Department structure
Reporting follows the real organisation chart.
- Departments defined by the company
- An owner per department
- Used on expenses
- Used on purchase orders as well
Separately licensed module, from the Procurement menu
Budgets by department, compared with actual spend
Budgets are set by department and period, and the expenses recorded in the application are compared with them at any moment. Every outgoing payment has a department, a category, a supplier and an attached document, so budget execution is available during the current month, not after the accounting is processed.
From $2,900 excl. VATone-time payment, no monthly subscription- Budgets by department
- Expenses with an attached document
- Execution available at all times
- Purchase orders with a department
- Scheduled reports
Budgets by department
Expenses with an attached document
Execution available at all times
In short
Budgets and expenses in a CRM, with variances visible in time. Budgets are set by department and period, and the expenses recorded in the application are compared with them at any moment. A separately licensed module, from the Procurement menu. Lifetime licence, installation on the company’s server and unlimited users.
Works together with: Zarina SMART, Procurement and suppliers, Payments and receipts.
The problem
The current situation, when the budget lives in a file
The problem is not the lack of a budget, but how late you find out how much of it has been used.
- Execution is known too late The real position appears after the accounting is processed, often halfway through the following month. The corrective decision comes a month late.
- Expenses are not coded by department Invoices are grouped by accounting criteria, not by the structure management actually follows.
- Every department has its own file Consolidation is done by hand, with formulas that break and versions that do not match.
- Supporting documents have to be hunted down At audit time, attaching documents to expenses means searching through archives and mailboxes.
- There is no comparison between periods Without structured history, you cannot tell whether a variance is an incident or a trend.
- Next year’s budget is made from memory With no execution data, next year’s allocations are set on impressions, not on real consumption.
What the module does
What the budgets module contains
The module adds the department structure, budgets by period and the comparison with recorded expenses.
Budgets by period
The plan becomes a record, not a file.
- Budget per department
- Configurable periods
- Values that can be revised
- History of changes
Comparison with actual spend
Execution is available at all times.
- Used and available
- By department and period
- Percentage of execution
- No monthly processing
Expenses with a document
Every amount has its justification.
- Category and department
- Associated supplier
- Attached document
- Who entered the record
Purchase orders with a department
Commitments do not stay outside the records.
- Department on the purchase order
- Tracked alongside expenses
- Visible before the invoice arrives
- Linked to the supplier
Reports and export
The information reaches the decision-makers.
- Reports by period
- Export for analysis
- Scheduled email reports
- Filters by department
What changes
What changes in the first quarter of use
Direct effects of having the budget and the expenses in the same system.
01
Variances spotted in time
The correction can be made during the current month.
- Execution updated continuously
- Differences visible by department
- A discussion based on figures
- A decision while it still matters
02
Accountability by department
Every budget has an owner.
- An owner is named
- Expenses assigned
- No arguments about who approved what
- Verifiable records
03
Consolidation without manual work
The overall picture is available immediately.
- All departments in the same report
- No files to merge
- No contradictory versions
- Export in one step
04
Documents at hand
Audits no longer block the team.
- Supporting documents attached
- Search by criteria
- Export by period
- Files prepared quickly
05
Better forecasts
Next year’s budget is built on history.
- Execution over previous periods
- Seasonality is visible
- Categories with repeated variances
- An argument for allocations
06
Recurring costs made visible
The first source of savings you can actually identify.
- Repeating expenses grouped
- Value per period
- Suppliers whose prices are rising
- Renegotiation decisions
In the application
How budget execution is obtained, step by step
The mechanism is simple, and that is exactly why it works without extra administrative effort.
- 1
Departments are defined
The structure follows the company’s real organisation chart, not one invented for reporting. Each department has an owner.
- 2
Budgets are set by period
Each department receives a value for the chosen period. Later revisions stay in the record’s history.
- 3
Expenses are recorded with their coding
Each expense gets a department, a category, a supplier and an attached document. The coding is what makes the report usable.
- 4
Purchase orders also get a department
Committed amounts can then be tracked alongside expenses already recorded, before the invoice arrives.
- 5
Execution can be checked at any time
The comparison between budget and expenses is available permanently, without waiting for a monthly process.
- 6
The report reaches the decision-makers
The position can be sent automatically, at set intervals, to the people who make cost decisions.
Video tour
Budgets and expenses, briefly, in the application
Coming soonThe video presentation of the module is being prepared.
Coding
Expense coding: the part that decides the quality of the report
A budgets module does not produce useful information if expense coding is not disciplined. We say this before implementation.
Few, clear categories
An exhaustive list never gets used.
- Categories actually used
- Names recognised internally
- Matching the accounting records
- Reviewable later
Department is mandatory
Without it, the report stays incomplete.
- A department on every expense
- Including on purchase orders
- Avoiding the “no department” category
- Checked at implementation
Attached document
The justification goes with the amount.
- Invoice or receipt attached
- Accepted formats
- Access limited by role
- Export by period
Rules agreed internally
Discipline is established, not assumed.
- Who records the expenses
- The deadline for recording
- How unclear cases are handled
- Agreed before go-live
Reporting
What management sees, without asking for a report
Useful information is what is available at the moment of the decision, not what is correct at month end.
- 01
Execution by department
Budget, recorded expenses and available amount, for each department, over the chosen period.
- 02
Variances against plan
Differences appear explicitly, so the discussion starts from figures, not impressions.
- 03
Progress over time
The comparison with previous periods shows whether a variance is an incident or a trend.
- 04
Expenses by category
Grouping by category shows where consumption is concentrated and where an intervention makes sense.
- 05
The suppliers with the biggest impact
Where the spend is concentrated, a renegotiation has an immediate effect.
- 06
Reports sent automatically
The position arrives by email at set intervals, without anyone compiling it by hand.
Automations
What reduces administrative work in the budgets module
Mechanisms that remove re-entering data and compiling reports by hand.
Expenses from the same base
There is no second register to keep.
- Expenses from the procurement module
- Coded by department
- Attached document
- No export and re-import
Scheduled reports
Information flows without being asked for.
- Periodic report by email
- Configurable recipients
- Export attached
- Configurable interval
Data import
Taking over existing records is quick.
- Import expenses from CSV or XLSX
- Automatic column mapping
- Check without saving
- Undo the import
A change log
Every change stays recorded.
- Author and date
- Previous values
- A verifiable audit trail
- Useful for internal control
Export for accounting
The data reaches the accountant without manual work.
- Export by period
- Filters by category and department
- Associated documents
- A format agreed at implementation
The link with invoicing
Revenue and costs are compared in the same system.
- Invoices issued in the period
- Expenses in the same period
- An overall picture
- Consolidated reporting
Who sees what
Access to financial data, strictly by role
Cost information is sensitive internally. Visibility is configured explicitly.
- Access by role The budget and expense pages open only for the roles granted that right, through the module access matrix.
- Financial roles, separate from commercial ones A sales consultant does not automatically reach the company’s budgets and expenses.
- Changes stay recorded Changes to budgets and expenses stay in the audit trail, with author and date.
- Documents are protected Attached supporting documents are served only to users with the right, through verified links.
- Data on the company’s server Budgets, expenses and documents stay in your own installation, with no copy at an external provider.
- Controlled export Exports are performed by users with the right and stay recorded in the application’s log.
What you need
What needs to be prepared to put the budgets module into service
We do the configuration at implementation, on the company’s real structure.
01
The department structure
Reporting follows the organisation chart.
- Real departments
- An owner for each
- A reporting hierarchy
- Set at implementation
02
The expense categories
Fewer and clearer, not exhaustive.
- Categories actually used
- Matching the accounting
- Categories for recurring costs
- Reviewable later
03
Budgets for the current period
The starting point of the comparison.
- Values by department
- The reference period
- Taken from existing planning
- Reviewable later
04
The procurement module active
Expenses come from it.
- Suppliers and expenses
- Purchase orders
- Cash register
- Recommended together with budgets
05
Rights over financial information
You decide who sees what.
- Roles with access to budgets
- Roles that record expenses
- Visibility by department
- Reviewable later
06
Internal coding rules
Discipline decides the quality of the report.
- Who records and when
- Department made mandatory
- Document made mandatory
- Agreed before go-live
What it does not do
The limits of the budgets module, stated explicitly
The module gives management control over costs. It does not replace accounting and does not block operations.
- It is not accounting software The module compares budgets with expenses for management purposes. Bookkeeping entries, the trial balance and tax returns stay in your own program.
- It does not produce official financial statements The reports are management tools, not statutory reporting documents.
- It does not block expenses that exceed the budget The module shows execution and variances. It does not impose an approval flow and does not prevent an expense from being recorded.
- It does not capture incoming invoices automatically Expenses are recorded in the application, with an attachment. Automatic extraction of data from invoices is not included.
- It does not include depreciation of fixed assets Fixed asset registers and depreciation stay in accounting.
- Quality depends on coding discipline Expenses without a department or with the wrong category produce unusable reports. The rules are set before go-live.
Who it is for
When this module makes sense and when it does not
We prefer to say from the start in which situations the module is not worth its cost, so the sales conversation does not begin with the wrong expectations.
It makes sense if
The situations in which the module pays for itself quickly.
- You find out about expenses after they have been made
- You have budgets by department or by project
- Supplier invoices reach your records late
- You want a warning before the budget is exceeded
It does not make sense if
The situations in which we recommend not buying it now.
- Expenses are few and one person approves them all
- Your accountant gives you the position on time
- You do not work with defined budgets
- You have nobody to enter the expenses
How to buy
How the budgets module is licensed
The module has its own manifest and is activated by licence, in the procurement menu.
A separately licensed module
It contains the departments, the budgets by period and the comparison with expenses.
What the core includes
The mandatory core brings users and roles, clients and contacts, a lead and sales pipeline, custom fields and 15 interface languages.
Together with procurement
Expenses and orders come from the procurement and suppliers module, so activating them together is recommended.
Pricing and configurations
Package composition and prices by edition are on the pricing page.
CRM implementations
Companies that have trusted Zarina CRM
Price, warranties and implementation
Budgets and expenses: what it costs and what you get
You pay once. Everything that follows is written here, not in hidden conditions.
The price
It is part of the Procurement, costs and budgets package: $450 excl. VAT, on top of the core ($2,320). Bought separately, together with the core: $2,770.
Cheaper in a bundle. The tiers group several packages at a price lower than their sum:
- Enterprise13 packages + core$6,970−31%
$10,080
List prices, excl. VAT, one-time payment, unlimited users. The struck-through price is the sum of the packages bought individually. Current offers apply on the pricing page.
Subscription or licence
What you pay over time for a subscription CRM
Over 3 years, the subscription costs $10,480; the Zarina Enterprise licence costs $6,970, once.
An indicative comparison: enter the subscription price you pay now. The licence does not grow with the number of users.
What you get
- A lifetime licence, with no subscription and no per-user charge
- Unlimited users, on the same licence
- 6 months of warranty on correct operation: fixing errors and inconsistencies
- Implementation, configuration and team training, included in the price
- The licence is verified locally, on your own server: the application does not depend on our servers to work
How long it takes and what is needed
- 48 hours in the standard configuration; up to 14 working days with customisation around the company’s workflow
- Your own server or web hosting with cPanel, with an SSL certificate
- PHP 7.4 or newer (8.x recommended) and MySQL / MariaDB
- The PHP extensions mysqli, json, mbstring; curl, gd and zip for integrations, PDF and exports
- One cron task, for reminders and automations
Where data lives
- The data stays on your server and does not pass through ours
- Roles and rights per user, two-factor authentication
- An audit trail and limits on login attempts
- Consents and data subject requests, managed in the application
- Digitally signed updates and backups from the application
Frequently asked questions
Questions about the budgets and expenses module
Does it replace accounting software?
No. The module is a management tool: it compares the budgets you set with the expenses recorded, in real time. Bookkeeping, the trial balance and tax returns stay in your own program.
Does it work without the procurement module?
Not usefully. Expenses, suppliers and orders come from the procurement module, so the two are activated together.
Does it block an expense that exceeds the budget?
No. The module shows execution and variances, but it does not prevent an expense from being recorded and does not impose an approval flow. The decision stays with the company.
Do purchase orders appear in the budget?
Orders get a department, so committed amounts can be tracked alongside expenses already recorded, before the invoice arrives.
Does a department owner see other departments’ budgets?
Access is granted by role. By default, the financial pages are limited to the roles explicitly given that right.
Can I attach supporting documents?
Yes. Documents stay linked to the expense and can be exported by period, for internal or external checks.
Can I import existing expenses?
Yes, from CSV or XLSX files, with automatic column mapping, a check without saving and the option to undo the import.
Does the report reach management automatically?
Yes. You configure scheduled reports, sent by email at set intervals, with the export attached.
Can different periods be compared?
Yes. Execution over previous periods stays available, which makes trends and seasonality visible.
How long does implementation take?
It depends on the number of departments and on how clear the categories are. The time-consuming part is not the configuration, but agreeing the coding rules.
Product sheet
Get the complete product sheet by email
A six-page document with everything you need to know before a sales conversation. No obligation and no sales call.
- The platform core and the 13 module packages, with what each one contains
- The features and modules of the edition you choose, plus available integrations
- Full pricing and what it includes: installation, training, data import, warranty
- The native integrations available and the situations where the platform is not a good fit
No monthly subscription
Take control of your operations, once
We install Zarina CRM on your hosting, configure it around your own workflow and train your team. From that moment on, the application is an asset of your company, not a recurring expense.