Project budgets for purchases: moves, fit-outs and events
Atta lets a project carry its own budget, a shortlist of saved items and a side-by-side comparison. The budget shows what's spent, what's chosen and what's left, and the agent says when something would go over. It's a plan. Your limits and approvers still decide what can actually be bought.
A project in one place
A project holds the conversations about one purchase decision, its budget and its shortlist. Take an office move with a $12,000 budget.
Lena: Shortlist these for the Austin move: standing desk at $480, task chair at $350, 27" monitor at $290. We need 8 of each.
Atta: Saved all three. 8 desks is $3,840, 8 chairs is $2,800, 8 monitors is $2,320. Chosen so far: $8,960 of $12,000. $3,040 left.
Lena: Add a second desk, a bigger one at $620.
Atta: 8 of those is $4,960. If you choose it instead, chosen would be $10,080, still under the budget with $1,920 left.
The budget meter has three figures. Spent is read from the orders placed in the project's threads, not cancelled, in the project's currency. Chosen is the total of the shortlist items you've marked chosen. Left is the budget minus both.
Shortlist and compare
Each saved item is a snapshot: title, image, price, rating, store and link as they were when saved, with "saved 3 days ago" beside the price. It still reads correctly if the store later delists the product.
An item is considering, chosen or ruled out. You can attach a note of up to 500 characters to any item or comparison column, and a note also shortlists the item.
Pick two to four items and the comparison lines them up by attribute. Price, rating, stock and store are computed from the data, and the best price is marked. The other attributes come from the agent's own read of the product pages, so check them before you rely on one.
Saves made in an unfiled thread belong to that thread. Filing the thread into a project brings its loose items along and drops duplicates.
Approvals don't change
The project budget is not an input to the approval policy. Two budgets that both blocked would give two answers to one question. Whether a purchase goes through without a human is decided by the workspace's budget rows, the buyer's role and the approval rules, as for any purchase.
In practice, Lena's 8 desks at $3,840 may still need an approver even though the project has room. The project says it fits the plan. The policy says who has to agree.
Spend that follows
When the order is placed, it reserves against the workspace budget and is counted as spent when the store confirms payment. Because the project's spend is read from orders, there's no counter to drift. Cancel an order and the project's spent figure drops with it.
Private chats keep their privacy. An order opened from a private chat hides its lines from other members, and money stays visible.
Where it fits
Fit-outs, events, office moves, a team offsite's equipment. Anything where several people choose among alternatives against one number.
Atta is in invite-only beta and free during the beta.
Questions
Does the project budget block purchases?
No. It's a plan that the agent is told about and the page displays. Whether money moves without a human is decided by the approval policy and the workspace budget rows.
Where does the spent figure come from?
It's the sum of the totals of orders placed in the project's threads that weren't cancelled, in the project's currency. It's read each time, never kept as a counter.
How many items can I compare?
Two to four at once, side by side. Price, rating, stock and store are computed; other attributes come from the agent, so verify the ones that matter.
What happens to a shortlist if I delete the project?
The shortlist is deleted with the project. The conversations in it survive.
Related
- Purchase approval softwareSet approval limits per role and build approval chains by amount. Approvers answer from Slack, WhatsApp or the app, and nothing is paid until the last step clears.
- Spend management softwareA budget reserves money at checkout and settles it on payment. Released if the order is cancelled or abandoned. One currency per budget, no double counting.
- New hire equipment ordering with standard kitsSave what a new starter gets as a kit with a price ceiling. A buyer requests it and, at or under the ceiling, it's ordered. Budgets and roles still apply.
- Price watch: get told when an item drops to your priceWatch an item in Atta and it checks the price hourly, then notifies you once when it reaches your target or comes back in stock. It never buys on its own.