For team leads. Needs the Administrator, Manager or Builder role. The Auto-grading tab needs Administrator or Manager.
Technology lifecycle budgeting is a big job for most MSPs: hundreds or thousands of devices across your clients, each needing a replacement date and a cost. Budget classes fill that in for you, so you can forecast hardware replacement budgets for every client at scale. A budget class is a lifespan in years and a replacement cost, and each class belongs to a Technology Type such as Workstations or Servers. Once your classes are set, every device with a purchase date gets a replacement month and year, a budget and a grade without anyone typing them in. Standalone groups don't have budget classes, so you budget and grade those by hand. Auto-Budgeting and Auto-Grading Technology Assets explains it in full.
How the budget columns work
Budgets in Strategy Overview run on three columns, Budget, Month and Year, which you'll find on Technology items, Initiatives and more. Whatever is in those columns feeds each client's Budget Part, the budget you walk them through in their Report. In the Technology module, the class assigned to each device fills in its Budget columns. The month and year are worked out by taking the device's purchase date and adding the lifespan on its class, which gives the month and year the device should be replaced. A device with no purchase date only gets the budget.
The classes you set here are the starting point for every client. Your team can still adjust any device by hand:
Type a different Budget and the device moves to the Custom class, so its numbers no longer come from a class.
Type a different Month or Year and the device keeps its class and budget, but that date no longer updates on its own.
Put the device on a different class, and its budget, plus any date nobody typed by hand, updates to match.
Setting your budget classes
Budget classes belong to a Technology Type, so you set them up one type at a time, starting with Workstations. Each Technology Type that comes with your account starts with a class called Standard, for example 4 years and $1,200 for Workstations. Change it to your own numbers, then add a class for each kind of device you replace on a different schedule or budget, such as engineering workstations:
Go to Settings > Data > Technology, open the Technology Types tab and open a type.
Check Lifecycle (drives auto-budget) is on. It's what lets this type's devices get their budget from a class.
On its Budget classes tab, click Edit global budget classes for all companies. Adjust Standard, or Add a class with its Name, Lifespan (yr) and Replacement cost.
Check which class is the Default. Each type has one. New devices that come in from your integrations are put on the Default class automatically, and a device without a class uses the Default class's lifespan to work out its End of Life date.
The classes you set here apply to every client. For a client whose requirements differ from your global classes, such as one that replaces laptops every three years, add a class under Company classes. Override a global class changes that class's lifespan and cost for that client only, and Create a new class adds a class that only that client uses. The Budget Classes tab in Technology settings lists every class you've made, and the Budget classes button on a Technology Type's view opens that type's classes.
Setting the End of Life warning
Each device also gets an End of Life date, which drives its grade. Strategy Overview works it out from two dates: the operating system's end-of-support date, and the purchase date plus the lifespan on the device's class. When a device has both, it uses whichever comes first. When it only has one, it uses that one. A date your team types into End of Life by hand always wins.
A device shows as due when its End of Life date is coming up. On the type's Auto-grading tab, under 2. Grade by End of Life date, set how many months ahead of End of Life a device starts to show as due. The default is 12 months.
Good to know
Budget classes cover one-time replacements only. Recurring costs, like subscriptions, go in the recurring budget columns.
You can't delete a class while devices are still on it.
The Warranty Service fills in purchase dates for many devices, so more of them get a replacement date without anyone typing it.
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