Payments, Cost Tracking, and Budget Alerts
Control payment approval and settlement, compare estimated and actual costs, and watch budget thresholds.
Use this when: You are paying money out, tracking costs against a budget, or watching for overruns.
Finance turns operational commitments into approved payments, recorded costs, budget alerts, and leadership reporting.
Payment Approval Rules
Your company's payment-approval policy decides where new payments start. If approval is required, a new payment begins as pending; if not, it starts approved and records the creator as the approver.
Approving, rejecting, and marking paid each follow a clear sequence and notify the right people. A payment that has been marked paid is protected from deletion.
Where a payment starts depends on your approval policy; from there it is approved (or rejected) and finally marked paid.
| Area | What it tracks | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Payments | Requests, approval, rejection, paid status | Controls money going out |
| Cost tracking | Estimated vs actual cost by category | Measures budget variance |
| Budget alerts | Threshold warnings and acknowledgements | Flags overrun risk early |
| Reports | Profitability, cash flow, overruns | Supports leadership decisions |
Recommended Finance Cycle
- 1
Review pending payments
Check the source, amount, project, attachment, and history before deciding.
- 2
Approve or reject
Apply the right decision before settlement; rejections should include a clear reason.
- 3
Mark paid
Only mark paid after settlement is confirmed — paid records affect reporting and cannot be casually removed.
- 4
Compare cost logs
Review estimated versus actual cost by project, stage, and category.
- 5
Watch budget alerts
Use budget alerts and reports to catch utilisation thresholds before they become overruns.