How to create Budget or Budget Proposal?

If your client has requested an estimated cost for a project that hasn't been approved yet, we suggest using the Proposals section. Here, you'll find all of the pre-made budget templates that you can tailor to fit your client's needs.

1. click the "Create new budget" button. 

You have the option to either create a budget from scratch or choose from Template, simplifying the process. The list of pre-made templates includes all the budget proposals that you will assign to the "Templates" brand. 

2. insert the brand name and the project name

3. select positions from our preset position sets or use default ones

For each brand in Allfred you can define its own position sets, whether it's contracted rates or sets tailored for different project types. You can easily adjust these sets either at the brand level or within the Proposals section under the Position Sets tab.

4. create budget sections called budget items

The budget is divided into three main parts that creative agencies commonly encounter:

• agency work,
• external production,
• media budget
• (internal production or royalties are optional)

You can list specific activities needed to deliver the service under each part, whether it's your own work or external costs. By organizing your budget in this way, you'll have a clear overview of all expenses or planned internal work.

Allfred uses know-how sharing of your entire agency, offering suggestions from previous projects. You can edit pre-filled sections as needed.

You can provide a detailed description for each item to ensure your client understands what they're getting.

5. Pricing, discounts and fees

a) Agency work

We price items that are part of our work in two ways:

• through sold agency hours: use the Clock icon and fill in the number of hours under each position
• through the price for the service: use the dollar icon and fill in the total price in the Agency work column

If you want to offer your client a discount, use the "Enable discount" button and enter an absolute or relative discount.

b) External production

For external costs, such as using an external graphic designer or videographer, we use the external production section.

The buy price represents the agency's cost, while the price represents the amount charged to the client. The client only sees the Price item, so there's no need to worry about them seeing your actual agency costs.

Even with external costs, you can apply discounts, commissions, or set quantities by using the "Enable quantity" button. Discounts can be applied in the same way as for internal hours. You can also include fees for purchasing external items in the budget. If you have a contracted fee set at the brand level, Allfred will automatically fill it in the budget. However, you can still edit it.

c) Media budget

The Media budget section works in a similar way, where you can list the costs of boosting or purchasing media, such as a PR article, OOH etc.

You can also apply discounts to the entire budget sections, duplicate whole sections or repeat them.

6. Repetitive activities

In managing long-term or recurring projects, creating detailed, tailored budgets is essential. Allfred allows you to select the type and frequency of repetition for individual budget items, providing greater flexibility and more precise control over your project’s financial scope.

This feature is particularly beneficial for those who are budgeting all-year activities into one project.

When you need to create 12 similar budget items, each differing by the name of the month (e.g., “Social media January,” “Social media February,” etc.), with our new feature, simply select the “Months” type of repetition in the budget, choose the starting month (you can start with July in the middle of the year), and then determine the number of repetitions.

Allfred will then organize all the budget items in the Project Overview in a logical, chronological order. You can also choose  ‘Numbers’ type of repetitions. 

7. changing the currency

Need to provide a budget in a foreign currency for a client? After completing the budget, simply select the desired exchange rate in the upper right corner. You have two options:

• insert custom exchange rate
• choose client exchange rate that is set on brand level

Then check the box "Recalculate current prices to new currency." Press Apply and you're done.

8. Finalizing budget

In the SUM TOTAL row, you can see a summary of all items and each part of the budget. Here, you can also apply an absolute or relative discount, agency fees or change VAT.

9. Saving the budget

Once your budget is ready, you can save it as a draft or final version. The final version can be downloaded and shared, or assigned to a project. You can mark budget as approved internally or by the client.

Your created budget proposals are saved in the Proposals section, where you have an overview of all budgets or templates created in this way.

Once the client has approved your proposal and you are ready to begin the new campaign, simply create a new project under the associated brand. Allfred will automatically provide the approved cost estimation for you to assign it to the project.

How to create budget for existing project?

To create a budget for an existing project, the process is the same except that you start from the Project dashboard, select the desired project, and then go to the Budgets subsection. After saving the budget, it will automatically appear in the listing, and you only need to assign it to the project by clicking on the "Assign to project" box.