# How budgets work

> Points move from your company wallet in each country to budget holders, who award them to employees. Rewards Hub → Budgets shows one country and one budget cycle at a time.

- Product: Rewards Hub › Budgets
- Who can do this: Super admins, HR admins
- Plan: Rewards Hub
- Where: Admin dashboard
- Last checked: 15 Oct 2026
- Web page: https://www.vantagecircle.com/en/help/rewards-hub/budgets/how-budgets-work/

Budgets let chosen people award points to employees. The points move one way: from your company wallet to a budget holder, then from the budget holder to an employee when they recognise someone.

## One company wallet per country

Each country has its own company wallet. **Available in company wallet** on **Rewards Hub → Budgets** shows the balance for the country you've picked. It's the most you can allocate in that country. The balance is managed outside this page, so you can't add points to it here.

Points are worth a different amount in each country, so budgets are handled one country at a time. On **All countries** the wallet shows the total across countries, but you can't allocate or change anything until you pick one country. The page opens on your own country if it has budget data, otherwise on the country with the largest wallet.

## Budget holders

A budget holder is anyone who holds budget in a country. Most are managers. If your company splits budgets by department, departments can hold budget too, and a person's budget comes out of their department's budget rather than straight from the company wallet.

## Budget cycles

The page shows one budget cycle at a time. Depending on how your company is set up, a cycle is a quarter, a half-year or a financial year. The cycle in progress is marked **Current** in **Budget cycle**. You can only move budget in the current cycle. Earlier cycles are view-only, and only the 40 most recent are included.

## What the figures mean

![The Budgets page for India: 3,60,000 points available in the company wallet, 8,40,000 allocated, 6,10,000 awarded to employees, 3,74,000 remaining with holders and 24 budget holders, above the holder list](https://cdn.vantagecircle.com/image/upload/q_auto,f_auto/v1792133427/vantagecircle/help-centre/en/rewards-hub/budgets/budgets-page-da595ce431c4250a.png)

- **Allocated:** points given to budget holders in this cycle.
- **Awarded to employees:** points the holders gave out, and what share of the allocation that is.
- **Remaining with holders:** on the current cycle, what holders hold today, including points carried over from earlier cycles. On a closed cycle, it's allocated minus given out. That's why the three figures don't always add up on the current cycle.
- **Budget holders:** how many there are, and how many have awarded points.

In the list, **Low balance** means a holder has less than 15% of this cycle's allocation left. It only shows on the current cycle. **Overspent** shows on a closed cycle when a holder awarded more than they were given, using budget carried over from before. For the same reason, the awarded share can go over 100%.

## Unused budget

Whether unused budget stays with a holder into the next cycle depends on how your company is set up. Check a holder's current balance before you allocate more budget.

## Who can see and change budgets

- **Super admins** see every budget holder and can change any budget.
- **HR admins** see the budget holders in the departments they're responsible for. To change budgets, their admin role also needs **Allocate reward budgets**. Without it, the page says "You can view budgets but cannot change them. Ask a company admin for permission to manage budgets." See [Roles and permissions](/en/help/company-admin/roles-and-permissions/).

Some companies award points straight to employees and don't use budgets. They don't see **Budgets**, **Transactions** or **Budget utilisation** in Rewards Hub.

If your company has more than one fund, a **Fund for budget changes** box appears next to the country. It picks which fund's wallet and figures you see. Department budgets always use **Rewards**.