@hugi, I think it is as ready as it gets without us trying to use it and making remarks, posting bugs etc. This is already the second iteration. So go right ahead.
Maybe it is too early to write proper documentation, but maybe you, I and @anu could meet online and try to erect a couple of projects. She could then observe what mistakes we make and the questions we ask to write the documentation. What do you think, Anu?
Hi @Hugi. Yes, it is ready to use. I think noemi tested it as well. Sure @alberto I like the idea you presented. Let me know, we all can get connected in group chat on riot.
Hello everyone, I had another go at budgeting a small project. I posted two issues, which are simply bugs: one and two. Here, I would like to discuss the logic of the prototype. I have a request, a suggestion and a question.
###Request: separate clearly the budgeting functions from the bookkeeping ones
Right now, the Magic Budget does two things (or it will, when it’s finished). One is actual budgeting. Before the project happens, the project manager tries to predict future cash flows: how much money will go out/come in, and (critically) when. This is by far the most important function of the MB: that’s why it’s called Magic Budget, and not Magic something else. The other is helping monitoring: as money gets spent and earned, the project manager can put her past cash flow into the sheet, and check how well she is doing with respect to her predictions.
I don’t think I want to use the monitoring functions at all. The main reason is that FreeAgent does this already. If people want to use them, great. But I would like these two functions to be clearly separated (different sheets) so that I (and people who want to do like me) can just focus on the budgeting part, and never look at the rest.
Notice that past cash flow data are not used to predict future cash flow. This is important, and it would be a mistake to do otherwise. All those transactions are summarized in the bank account balance. The Magic Spreadheet (aggregating all the magic budgets) starts from the actual bank account balance, adds future revenues and subtracts future costs. So, my refusal to do cost-tracking in the MB does not break the the MS.
I would like for different rows in the “Budget” sheet to accept the same item reference (column B). Furthermore, I suggest that the item references are the same as FreeAgent uses. This reduces the cognitive load of bookkeeping, because our different tools use similar logics. Look at this: why cannot I have “staff” in B5, B6, B7 e B10?
Yes 
@matthias I have planned to do the magic spreadsheet for POPREBEL and NGI Forward so that the board can get a clearer idea of cash flows.
@alberto mentioned that it may in fact not be ready.
Can you please let me know
Thanks!
Not finished to fit Alberto’s requirements.
V2 is finished for people who are more patient with spreadsheets, can make some own adaptations where needed, and would ask @anu for instructions where necessary.
V3 will be finished somewhere in early / mid October.
I have also tried it for RebelVillage:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DSNfVgpPNGrKplm7BjMBFU_mGSGYIdXRXDfx_I2rKp8/edit#gid=2147433014
Quick feedback is that it is very resistant to adding new rows into the Budget field… and any modification in it messes up with the cell formats (ie coloring), and requires people to watch out for the formulas and copy them in.
Otherwise the predicted expenses and invoicing are what we care most about…
Unfortunately the format for the speadsheet is not always the one the client sees. I made one with the format for the client and realised I have to redo it somewhere else to eliminate the unnecessary info.
Also, the client rarely sees the overhead, and so the overhead either gets included into the costs or gets renamed (i called it Project administration and accounting).
Noted.
Can someone from the board (or @alberto) please advise if you need the cash flow forecasts for your next meeting? If so, then I’ll put on my best patient hat and go for it with POPREBEL and NGI Forward in their current state.
No, @anique.yael. Really doing this is going to be super difficult before the Magic Budget works acceptably. Plus: no grant agreement…
Got it and great
So another feedback is that the sheets seem to be editable to the extent that they can become external. I did it so heavily that I could actually send a Budget and finance plan to the potential client. It didnt make sense to do other new ones with other structures. I either made a mess or hacked it (by hiding columns in the currency they dont care about, or by adding in-kind revenues etc…). I think it worked… or?
It would be great if the cashflow could be more friendly styled - like Invoices in one color and Expenses in another one, with a legend. Also I cant export it with full margins for the dates when project starts or ends, but maybe thats excel knowledge missing for me 
Looks good The spreadsheet is meant to be hacked … it provides too many features for most scenarios, so hiding stuff will be the most usual hack.
Also I see you uncovered a bug in the cash flow projection graph … lines are never supposed to be skewed, only vertical or horizontal, because cash movements happen instantaneously or not at all. This has to do with the sorting of items in the intermediary tables of the chart when multiple transactions happen on one day (which I didn’t test yet).
I don’t understand what this is referring to. What kind of margins? Padding around the content of a cell? (In that case, a screenshot would help.)
Well in the image of the cashflow above, and in the original excel file too, I cant read anything that is on the or close to the x axis, the early beginning of the project. Actually I dont even see the begnning of the project on the axis Same goes for the end of the project.
Everyone here: I think the Magic Budget Template is now ready to use. To use it, start with the documentation – everything is, or should be, in there. Starting from now, this is the new default how to do a budget (and we need to stick to it to enable company-wide cash flow controlling). Let me know in this thread what’s missing or does not work.
(Still no progress on the Magic Spreadsheet, but that’s the final step for me and @anu now: aggregating the project budgets into the company-wide cash flow plan.)
Yay! Great news, thanks!
Proposal how the Magic Spreadsheet’s cashflow graph would look like. This is the best I can get out of Google Sheets, beyond that we’d need an own application that reads the project budget spreadsheets and then can do “whatever” with them.
Notes:
This is a stacked chart. Which explains why the green line represents both the total and Project 3.
All data is just an example here. Bank reserves would be 50k EUR in reality, for example.
The project specific lines could be removed, but I’ve left them in so far.
What’s confusing about them is that they cross each other – normally not seen in a stacked chart. It indicates negative cash balance of a project. And that’s ok for a project because it is only relative to the current day (which will be always the diagram’s start date). When considering the whole project runtime, the project would still stay cashflow positive.
Noted @matthias, and many thanks to you and @anu for getting this off the ground. I’ve reviewed the Creating and Managing a Budget wiki and suspect when I actually do my first budget in this form I may have some questions.
For now a few points to note:
Cashflow spreadsheets (from around the web)
Yes, that’s one of the next steps now.
Exactly. The Magic Spreadsheet only does cashflow projections and company-wide project monitoring though … all accounting is in FreeAgent, but I’m sure you are aware of that.
Oh, just add lines in between the existing team member lines.
Great. Let me know when you’re ready and we can talk through it. For example, in addition to the reporting templates, there are some internal record keeping obligations we need to make sure are covered - see here but I can also explain.
Yes. Back on 13 September I updated you in the Research Network riot room with a link to where they are saved and saying that in time, let me know when you are ready to talk through aligning our internal tools with theirs. Perhaps the time has come 