Budgeting 101: Real-Time Budget Tracking in the Crafty Platform
Monitor and manage your office food service budget with real-time data, automated alerts, and detailed breakdowns for smarter decision-making.
What is Budgeting in the Crafty Platform?
The Budgeting feature in the Crafty Platform gives you real-time visibility into your food service spend. Track budget status by program, location, and date range—so you’re always in the loop and in control.
How does Budgeting help maximize every dollar?
With real-time tracking, automated alerts, and customizable reporting, Crafty's budgeting tools help you:
- Prevent overspending
- Identify trends early
- Make faster, data-driven decisions
- Communicate clearly with stakeholders
How do I use Budgeting?
Access budget breakdowns:
See insights across:
- Individual budgets
- Budget groups
- Spend vs. budgeted amounts
- Fees vs. product spend
- Monthly or quarterly views
Get timely notifications:
You'll receive automated emails when spending reaches:
- 60%
- 80%
- 100%
- 120% of the monthly budget
These alerts link directly to the Budgets tab in your Crafty Platform. The system checks budgets daily at 4 PM CST but only sends one notification per threshold.
Use the Budget Snapshot:
- Select assigned budgets from a dropdown list
- Toggle between Monthly (up to 3 months) or Quarterly (up to 4 months)
- View total spend, budget, and remaining balance
- Download data as .pdf or .xls to share internally
Compare multiple budgets:
- Use the Budget Comparison tool to see all budgets in a group
- Visualize differences in spend, budget, and remaining balance via graphs
- Ideal for tracking program-wide performance
Scenarios where Budgeting is most helpful
- You’re managing multiple offices and need visibility across all budgets
- Your team wants to monitor spend proactively to avoid overages
- You need to present budget summaries to stakeholders
- You want to evaluate spend trends over time
FAQs
How do I get started with budgets in the Crafty Platform?
Reach out to our Support team to request a budget setup for your program.
Who receives budget alerts?
All communication recipients assigned to the budget will receive the automated emails when spend hits the set thresholds.
Can I download and share budget data?
Yes! Click the download icon in the Budgets tab to export reports as PDF or Excel files.
How frequently is budget data updated?
Budgets are reviewed daily at 4 PM CST, and data updates in real time within the Platform.
Can I view budget data by location or time frame?
Absolutely—filter by program, location, payment profile, month, year, or a custom date range