--- title: Set up budget pools slug: set-up-budget-pools createdAt: 2022-08-06T00:57:36.000Z --- *Budget pools* are budgets that you can create to establish the amount that can be spent within the compensation review. You can set up an overall budget for all spending or set up several budget pool allocations for specific uses. For example, you can configure the following for your compensation review: - a cost of living budget pool that applies to all eligible employees, and - a separate merit budget pool that reviewers can use for performance-based compensation adjustments. ChartHop also allows you to configure budget pools so that they're applicable to specific categories of employees, or based on built-in and custom fields. These allow you to create individual budget allocations for each reviewer. If your company uses fixed budgets, or a certain amount of money assigned to specific reviewers within departments, that is also supported in budget pools. Reviewers and approvers see the budget pools you establish when they perform the employee compensation reviews and work within those budgets. :::hint{type="info"} Setting up budgets also allows ChartHop to provide your reviewers and approvers with real-time visualizations of the financial impact of compensation changes against those budgets. [Learn more.](https://docs.charthop.com/reviewing-employee-compensation) If you choose not to set up budgets, ChartHop still displays a visualization of how much is spent within the compensation review but does not compare that against a specific budget. ::: To establish budget pools, open an existing compensation review with a status of **Not started** or **Paused**. Select the **Budget pools** tab. Budget pool settings are read-only for other statuses. ### Global settings The **Settings** section at the top of the Budget pools tab applies to all budget pools in the cycle. | **Setting** | **Description** | | ------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Allocation type | Controls how an employee's spend is split when the employee is covered by more than one pool that tracks the same field. Pools that track different fields never share spend. **Proportional** (default) splits the spend across those pools by each pool's share of the employee's allocation. **Sequential** uses up pool #1 first, then #2, and so on. Spend beyond every pool's allocation counts against pool #1. | | Display Total Budget in cycle | When checked (default), the total budget amount is visible to participants during the cycle. | | Who should the budget be visible to? | Displays only when **Display Total Budget in cycle** is checked. Controls which participants can see the total budget. Each pool's visibility is set separately in the pool settings. Options: **All roles**, **Only certain roles**, **Specific people**, **Custom**. | | Budget bar visualizations | Controls whether all budget bars display (**Show all**) or only those applicable to the reviewer's pod (**Only show applicable** — default). | ### Create a budget pool You can set up multiple budget pools to allocate and track specific budgets within your organization. To create a new budget pool: 1. Select **New budget pool**. A new pool displays with default settings: **Base - annualized** for both fields, the **Percent** calculation at 0%, and visibility set to **All roles**. 2. Configure the budget pool settings (see below). 3. Select **Calculate** to save the pool and display the calculated budgets for each reviewer. You can scroll horizontally to see the full view. Budget pool settings also save automatically as you make changes. **Calculate** is unavailable for pools based on reviewer pods. When **Allocation type** is **Sequential**, each pool header shows the pool's priority (#1, #2, and so on) with arrows to reorder it. Pools are used in this order. ### Delete a budget pool To delete a budget pool: 1. Select the **Budget pools** tab. 2. In the pool header, select **Delete**. 3. Select **Confirm** to delete the budget pool. **Confirm** displays in place of **Delete** for a few seconds. If you don't select it, the pool is not deleted. ### Budget pool settings The following table describes the configuration fields for each budget pool: | **Field** | **Description** | **Example** | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------- | | **Basics** | | | | Budget pool label | The name of your budget pool. | Merit - US | | Employees the budget pool applies to | The group or category of employees to which the budget pool applies. The available options come from your organization's group types (for example, departments, teams, locations, business units) and vary by org. Options are **All eligible employees**, one **Only specific …** option for each group type (for example, **Only specific locations**), and **Custom** (a CQL filter). | Only specific locations: United States | | Default budget currency | The default currency used in your budget pool. Used as a backup when the job currency cannot be detected and for reconciling calculations involving multiple currencies. Defaults to the org default currency. [Learn more.](https://docs.charthop.com/set-a-default-currency) | USD ($) | | **Visibility** | | | | Visibility | Controls who can see this specific pool during the cycle. Options: **All roles**, **Only certain roles** (Reviewer, Approver, Final approver, Owner, or Collaborator), **Specific people** (people in the compensation review), and **Custom** (a CQL filter plus **Also viewable by these roles**). With **Custom**, a person who matches either the filter or a selected role can see the pool. | Only certain roles | | **Fields** | | | | Field the budget is calculated based on | The ChartHop field (built-in or custom) on which calculations are based. For example, if you choose Base, ChartHop uses the current values of that field to perform the calculations you enter in the Calculation section. | Base, Base - annualized | | Field budget used is calculated from | The built-in or custom field used to determine the budget used for each impacted employee. Reviewers edit the matching changed column in the reviewer workbook. For example, if you choose Base - annualized, reviewers edit Base - annualized - changed, and the difference between the new value and the current value counts against the budget. Only fields of the same type as **Field the budget is calculated based on** are listed. If guidelines are tied to this pool, changing this field also changes their **Field the guideline applies to**. The **Update allocation field** dialog asks you to confirm. | Base - annualized | | How budget use is calculated | Controls how the budget spend is measured. Options: **Change in tracked field**, **Custom formula - Amount (money)**, **Custom formula - Amount (number)**. If you choose a custom formula option, a **Formula** field displays in place of **Field budget used is calculated from**. Enter a CQL formula that returns the amount used for each impacted employee. **Custom formula - Amount (money)** treats the result as money in the pool's default budget currency. **Custom formula - Amount (number)** treats it as a plain number. | Change in tracked field | | **Calculation** | | | | Are calculations dependent on one or more field values, like performance? | Determines whether the budget amount varies based on a specific field. Options: **No, the calculation is the same for everyone** — applies the calculation evenly across all eligible employees; **No, the calculation is based on Reviewer pods** — displays a table where you enter a **Budget amount** for each reviewer or approver. If no amount is entered, the budget does not appear for that person. Amounts do not roll up to higher-level approvers; **Yes** — enables an additional field to specify which field affects the calculation. Changing this option deletes the pool's existing calculation settings. A confirmation displays first. | Yes | | Which field affects the calculation? | The built-in or custom field that affects the calculation. Eligible field types include number, money, percent, single select, scale, Yes/No, and group fields (for example, Department or Location). For number fields, you define ranges. Select **Add another field** to cross the calculation by up to two more fields (**Crossed by this field**). The third field must be a single select, group, or Yes/No field. When more than one range applies, the first applicable row or column is used. | Performance rating | | Calculation | The specific calculation method. Options: **Percent**, **Set amount (money)**, **Custom formula - Percent**, **Custom formula - Set amount (money)**. For fields that are not money fields, the set amount options are **Set amount (number)** and **Custom formula - Set amount (number)**. When calculations depend on a field value, only **Percent** and **Set amount** are available. If you change **Field the budget is calculated based on** to a field of a different type, the calculation resets to **Percent** and any amounts you entered are cleared. | Percent | | Target value | A target value for the calculation. With **Percent**, each employee's allocation is their value of **Field the budget is calculated based on** multiplied by the percentage. With **Set amount** and no field dependency, the target value is the total for the whole pool, split evenly across the employees the pool applies to. When calculations depend on a field value, each amount in the table is per employee. | 1.5%, $3000 | :::hint{type="info"} [Packages](https://www.charthop.com/pricing/): Basic | **Standard**\* | **Premium** \* Available as an add-on :::