Custom Notion · budgeting
Budgeting in Notion: leads’ requests, quarters and next year — in one system
The department budget was assembled from requests by several direction leads: contractors, software, equipment, training. I designed a budgeting system in Notion: every item is a row with a justification and payment format, buttons move it between quarters and years, and leads and the department see their own dashboards with charts.
What it looks like
Mock-ups with demo data, no real data
💸Department budget
| Item | Group | Payment | Quarter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software licences | Software | Monthly | Q1 |
| Contractor: development | Contractors | One-off | Q2 |
| Team course | Training | One-off | Q3 |
| Team laptops | Equipment | One-off | Next year Q1 |
At a glance
- Client
- Under NDA
- Task
- Budgeting for a department and its directions
- Status
- Delivered
- Role
- Architecture and build of the Notion system
Results
1 database
for every budget item instead of scattered spreadsheets
2 years
planned side by side — the current and the next
Dashboards
for each direction lead and for the department
Before
- Budget requests came from several leads in different shapes and had to be consolidated by hand.
- Software subscriptions are paid monthly, quarterly or yearly, so their real cost was hard to see.
- Items moving to the next quarter or year got lost between spreadsheet versions.
What was built
One database of budget items
Each row is an expense with a category, group, justification, dates and payment format. Category and group are filled by automation; formulas validate input and compute the full subscription cost.
Covered separately →Quarters and next year — by button
A row moves to this year or next and to the right quarter with one button, no copying.
Lead dashboards
Each direction has its own panel with quick actions, charts for this year and next, and every request. The department has a shared dashboard.
Linked to the team
Expenses are linked to teams, staff and contractors, so you see who and what the budget goes to.
Stack
- Notion
- Formulas
- Notion buttons
- Notion automations
- Notion charts
Questions
Why Notion rather than a spreadsheet?
A spreadsheet holds numbers, not the process: who requested an expense, why, when to pay and in which quarter. In Notion these are linked databases with roles, buttons and dashboards.
Can this work for another department?
Yes — the mechanics do not depend on the department: items, categories, quarters and lead dashboards adapt to your structure.