Budget

Budget in StartConsole is tracked at the initiative level and aggregated to the portfolio level. The three core financial fields — Allocated Budget, Expected Value, and Realized Value — capture the financial lifecycle of an initiative from commitment through to outcome.

Budget fields on an initiative

Field	Description
Allocated Budget	The budget committed to this initiative. Set at the point of gate approval or business case sign-off. Expressed in your organisation's currency. This is the financial commitment the organisation has made to this initiative.
Expected Value	The projected return from this initiative — the revenue it will generate, the cost it will eliminate, or the risk it will reduce. Set at business case stage. This is the financial case for investing in the initiative.
Realized Value	The actual outcome delivered, recorded after the initiative is completed. Compared to Expected Value to assess whether the initiative delivered on its business case. Should be recorded at the point of initiative completion.

How totals are aggregated at portfolio level

The portfolio financial view (accessible from Portfolio > Financials) aggregates all initiative budget fields to give a portfolio-level financial picture:

• Total Allocated Budget — the sum of all allocated budgets across active and planned initiatives. Represents your total current portfolio investment commitment.
• Total Expected Value — the sum of all expected values. Represents the projected return on the portfolio.
• Total Realized Value — the sum of realized values on completed initiatives. Represents the return the portfolio has actually delivered.

Filter by Pillar, Theme, Quarter, or Status to see financial aggregations for a subset of the portfolio — for example, all Digital Transformation initiatives in the current financial year.

Budget overrun signals

A budget signal is raised when an initiative's projected financial exposure exceeds its allocated budget. This condition is detected automatically by StartConsole based on the initiative's financial data.

When a budget overrun signal is raised:

• It appears on the Signals page with the relevant severity badge
• It appears in the Signals section of the initiative detail page
• It contributes to the initiative's overall health status