# Budgets

A budget compares the workspace's spend in a period with an amount you set. Open **Budgets** under Planning.

## Before you start

- Creating, editing and deleting budgets needs the Owner or Editor team role in a workspace your team can edit. Every team role can view them.
- A budget measures the cost of the connections the workspace uses; see [Manage connections](/connect/manage-connections).

## Create a budget

1. Select **Create Budget**.
2. Enter a **Budget Name** and the amount.
3. Choose the **Period**: Monthly, Quarterly or Yearly.
4. Choose the **Start Date** and save.

A budget created in the product measures the whole workspace, in euros, with thresholds at 50, 80 and 100 percent. Through the Public API a budget can also measure one [segment](/allocation/segments), use another supported currency, end on a date, and carry its own thresholds. See the [API reference](/api).

## Follow a budget

Each budget card shows spend so far against the amount and a status:

| Status | Spend |
|---|---|
| On track | Below 80 percent |
| Warning | 80 percent or more |
| Exceeded | 100 percent or more |

Open a budget to see its current spend, its limit and the **Spending Trend** of past periods, each with what was spent and the percentage of the amount. The **Overview** page shows the same progress under **Budget Progress**.

## When a threshold is crossed

Costfluent checks budgets every hour. When spend for the period reaches a threshold, it records the crossing and creates an in-product notification. On the [Alerts](/planning/alerts) page, each threshold is a row under **Configured alerts** of kind Budget threshold, and **Last fired** shows when it was crossed. Budget thresholds are not sent to notification channels.

## How it behaves

- Spend not yet computed for the period shows "Spend not computed yet", never zero, and cannot cross a threshold.
- Cost billed in another currency with no usable exchange rate is not counted and is named on the card: "Not counted: … billed in other currencies without a usable rate."
- Each threshold fires once for the life of the budget. It does not fire again in a later period.
- Deleting a budget cannot be undone.

## Related

- [Alerts](/planning/alerts)
- [Cost amounts](/concepts/cost-amounts)
- [Currency settings](/currency)