What you can do with a learning budget depends on your workspace access level and on whether you own the budget or are one of its members.
How it works
Budgets appears under Manage in the sidebar for Admins and Managers only. Contributors and Read Only users don't see it, and having direct reports doesn't add it.
Admins see every budget in the workspace, and can create, edit and delete any of them.
Managers can create budgets, but see only the ones they own. If a Manager isn't an owner, the budget isn't in their list and a link to it shows Page not found.
Each budget then has two kinds of people:
Budget owners approve or decline requests on that budget and can edit it. A budget needs at least 1 owner and can have up to 50. Only people with Admin or Manager access can be owners.
Members are everyone in the budget's Groups. Each member gets the full Amount per Member to request against every cycle. To change who's a member, change the budget's groups or who's in those groups.
For example, Grace (Manager) owns the Click and Collect Training Budget, which is given to the Click and Collect Team group. Everyone in that group can ask for up to GBP 300 a quarter. Grace approves their requests and is the only Manager who sees the budget; every Admin sees it too.
Owning a budget versus being an Admin
Being an Admin doesn't make you an owner. An Admin who isn't an owner can still change a budget's groups and owners, but:
can't approve or decline its requests: on the budget's Requests page, their only options are View Details and View History.
can't change its Amount per Member once someone has raised a request.
A new owner can act on requests straight away, including ones raised before they were added.
Nobody approves their own request
If an owner is also a member and raises a request, another owner has to approve or decline it. If they select Approve or Decline in their Inbox, they're told they can't act on their own request and that "This action requires a different Budget Owner." So give a budget at least two owners if its owners can also request from it.
Who uses it
Admins set up budgets, keep owners up to date and step in when an owner leaves.
Managers run budgets for their teams and approve requests as owners.
Learners request funding and track their balance.
Budgets are available only if HowNow has switched them on for your workspace.