Budget Definitions

Overview

This document describes the structure of the template file that defines budgets constraints you want to apply in your model.

When you define treatments for your Domain Model, you need to assign a Default Budget Category to each treatment. You can then apply a constraint on each of those Budget Categories for each modelling period.

Budget Definition File

Your budget constraints should be stored in an Excel file named ‘budgets.xlsx’, and this file should be stored in the inputs folder within your project working directory.

You can have as many sheets as you want within your ‘budgets.xlsx’ file. However, sheets that contain budget definitions must start with the prefix *‘budget_’.

For example, you may have two defined sets of budget constraints - one for a ‘low’ budget scenario and one for a ‘high’ budget scenario. Then you may want to keep these two budget constraint sets on sheets named ‘budget_low’ and ‘budget_high’.

You can download an example template for specifying your Budget Constraints by clicking the button below.

Download Budget Definition Template

Budget Definition Template

The table below shows an example of a budget definition as contained on one of the ‘budget_’ sheets. The template form is simple: the leftmost column header should be ‘period’ and the column should specifiy the budget period (numbers 1,2,3, etc.). Next to the ‘period’ column should follow the names of all Budget Categories that treatments can be assigned to.

Important

You must specify a budget constraint for all budget categories over all modelling periods. If you want to use a Monolithic Budget, you should assign all treatments to one Budget Category and then define a budget constraint for that category.

You should ensure the Budget Category names are exactly as specified in the Treatments Definition template and in your domain model (if you are assigning non-default Budget Categories in your domain model code).

As shown in this example, the budget definition specifies constraints for budget categories:

  • ‘Rehab’
  • ‘Resurfacing’
  • ‘Pre-Repairs’
  • ‘Maintenance’
  • ‘BlockRep’
  • ‘ConcRep’
period Rehab Resurfacing Pre-Repairs Maintenance BlockRep ConcRep
1 15,686,535 22,709,523 13,019,041 9,411,921 4,705,961 4,235,364
2 15,783,757 22,310,197 13,385,595 9,470,254 4,735,127 4,261,614
3 19,574,381 30,126,476 14,995,270 11,744,629 5,872,314 5,285,083
4 19,899,900 30,305,530 15,381,487 11,939,940 5,969,970 5,372,973
5 16,194,930 32,908,492 16,094,072 9,716,958 4,858,479 4,372,631
6 17,460,367 38,111,787 17,251,927 10,476,220 5,238,110 4,714,299
7 22,945,779 40,801,810 18,024,100 13,767,467 6,883,734 6,195,360
8 21,912,847 41,533,505 18,370,341 13,147,708 6,573,854 5,916,469
9 22,517,671 49,604,425 19,960,302 13,510,603 6,755,301 6,079,771
10 23,119,141 51,762,927 20,544,879 13,871,485 6,935,742 6,242,168
11 19,509,531 36,017,467 16,702,701 11,705,718 5,852,859 5,267,573
12 19,509,531 36,017,467 16,702,701 11,705,718 5,852,859 5,267,573
13 19,509,531 36,017,467 16,702,701 11,705,718 5,852,859 5,267,573
14 19,509,531 36,017,467 16,702,701 11,705,718 5,852,859 5,267,573
15 19,509,531 36,017,467 16,702,701 11,705,718 5,852,859 5,267,573
16 19,509,531 36,017,467 16,702,701 11,705,718 5,852,859 5,267,573
17 19,509,531 36,017,467 16,702,701 11,705,718 5,852,859 5,267,573
18 19,509,531 36,017,467 16,702,701 11,705,718 5,852,859 5,267,573
19 19,509,531 36,017,467 16,702,701 11,705,718 5,852,859 5,267,573
20 19,509,531 36,017,467 16,702,701 11,705,718 5,852,859 5,267,573
21 19,509,531 36,017,467 16,702,701 11,705,718 5,852,859 5,267,573
22 19,509,531 36,017,467 16,702,701 11,705,718 5,852,859 5,267,573
23 19,509,531 36,017,467 16,702,701 11,705,718 5,852,859 5,267,573
24 19,509,531 36,017,467 16,702,701 11,705,718 5,852,859 5,267,573
25 19,509,531 36,017,467 16,702,701 11,705,718 5,852,859 5,267,573
26 19,509,531 36,017,467 16,702,701 11,705,718 5,852,859 5,267,573
27 19,509,531 36,017,467 16,702,701 11,705,718 5,852,859 5,267,573
28 19,509,531 36,017,467 16,702,701 11,705,718 5,852,859 5,267,573
29 19,509,531 36,017,467 16,702,701 11,705,718 5,852,859 5,267,573
30 19,509,531 36,017,467 16,702,701 11,705,718 5,852,859 5,267,573
31 19,509,531 36,017,467 16,702,701 11,705,718 5,852,859 5,267,573
32 19,509,531 36,017,467 16,702,701 11,705,718 5,852,859 5,267,573
33 19,509,531 36,017,467 16,702,701 11,705,718 5,852,859 5,267,573
34 19,509,531 36,017,467 16,702,701 11,705,718 5,852,859 5,267,573
35 19,509,531 36,017,467 16,702,701 11,705,718 5,852,859 5,267,573
Important

The table shown above must have left-upper corner in cell A1 of the sheet. You can use the cells below or to the right of the table but it is recommended that you rather make use of a seperate sheet to keep any notes etc.