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Understanding Why a Budget Limit Update Might Not Apply

  • Updated

A budget has two different numbers: its ongoing recurring limit, and what's available to spend right now. Editing one doesn't automatically change the other, which is why a limit change can look like it did nothing. This article covers the permission, budget-type and workflow rules that can stop or delay an update from applying.

Looking for why your available amount looks higher than your limit instead? See Understanding Why Your Budget's Available Amount Can Look Higher Than Its Limit.

How It Works

  • You need permission to request a change
    • Changing a budget's rules, or requesting a limit change, needs the Budgets: Update permission (or Subscriptions: Update, for a Subscription-type budget). Without it, you can still submit a request if you're already a member or approver of that budget; otherwise, ask someone with permission to make the change.
  • Edit Budget Rules only changes ongoing settings, never what's available today
    • It updates the budget's recurring limit from the start of the next reset cycle, but doesn't touch what's available right now. To change the amount available immediately, use Request Limit Update or One-off Limit Adjustment instead (or the equivalent per-member control).
    • On the current budgets experience, both controls are a pencil icon that opens a popover with up and down arrow buttons to increase or decrease the limit.
    • Some businesses may still be on the older version, where the budget-level change is a separate One-off Limit Adjustment button opening a plain amount field, and a per-member change is made by clicking directly on that member's available-amount figure.
  • A budget with individual member limits can't take a whole-budget request
    • Any limit change has to be requested against each member's own limit from the Budget Members table instead, and every member's limit must still add up to the budget total when you save Edit Budget Rules.
  • Some changes are locked by design
    • A budget's type can't change after creation, a Subscription budget can't use per-member limits or a "never resets" schedule, its start date locks once it's Active, and an archived budget's rules, limit and members can't be edited at all.
  • The per-transaction limit has its own bounds
    • It must be greater than zero, and can't exceed either your business's own per-transaction cap or the card network's own ceiling.
  • A "permanent" (ongoing) change is rejected on a one-time budget, since it never resets to apply to, and on an individual member's request when the budget doesn't have per-member limits turned on, since there's no separate per-member limit for it to attach to.
  • Every limit change is submitted as a request under your business's Approval Rules (the Budget Top-Ups rule), even for Admins.
    • If you're the resolved approver, it may apply straight away, unless your business has Prevent Self-Approval turned on. Otherwise, it sits pending until someone acts on it, and a decline leaves the limit unchanged.
    • Only a still-pending request can be edited or withdrawn, and only by whoever raised it; once it's approved or declined, it's locked. Switching the budget between shared and individual member limits while a request is pending cancels it automatically.
  • The update form itself blocks submission if you haven't entered a reason, left the amount unchanged, entered zero, or entered an amount that would take the limit negative. Depending on your business's request flow, an ordinary team member may be able to submit a request from the web app; otherwise it's mobile-app only, under Requests > Budget Limit Update.

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