How budgeting works
How terms, budgets, categories, ledgers, transactions and reimbursements fit together in MyGreek, and who can see each part.
Budgeting in MyGreek tracks what your chapter planned to collect and spend against what actually came in and went out. You set a plan for each term, MyGreek brings in the money that moved (from your bank, your Crowded accounts and your MyGreek payouts), and you put each transaction in a category. The Budgets page then shows budgeted against actual for every category. Budgeting is in the web app.
The pieces
| Piece | What it is | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Academic calendar | Your chapter's terms (for example Spring and Fall) and the day each one starts. Every day of the year belongs to a term. | My Chapter → Academic Calendar |
| Budget | The plan for one period, usually a term, with a name, start date and end date. | Budgets (budget picker) |
| Budget category | A line in the plan, like "Membership Dues" or "Social". Each one is Income or Expense. | Budgets |
| Ledger | A group of categories, shown as a tab on Budgets. Most chapters have one ledger, "Main". Add more to keep areas apart, for example house and chapter. | Budgets (tabs) |
| Transaction | Money that came in or went out of one of your accounts. | Transactions |
| Reimbursement | A member's request to be paid back for something they bought for the chapter. | Reimbursements |
How the pieces connect
- A budget covers dates. Each new transaction goes into the budget whose dates include the transaction's date. MyGreek creates an empty budget for each term from your academic calendar. If a transaction lands in a term that has no budget yet, MyGreek creates that term's budget first. You can also add budgets yourself.
- A category puts a transaction in the plan. A transaction in a category counts toward that category's Actual in its budget. An uncategorized transaction counts toward nothing until you pick a category.
- Transfers don't count. Money moved between your own accounts, marked as a transfer, isn't income or spending and stays off your budgets.
- Reimbursements become expenses. When an officer approves a reimbursement, MyGreek adds an expense transaction for the full amount, in the category the officer picked.
- Payouts can post to your ledger. If your chapter turns on Post payouts to your ledger, each MyGreek payout shows up in Transactions as the payments in it, filed under each charge type's income category, so dues and rent count toward your income lines without any typing. See Bring in your MyGreek payouts.
Where transactions come from
- Outside banks you connect with Plaid. New transactions sync automatically.
- Crowded accounts you open through Banking. Their transactions sync on their own; you don't connect them. See Banking with MyGreek.
- MyGreek payouts, if Post payouts to your ledger is on.
- Bank statements and CSV files you import, for chapters with importing turned on.
- Transactions you add by hand.
- Approved reimbursements.
All of these land in one list on Transactions. See Track spending.
Default categories
A chapter's first ledger gets MyGreek's income categories: Membership Dues, Housing & Rent, New Member Fees, Fines & Late Fees, Events & Socials, Meals, Merchandise, Donations & Fundraising and Other Income. If your chapter already made an income category with one of these names, MyGreek uses yours instead of adding a second one. You can rename, move or delete them.
Each charge type has an Income category. A new charge type picks one from its name, so "Fall Dues" goes to Membership Dues. You can change it on the charge type. See Set up what you charge.
Two expense categories are set by MyGreek and locked: ACH Returns and Payment Disputes. They hold the costs of returned bank payments and chargebacks from your payouts. You can give them a budgeted amount, but you can't rename or delete them.
Who can see what
| Side menu item | Who sees it |
|---|---|
| Transactions | Officers with View Accounting Transactions, Manage Bank Connections or View Bank Accounts. The transaction list needs View Accounting Transactions; the bank account cards need one of the other two. |
| Budgets | Officers with Manage Budgets, View Budgets or Manage Ledgers, and members you've shared a budget, ledger or category with (view only). |
| Reimbursements | Officers with View Reimbursements. Approving and rejecting needs Manage Reimbursements. |
Admins have every permission. Every member can request a reimbursement, from Request Reimbursement on their balance page or the mobile app. The full list is in Permissions.
In this section
- Set up budgets: academic calendar, budgets, categories, ledgers and sharing.
- Track spending: connect a bank, import statements, categorize transactions and attach receipts.
- Reimburse members: review requests and pay members back.