Disabled | Enabled |
User | Enabled | Disabled |
Disabled dropdowns prevent selecting values that do not apply at the current enforcement level.
Budget period
The Configure Budget Period by Year section lets you create budget periods. When creating multi-period budgets, any unspent dollars from previous months roll forward to the current month.
For example, if your quarterly budget is $500:
- Q1 – Spent $250, carrying over $250 to the next quarter.
- Q2 – Spent $150, carrying over $350 + $250 from the previous quarter.
Buyer 2 could spend $1,100 ($350 + $250 + $500) in Q3 before they must submit it for approval.
Create a standard 12-month calendar budget
- Use the Select Budget Year drop-down list to select the year.
- Click Monthly for Assign Budget Period.
- Click Save.
A populated list of each month of the selected year displays.
Create a quarterly budget
- Use the Select Budget Year drop-down list to select the year.
- Click Quarterly for Assign Budget Period.
- Edit the four periods if needed. You can change the Start Date or click the Remove icon to remove a period.
- Click Save.
Create a fiscal year budget
- Use the Select Budget Year drop-down list to select the year.
- Click Custom for Assign Budget Period.
- Enter 12 in the Budget Period Number field.
- Set the Budget Year End to the end of the fiscal period, such as 03/31/2026.
- Set the Start Date for Period 12 as 03/01/2026.
- Continue in descending order to edit the Start Date. As you edit each one, the previous End Date changes to match.
- Click Save when you have edited all periods to match the fiscal year.
