Set up multi-level budgets

Budgets in Forest exist at multiple levels: project, team, area, user, and discipline.

Budget hierarchy

Project Budget
├── Team Budget (e.g., Engineering, Design)
│   ├── Area Budget (e.g., Frontend, Backend)
│   │   └── User Budget (e.g., Alice, Bob)
└── Discipline Budget (e.g., by functional area)

You don’t have to use all levels—start simple and add complexity as needed.

Create a project budget

1. Go to Budget & Finance
2. Click + New Budget or New Project Budget
3. Enter:
   • Name — Usually your project name
   • Total amount — Annual or quarterly budget
   • Currency — USD, EUR, etc.
4. Click Create

The project budget is now your top-level container.

Create team budgets

1. In Budget & Finance, click your project budget
2. Click + New Team Budget or + Team
3. Enter:
   • Name — Team name (e.g., “Engineering”)
   • Budget amount — How much this team can spend
4. Click Create

Team budgets nest under the project budget.

Create area budgets

Areas break down team budgets further:

1. Click a team budget
2. Click + New Area Budget or + Area
3. Enter:
   • Name — Area name (e.g., “Backend API”)
   • Budget amount
4. Click Create

Area budgets nest under team budgets.

Create user budgets

User budgets track spending by person:

1. Click an area budget (or team budget)
2. Click + New User Budget or + Person
3. Enter:
   • Name — Person’s name or ID
   • Budget amount — Their allocation
4. Click Create

Discipline budgets

Discipline budgets organize spending by functional area:

1. Create discipline budgets similar to team budgets
2. Assign people to disciplines in Settings > Disciplines
3. Budget & Finance shows discipline-level spending

Budget per quarter

Some teams set budgets by quarter:

Budget	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
Engineering	$150k	$150k	$200k (hiring)	$200k
Design	$50k	$50k	$50k	$50k

Create separate budget entries for each quarter, or set a total annual budget.