Aspire's budget tracking tools allow you to easily allocate and visualize spending for your influencer marketing campaigns directly in the platform. You can set up a master budget and create various budget accounts to allocate funds to different projects, enabling your team to plan their spending and track if they're over or under budget.
💡 Before setting up your budgets, we recommend reviewing this article to gain an understanding of how budget accounts work in Aspire.
Glossary of Terms
Glossary of Terms
Account Balance: Your balance shows the funds that have been deposited to your Aspire account in order to send payments to members. This is currently separate from your Budget tracking.
Master Budget: The primary source of all budget accounts.
Budget Accounts: Individual accounts that funds have been allocated to for a specific purpose
Project’s Budget: Sum of the total allocated to the project from the connected budget accounts
Spent in Project: Total amount spent, defined by payments sent that have been assigned to the project
Available in Project: Total remaining amount allocated to the project. This is calculated as “Project’s Budget” - “Spent in Project”.
Step 1: Define Your Fiscal Year
You’ll first define how your company tracks the fiscal year so that our calculations are in line with your business operations. This will determine how budget data is displayed and reported across the platform.
To define your fiscal year, follow these steps:
Click on your initials in the top right corner and select Workspace Settings.
From the left sidebar, click Budgets.
Click the gear icon in the top right corner, then click Manage Fiscal Year.
Select the month your fiscal year starts. It will end after a period of 12 months.
Lastly, define your fiscal years. By default, one will be created for the current year. To set up multiple fiscal years, click Add Fiscal Year. Enter a Fiscal Year Name (e.g. FY 2025) and select the Fiscal Year.
To designate the current fiscal year, click the ellipsis icon (…) next to the year and select Mark as Current Year.
Click Save.
ℹ️ Note: To remove a fiscal year, click the ellipsis icon (…) next to the year and click "Remove Fiscal Year". You can remove a fiscal year until it has been associated with a budget.
Step 2: Set Up Your Master Budget
Once your fiscal years are defined, the next step is to set up your Master Budget. This will be the main budget source for all of your Aspire projects and the foundation upon which all your budget accounts will be built.
To set up your master budget, follow these steps:
From your Fiscal Year Settings, click the back arrow to access your Master Budget settings. Or, from your Workspace Settings, click Budgets, then click the gear icon in the top right corner.
Select a fiscal year and enter your total budget amount.
To split your budget into quarters, click the ellipsis icon (…), click Split, then select Quarterly Budget Breakdown. You will then decide how much to allocate to each quarter under Budget Breakdown. Based on the budget amount, we will show you the remaining amount to be divided.
Repeat this process for the other fiscal years you have previously set up. Only one fiscal year is required.
Click Save Master Budget when you're done.
ℹ️ Note: We do not currently support deleting fiscal year budgets within the Master Budget.
Step 3: Set Up Budget Accounts
You can create budget accounts from your master budget to allocate funds to specific projects, teams, or types of members. This is helpful if you know that a portion of your master budget will be allocated to different initiatives or teams.
To set up a budget account, follow these steps:
Within the Budget tab, click New Budget in the top right corner.
Enter a Budget Name and Description.
Select a budget source. When setting up your first budget account, the only source option will be your Master Budget. As you create additional budget accounts, you can designate them as sources for other budget accounts.
Hover over the bar graph icon next to the budget source to see the total budget and total amount available.
Select a fiscal year and enter your budget for the year selected. You can split the budget into quarters by clicking the ellipsis icon (…) and entering the amount for each quarter.
Add additional fiscal years as needed.
Click Save when you’re done.
Step 4: Connect Budget Accounts to your Projects
You can assign one or multiple budget accounts to a project to monitor your total spend for a specific campaign.
To assign a budget to a project, follow these steps:
Navigate to the project.
Click Quick Links in the top right corner and select Project Settings.
Click Budget, then Connect Budget.
Select the budget account you want to connect to the project.
Select a fiscal year and enter the amount to allocate to the project from the selected budget account.
Click the ellipsis icon (…) to select yearly or quarterly.
If you select quarterly, you will then decide how much to allocate to each quarter under Budget Breakdown. Based on the budget amount, we will show you the remaining amount to be divided.
You can set up as many fiscal years as you would like.
Once you're done, click Connect Account.
Within the Overview tab of each project, you will see a Budget Breakdown section with the following terms:
Budget Accounts: Total number of budget accounts connected to the project
Project’s Budget: Sum of the total allocated to the project from the connected budget accounts
Spent in Project: Total amount spent, defined by payments sent that have been assigned to the project
Available in Project: Total remaining amount allocated to the project. This is calculated as “Project’s Budget” - “Spent in Project”.
You can toggle between fiscal years and click the gear icon to see a more detailed breakdown or connect additional budget accounts.
ℹ️ Note: Once a budget account has been connected to a project, the amount budgeted can be edited, but the budget account cannot be removed.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many budget accounts can I create?
How many budget accounts can I create?
You can create as many budget accounts as you need!
How do I edit a budget account?
How do I edit a budget account?
To edit a budget account, go to your Workspace Settings, click Budgets, then click on the budget name.
Can I delete a budget account?
Can I delete a budget account?
No, budget accounts cannot be deleted.
Can one project have multiple accounts as the source for its budget?
Can one project have multiple accounts as the source for its budget?
Yes. When you connect a budget to a project, you can decide if the funding source is coming from one or multiple budget accounts.
Can I edit the amount allocated to a project from a budget account?
Can I edit the amount allocated to a project from a budget account?
Yes. Under the Budget tab within the Project Settings, click the pencil icon in the Action column to edit the amount allocated to the project.
Who can manage the budget accounts?
Who can manage the budget accounts?
Currently, the Master Budget and all budget accounts can be accessed by any team members. All account users will be able to create budgets, manage spend, and view reports.
Do budgets relate to our account balance?
Do budgets relate to our account balance?
Your balance shows the funds that have been deposited to your Aspire account in order to send payments to members. Currently, budget management is separate from fund management, meaning you can create a budget account with a total budget amount greater than your current balance. Budget accounts are for tracking and estimating spend.