You can set up and approve Budgets across your whole portfolio in a few steps, instead of one budget at a time. Import budgets from a spreadsheet, apply tenancy concessions to many budgets at once, then approve up to 50 budgets in a single run, with a preview of every tenant charge before anything is saved.
Note: This feature is currently in beta.
To enable it, login to Re-Leased and click the [?] in the top right, select Settings > Available Betas.
Features and workflows may change as we continue to develop them. If you experience any issues or have feedback, contact our support team.
Where to Find the Bulk Budget Tools
All bulk budget tools are in the Budgets Hub. Once the beta is on, you will see:
Imports in the page header, which opens the Budgets and Concessions import tabs.
Past Approval Runs in the page header, which lists every bulk approval run you or your colleagues have started.
Checkboxes next to draft budgets. Ticking one or more shows the Approve budgets action at the bottom of the screen.
Note: Bulk budget tools work with Budgets by Area only. To import concessions or approve budgets in bulk, your user role needs the Can approve budget permission.
The Correct Order: Import Budgets, Add Concessions, Then Approve
Work through bulk budgets in this order:
Import your budgets.
Import tenancy concessions onto those draft budgets.
Approve the budgets in bulk.
Important: Import concessions before you approve your budgets. Approving a budget creates tenant charges from the concession-adjusted amounts. A concession added after approval does not change what the tenant is charged, and concessions cannot be imported onto approved budgets.
How to Import Budgets in Bulk
Budget import creates multiple Budgets by Area from one Excel template, including budget details, areas, schedules, expense accounts with budgeted amounts, and income codes.
In the Budgets Hub, click Imports and select the Budgets tab.
Choose the company you are importing budgets for.
Download the template. The template is pre-populated for that company.
Complete the template. Select properties and areas from the dropdowns rather than typing them in.
Upload the completed .xlsx file and click Validate.
Review the validation results, fix any errors, then confirm the import.
Nothing is saved until you confirm a clean validation. Imported budgets are created as drafts, exactly as if you had built them through the budget wizard.
How to Import Tenancy Concessions in Bulk
Concession import applies tenancy concessions from your lease agreements across many draft budgets at once.
In the Budgets Hub, click Imports and select the Concessions tab.
Choose the company. Changing the company later clears any file you have uploaded.
Click Choose budgets and select up to 100 draft budgets. You can search by property or budget name.
Click Download Template. The workbook lists every tenant across the selected budgets, one line each, with any existing concessions already filled in.
Enter the concessions you want to add or change. Leave a tenant's line as it is to keep their current concessions.
Upload the workbook and click Validate file.
Review the results, then click Confirm import. The button shows how many tenancies will be updated.
You can set a concession for each tenant in one of three ways: one figure for the whole tenancy, a figure per schedule, or a figure per expense code. Each tenant has one pre-filled line. To set concessions per schedule or per expense code, add extra lines for that tenant directly underneath.
The Validation column in the workbook flags common mistakes as you type, such as a missing amount, a percentage over 100, or a schedule or expense code that does not belong to that tenant.
Imported concessions appear on each budget's concessions screen, the same as concessions entered by hand.
Concession Import Review Statuses
New — the tenant has no concession and one will be added.
Changed — the tenant has a concession and the new figure is different.
No change — the file matches what is already saved, so nothing is written.
Error — the row failed validation. Nothing is saved until all errors are fixed.
If every row in the concession file already matches what is saved, Confirm import stays disabled because there is nothing to update.
Note: Concession import works on draft budgets only, with up to 100 budgets per workbook. Files must be in .xlsx format and no larger than 10 MB. If a budget is approved after you download the workbook, that budget's concessions are not imported, but the rest of the file still processes.
How to Approve Budgets in Bulk
In the Budgets Hub, tick the draft budgets you want to approve. You can select up to 50 budgets per run.
Click Approve budgets in the bar at the bottom of the screen.
On the Preview tenants billing before approving screen, complete the settings for each budget: Allocation type, Template type, Income account, Tax type, Add type and Line description. A banner shows how many budgets still need their settings completed.
Choose whether each budget updates tenant billing using the Update tenant billing toggle.
Expand a budget to preview the charge for every tenancy, including the template, line description, income account, tax type, next invoice date and amount.
Edit any lines you want to change, then click Start approval.
Turn Update tenant billing on to create tenant charges from the budget. Turn it off to mark the budget as approved without changing any tenant billing.
Amounts in the bulk approval preview already include tenancy concessions.
How to Edit Tenant Charges Before Approving
On the preview screen, click Edit next to the tenancy line you want to change.
Update any of the Template, Line description, Income account, Tax type, Next invoice or Amount fields. Leave a field empty to keep what the budget worked out.
To exclude the line from this approval run, tick Leave this line out of the run.
Click Apply. Click Undo edits to return the line to its original values.
Edited lines are marked Edited in the preview.
How to Edit Tenant Charges in Excel
On the preview screen, click Export to Excel.
Open the downloaded file. The Intro sheet explains each column, and the Lines sheet holds every charge the approval would set up.
Make your changes on the Lines sheet. Type Yes in Leave out to drop a line from the run. Leave a cell blank to keep its current value.
Save the file, then click Import from Excel on the preview screen and upload it.
Importing the spreadsheet updates the preview only. Nothing is charged until you click Start approval. Rows that cannot be read are listed by row number and keep their existing values.
Note: When editing the bulk approval spreadsheet, do not change the Line key column, rename the sheets, or add rows. Re-Leased uses these to match each row back to the right charge.
How to Track a Bulk Approval Run
After you click Start approval, the Approving budgets screen shows a progress bar. You can leave the page and come back at any time.
When the run finishes, each budget shows an Outcome of Approved, Not approved with a reason, or Stopped part way, along with the number of tenancies Charging, with Nothing to charge, or that Need attention. Expand a budget to see the result for each tenancy, and click the budget or tenancy name to fix any issue.
To find a previous run, click Past Approval Runs in the Budgets Hub.
Important: Budgets that stop part way through a bulk approval run are not retried automatically, so no tenant is charged twice. Open each of those budgets and finish the approval individually. Do not re-run the whole batch.
Bulk Approval Tenancy Statuses Explained
In the preview, a tenancy line that will be charged shows Ready to charge. In the results, it shows Charging. A line with nothing to bill shows Nothing to charge. Any other status describes a problem to fix:
No billing template — the tenancy has no rent or outgoings template to charge against. Fix this on the tenancy.
Missing account or tax code — the income account or tax type is missing or invalid. Fix this in the budget settings or on the tenancy.
Invoice date problem — the next invoice date is missing, in the past, outside the budget period, before the rent or outgoings start date, or does not match the payment frequency. Fix this on the tenancy.
Ledger problem — the ledger does not match the one used by the tenancy's rent or outgoings template. Fix this on the tenancy.
Tracking problem — the tracking option is not valid for that template. Fix this on the tenancy.
Failed checks — for example, the amount is not greater than zero or the line description is missing or longer than 500 characters. Fix this on the budget.
Unexpected error — contact our support team with a link to the approval run.
Start approval stays disabled while any included tenancy line would fail. Fix the line, or edit it and tick Leave this line out of the run.
Troubleshooting Bulk Budget Imports and Approvals
A property or area won't match on import — select it from the dropdown in the template rather than typing it in.
Your upload is rejected straight away — check the file is the downloaded .xlsx template, not a CSV or re-saved copy, and is under 10 MB.
A budget is missing from the concession budget list — it is already approved, or belongs to a different company.
You can't tick budgets or see Approve budgets — check the budgets are draft Budgets by Area and your role has the Can approve budget permission.
"Select no more than 50 budgets at a time" — split your budgets into runs of 50 or fewer.
Tenant charges are wrong after approval — concessions were added after the budget was approved. Adding a concession after approval does not update existing charges.