> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.nops.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Budgets

> Set spend targets from Explorer reports, track actuals by period, get alerted on overruns, and optionally track per-user AI seat spend from Claude Enterprise and Cursor.

**Budgets** lets you set spend targets tied directly to an Explorer report, track actual spend against those targets period by period, and get notified before you go over. Unlike a standalone budgeting tool, every nOps budget inherits its dimensions and filters from an Explorer report—so what you budget for is always exactly what you're already analyzing.

<Note>
  Budgets requires the **Operate** plan.
</Note>

## Get started

1. Sign in to [nOps](https://clara.nops.io/dashboard).
2. In the sidebar, open **Operate → Budgets**, or go to [clara.nops.io/budgets](https://clara.nops.io/budgets).
3. Click **New budget**, choose an Explorer report to base it on, and configure target details.
4. Review the generated planning grid, adjust as needed, and save. Saving a new budget opens its detail page so you can review the plan and configure alerts.

## Key features

### Budgets landing page

* Toggle between **Grid** and **List** view (your choice is remembered).
* **Portfolio summary** cards show totals across your filtered budgets: **Target (current)**, **Actual (current)**, **Avg % of budget**, and **Over budget** count.
* Search by budget name or linked report name.
* **Grid** view shows mini trend charts and over-budget badges per budget. Budgets with **AI seat tracking** enabled also show a violet **AI** badge. **List** view lets you expand rows for per-dimension breakdowns (**Budget (current)**, **Actual**, **% of budget**, **Variance**).

### Creating a budget

Every budget starts from an Explorer report:

1. Click **New budget** and select the Explorer report to link. The budget inherits that report's dimensions and filters.
2. Fill in **Target details**:
   * **Basics** — Name, Status (Draft or Active), Target type, Budget type.
   * **Schedule** — Period (Daily, Monthly, Quarterly, Annually), Start date, Number of periods, Lookback periods.
   * **Baseline** — Starting value (**Previous Month**, **Average Monthly Lookback**, or **Custom**), Growth rate (%), and an optional **Normalization period**.
3. Review the auto-generated **Planning** grid, which is live-populated as you create the budget.
4. Optionally configure **Threshold alerts** before saving.

**Target type** determines how the budget behaves:

| Type         | Behavior                                                                  |
| ------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Budget**   | Enforceable target—supports threshold alerts and shows over/under status. |
| **Tracking** | Monitor spend against a target without treating it as a hard limit.       |

**Budget type** determines how planning values are edited:

| Type          | Behavior                                                                       |
| ------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Bottom Up** | Edit each dimension's target per period; totals roll up automatically.         |
| **Top Down**  | Edit a period's total target; it distributes proportionally across dimensions. |

### Planning grid

* Targets are pre-populated using your **Starting value** and **Growth rate**, based on your Explorer report's spend.
* On create, edit individual cells directly or use **Refresh from lookback** to regenerate values from the linked report.
* **Download CSV** / **Upload CSV** to make bulk edits offline and re-import them.
* Once a budget is saved, an **Actual vs target** chart tracks real spend against your plan by period.

### Change or refresh the linked report

Open a budget and use **Change Report** to link a different Explorer report, or **Update From Report** on the report card to refresh planning using the current lookback data—useful after the underlying report's filters or dimensions change. **Refresh from lookback** in the Planning section is available during initial creation; on an existing budget, use **Update From Report** instead.

### Threshold alerts

Turn on **Enable alerts**, then configure rules from the budget's **Threshold alerts** section. Use **Manage all alerts** to view, edit, or delete multiple alerts per budget.

| Field                      | What it does                                                                                                                         |
| -------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Threshold type**         | **Percent over budget**, **Percent under budget**, or **Amount over budget**.                                                        |
| **Threshold value**        | The percentage or dollar amount that triggers the alert.                                                                             |
| **Minimum spend**          | Optional dollar floor—your threshold is only checked once actual spend reaches this amount, avoiding noisy alerts early in a period. |
| **Aggregation**            | **Single dimension** or **All dimensions combined**.                                                                                 |
| **Alert frequency**        | Which period rollovers to evaluate (defaults to the budget's own period).                                                            |
| **Email recipients**       | Organization members who receive the alert.                                                                                          |
| **Slack / Teams channels** | Optional connected chat channels for alert delivery.                                                                                 |
| **Dimensions to monitor**  | Which planning rows (dimensions) the alert applies to; exclude rows you do not want monitored.                                       |

Alerts are evaluated daily at **12:00 PM Eastern** for **Active** budgets only. Each alert shows **Active** or **Inactive** status; toggle **Alert is active** / **Alert is paused** when editing. Use **Test alert** or **Evaluate now** to preview delivery without waiting for the daily run.

### Share budget report

Separate from threshold alerts, use **Share report** to send a digest of a budget's status by email, Slack, or Teams:

* Opens the **Share budget report** dialog with **Send now** or **Schedule**.
* **Once** or **Recurring** (daily, weekly, monthly), in your timezone.
* Add **Email recipients**, optional **Slack / Teams channels**, a **Subject**, and an optional **Message**.

### Budget view in Explorer

Open [Explorer](/inform/explorer) and use **View By** to overlay a budget on your chart. This requires the **Inform** tier—without it, the budget overlay is locked with an upgrade prompt.

When enabled, you get:

* A target line on the spend chart, labeled with your budget name (for example, **Production Target**).
* A **Budget Trend** stacked bar chart below the main chart, titled with your budget name.
* A **Budget Targets** table with target vs. actual by dimension, titled with your budget name.

Handy for checking spend against a plan without leaving your analysis.

### AI seat tracking

Opt in per budget to see **per-user cloud budget metrics** alongside **AI tool spend and seat limits** from connected providers. This is separate from your Explorer-linked cloud budget: it adds a seat-level view for tools like Claude Enterprise and Cursor.

**Prerequisites**

1. Connect the provider org-wide under **Settings → Integrations**:
   * [Claude.ai (Enterprise)](/integrations/claude-enterprise) — required scopes for seat tracking are listed on that page.
   * [Cursor](/integrations/cursor-admin-api) — Team Admin API key.
2. Open the budget as a **creator** or **nOps administrator** (members can view but cannot change tracking settings).

**Enable tracking**

1. Open the budget detail page and scroll to **AI seat tracking**.
2. Select one or more providers (**Claude Enterprise**, **Cursor**).
3. **Save** the budget. Data loads after save for newly selected providers.

**Disable tracking**

1. Open the budget and go to **AI seat tracking**.
2. Click each selected provider chip to deselect it (no providers selected).
3. **Save** the budget. The **AI** badge disappears from the budgets landing page and seat data is no longer fetched for that budget.

<Note>
  Disabling tracking on a budget does **not** disconnect the integration org-wide. Other budgets can still use the same Claude or Cursor connection.
</Note>

**What you see when tracking is on**

* **Summary cards** — Total AI seat spend, total seat limits, % of limits used, % of current-period actual/target, and tracked seat count.
* **User table** — One row per organization member, matched to provider accounts by **email**:
  * **Linked budget** — Planned target, cloud actual, and % of plan for the current period (when the user matches a planning row).
  * **Per provider** — Period-to-date AI spend and effective seat limit.
* **Synced** / **All** — **Synced** shows users matched to a provider account by email; **All** includes everyone in the org.
* **AI badge** — On the budgets grid and list, budgets with tracking enabled show a violet **AI** pill (tooltip: *AI seat tracking enabled*).

**Adjust Claude seat limits (optional)**

If your Claude Enterprise API key includes **`write:spend_limits`**, budget creators and administrators can edit **Seat limit** cells inline for matched Claude users. Changes save when you leave the field. Clearing a limit removes a **per-user override** only (inherited org or seat-tier limits cannot be deleted from nOps). Cursor limits are read-only in nOps today.

If limit edits fail with a permissions error, recreate or update the key in claude.ai with **`write:spend_limits`** and reconnect under **Settings → Integrations**.

**Provider errors**

If a provider cannot be reached (missing scope, invalid key, rate limit), nOps shows an error banner in the section with a link to **Settings → Integrations**. Cloud budget metrics in the same table still load from your linked Explorer report.

### Deleting a budget

Only the budget creator or an organization administrator can delete a budget.

## FAQs

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Do I need an Explorer report to create a budget?">
    Yes. Every budget is linked to an Explorer report and inherits its filters and group-by dimensions. Create or choose a report in Explorer first, then start a budget from it (or use **Create budget** directly from the Reports list).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="What's the difference between Budget and Tracking target types?">
    **Budget** targets are enforceable—you can attach alerts and see over/under status. **Tracking** targets are for monitoring spend against a goal without treating it as a hard limit. Both types support threshold alerts in the current product.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="What's the difference between Bottom Up and Top Down planning?">
    **Bottom Up** lets you edit each dimension's target directly, and period totals roll up automatically. **Top Down** lets you set a period's total target, which then distributes across dimensions proportionally.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="How often are budget alerts evaluated?">
    Once per day, at 12:00 PM Eastern, for budgets with **Active** status. If a threshold is crossed, notifications go to the alert's email and chat recipients.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I bulk-edit my planning targets?">
    Yes. Use **Download CSV** in the Planning section to export a template, make your edits offline, and **Upload CSV** to bring them back in.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="How is a threshold alert different from Share report?">
    Alerts are threshold-triggered—they fire only when spend crosses a rule you define. **Share report** sends a scheduled or on-demand digest regardless of whether any threshold was crossed.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Why can't I overlay a budget in Explorer?">
    Budget overlays in Explorer require the Inform tier. Upgrade to Inform to add target lines, the Budget Trend chart, and the Budget Targets table to your Explorer view.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="How do I turn off AI seat tracking on a budget?">
    Open the budget, deselect all provider chips under **AI seat tracking**, and **Save**. The budget stops loading seat data and the **AI** badge is removed from the landing page. Your org-wide Claude or Cursor integration stays connected for other budgets.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Why does a user show No account found for an AI provider?">
    nOps matches nOps users to provider accounts by **email**. If the email in nOps does not match the user's Claude or Cursor account, or the user is not in the provider organization, the row shows **No account found** for that provider. Switch to **All** to see unmatched users.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I change Cursor seat limits from nOps?">
    Not today. Cursor seat limits are read-only in the AI seat tracking table. Claude Enterprise supports inline limit edits when your API key includes **`write:spend_limits`**.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Which Claude Enterprise API scopes do I need for AI seat tracking?">
    At minimum: **`read:analytics`** (Inform), plus **`read:members`** and **`read:spend_limits`** for spend and limits in Budgets. Add **`write:spend_limits`** only if you want to adjust per-user Claude limits from a budget. See [Claude.ai (Enterprise)](/integrations/claude-enterprise#api-key-scopes).
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Related

* [Explorer](/inform/explorer) — build the report a budget is based on, and overlay budgets on your charts
* [Claude.ai (Enterprise)](/integrations/claude-enterprise) — connect Claude Enterprise for Inform and AI seat tracking in Budgets
* [Cursor](/integrations/cursor-admin-api) — connect Cursor for AI seat tracking in Budgets
* [Business Unit Economics](/operate/business-unit-economics) — track cost per unit from Explorer spend and business metrics
* [Reports](/inform/reports) — see all budget alerts across your organization in one place
* [Dashboard](/inform/dashboard) — account-wide spend summary