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Budget Amendments

Why Amendments?

Once a budget is approved, it represents your organization’s official financial plan. But circumstances change:

  • A fundraiser exceeds expectations
  • An unexpected expense arises
  • A program gets canceled
  • A grant opportunity appears

Amendments provide a formal process to modify an approved budget while maintaining:

  • Transparency: Changes are documented and visible
  • Accountability: Approvals are tracked
  • History: Each amendment records the amount before and after every change

How BeeKeeper Reads Your Changes

You don’t need to pick an amendment type. BeeKeeper works out what each line does by comparing the New Amount to what is budgeted today:

  • Higher amount: the line is increased
  • Lower amount: the line is decreased
  • An account that isn’t in the budget yet: it is added as a new line
  • A line lowered to $0: the line is removed from the budget

Example: To move $1,000 from “Office Supplies” to “Teacher Appreciation,” add two lines to one amendment. Lower Office Supplies by $1,000 and raise Teacher Appreciation by $1,000. Your total expenses stay the same.

Amendment Workflow

Amendments use a simple three-status workflow:

Draft → Approved (applied immediately) → Unapprove (back to Draft)
      → Rejected → Revise (back to Draft)

Draft

  • Create and edit the amendment
  • Add line item changes and a reason
  • Can be edited, deleted, approved, or rejected

Approved

  • An admin approves the amendment
  • Changes are immediately applied to the budget
  • The approval date and approver are recorded
  • An admin can click Unapprove to move it back to Draft and remove its changes from the budget

Rejected

  • The amendment is rejected
  • Can be revised (returned to Draft for editing) and approved or rejected again

Creating an Amendment

Step 1: Start the Amendment

  1. Go to Budgets
  2. Open your approved budget
  3. Click Amendments
  4. Click Add Amendment

The Amendments button only appears on an approved budget.

Step 2: Set the Effective Date

Choose the Effective Date for the change. If you leave it blank, BeeKeeper uses the date the amendment is approved.

Step 3: Add a Reason

In Reason, explain why the amendment is needed:

  • What changed since the original budget?
  • Why is this amount appropriate?
  • What’s the impact if not approved?

A good reason helps approvers make informed decisions.

Step 4: Add Line Items

Under Line Items:

  1. Choose an account from Select an account…
  2. Enter the New Amount for that account
  3. Click Add Line Item to change another account
  4. To remove a line from the amendment, click its trash icon

As soon as you pick an account, BeeKeeper fills in New Amount with that account’s current budgeted amount for you — so you’re editing the real number instead of typing it from memory. (If you’ve already typed an amount on that line, we leave it alone.) Below each line, BeeKeeper shows Current amount: (what’s budgeted today) and Change: (for example, +$2,000 or -$500), so you can see the impact before you save.

Step 5: Save

Click Save. The amendment is saved as a draft. Review it before it’s approved.

Approving an Amendment

Only admins can approve or reject an amendment. Any draft amendment can be approved.

  1. Open the amendment
  2. Review the line items and reason
  3. Click Approve to approve and apply changes, or Reject to reject

Approval immediately applies the changes to the budget. The approver and approval date are recorded.

Unapproving an Amendment

If an amendment was approved too soon or needs changes, an admin can undo the approval:

  1. Open the approved amendment
  2. Click Unapprove
  3. Confirm

The amendment goes back to Draft, and its changes are removed from the budget. You can then edit it, delete it, or approve it again.

Revising a Rejected Amendment

If an amendment is rejected:

  1. Open the rejected amendment
  2. Click Revise Amendment to return it to Draft status
  3. Edit the amendment as needed
  4. When it’s ready, an admin opens it and clicks Approve (or Reject).

Amendment Numbering

Amendments are automatically numbered sequentially within each budget (1, 2, 3, etc.).

Viewing Amendment History

See all amendments for a budget:

  1. Open the budget
  2. Click Amendments
  3. View the list of amendments

Each amendment in the list shows:

  • Amendment number
  • Current status
  • Effective date

Click View to open one. An individual amendment’s page shows its status, effective date, approved-on date, and approver together in one summary block at the top (a draft that hasn’t been approved yet simply omits the approval rows). Below that you’ll see the reason and each line item with its Previous Amount, New Amount, and Change.

Tips for Effective Amendments

Plan Ahead

  • Batch small changes into one amendment when possible
  • Schedule amendment discussions for regular meetings
  • Don’t wait until year-end for obvious changes

Document Well

  • Detailed justification speeds approval
  • Reference specific circumstances or decisions
  • Include impact on overall budget balance

Know Your Bylaws

  • Check what requires membership vs. board approval
  • Some organizations have dollar thresholds
  • Follow your organization’s specific rules

Track Cumulative Impact

  • Each amendment changes the budget baseline
  • Review total amendments year-to-date
  • Consider if overall budget still makes sense

Limitations

  • Amendments can only modify approved budgets
  • Only draft amendments can be edited or deleted
  • To change an approved amendment, an admin clicks Unapprove first to move it back to Draft
  • Only admins can approve, reject, or unapprove an amendment

Common Questions

How many amendments can we have? No limit. Have as many as needed, though frequent amendments may indicate planning issues.

Do I need to choose an amendment type? No. BeeKeeper works out whether each line is an increase, a decrease, a new line, or a removed line from the amounts you enter.

Can I edit an approved amendment? Not directly. An admin can open it and click Unapprove. That moves it back to Draft and removes its changes from the budget. Then edit it and approve it again.

Can I edit a rejected amendment? Not directly. Click Revise Amendment to return it to Draft status, then edit.

Do emergency expenses still need approval? Yes, but the amendment documents what happened. The expense may already be paid, but the budget amendment formalizes it.

What happens to the original budget after amendments? The budget shows the amounts with all approved amendments applied. Each amendment keeps the previous and new amount for every line it changed, so you can always see what changed and when.

Where does the New Amount on a line item come from? As soon as you choose an account, BeeKeeper fills in New Amount with that account’s current budgeted number so you have a starting point to edit rather than a blank field. If you’ve already typed a number on that line, it’s left as-is. As you adjust the amount, BeeKeeper shows the resulting increase or decrease right there on the form, before you save the amendment.

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