Lock the 2027 budget before it goes for approval

Between the day a budget goes to ownership and the day it comes back approved, it is at its most exposed. Anyone with access can still change it, the reviewers may be reading a different number than the one in the file, and the version that finally gets signed off is the baseline for every variance report next year. The five steps below keep it in one piece while the work continues around it.

TL;DR

• For calendar-year operators, November is when budgets get wrapped and approved. The approved budget is the baseline for a year of variance reporting, so the file that gets signed off should be one fixed file.
• Lock the budget the day it is submitted, mark it Approved when sign-off comes back, and set it back to Working only to make requested changes, then lock it again.
• Keep the history. A file’s change log and the ability to revert are what make a revision traceable instead of a new copy with a new name.
• Build the reforecast as a separate file from the approved budget, never by editing the approved one.
• Set prior-year files to Approved too. Anything left in a working state can still change.

Why the approval window is the risky part

The CRE budget calendar ends in a rush. Kevin Whalen of Cushman & Wakefield describes November as the month to “wrap up budgets, issue estimate letters for the following year,” and many management agreements set a submission date in early fall with a window after which the budget is deemed approved. Kardin keeps a sourced month-by-month CRE budget calendar if you want the whole year.

Most of the attention in the fall goes into building the budget, and rightly so. Last week we went through the five recovery settings to check before locking the 2027 budget. This piece is about what happens after that: the few weeks when a finished budget is out for review, comes back with edits, gets approved, and then has to sit still for a year while the reforecast moves around it.

In a spreadsheet, every one of those stages is a new copy. The file that went to ownership, the one with their edits, the one that was approved and the one that became the reforecast all start as the same workbook, and the only thing keeping them apart is the file name. That works until someone opens the wrong one. The sequence below avoids it, with how each step works in Kardin.

Step 1: lock it the day it is submitted

The first step is the simplest and the one most often skipped. When the budget goes to ownership or the asset manager, the file should stop changing. Otherwise a late fix to a utility line or a lease assumption lands in the file after the reviewers have their copy, and the conversation about the budget is now about two different budgets.

In Kardin this is a workflow state. From the file’s action menu, choose Set Workflow and switch it to Pending Approval. The file shows as editing locked and every module is grayed out, with one exception: Reports & Exports stays open, so anyone reviewing can still pull the reports they need. If you do not see Set Workflow, the Workflow feature needs to be turned on for your account first. Robert walks through it in a short Budget Byte on locking a budget file.

“Set a file to Pending Approval to lock the file and prevent any changes while the file is pending approval.”
Kardin Portal end-user training, 2026

Step 2: mark it Approved when sign-off comes back

Approval does more than update a status column. The approved budget is the baseline every variance report measures against for the next twelve months, and it often sets what the manager can spend without going back to ownership. It should exist as one fixed file that everyone can point to, not as an email attachment and a spreadsheet whose name ends in “final.”

When sign-off arrives, set the workflow to Approved. The file stays locked, and it is now the record of what ownership agreed to.

Step 3: reopen, change and relock when it comes back with edits

Budgets come back with edits: ownership wants a different leasing assumption, a capital project moved a year, a reserve line raised. The temptation is to open a copy, make the changes and send that. Two rounds later nobody is sure which file is current.

Instead, switch the same file back to Working, make the changes, and set it to Pending Approval again when it is resubmitted. Every change is kept in the file’s History, with the date, the time and who made it. If a round of edits goes wrong, you can view an earlier version, run reports on it to confirm the numbers, and Revert the file to it. Robert shows that in the Budget Byte on reverting to a previous budget version.

Step 4: build the reforecast from it, never in it

Once the 2027 budget is approved, the next file people open is the 2027 reforecast, and the cleanest way to start one is from the approved budget itself. The mistake is to start editing the approved file and call it the reforecast. The baseline is gone the moment that happens.

In Kardin, Roll to Reforecast creates the reforecast as a separate file with the same data as the budget, ready for actuals and CAM recs. If your properties reforecast quarterly, versions under that reforecast hold the Q2 and Q3 snapshots side by side. The approved budget is never touched, so budget versus reforecast stays a real comparison all year.

Step 5: lock last year while you are at it

The same review is worth a look one row down. If the 2026 budget and reforecast, or anything older, are still in a working state, they can still be edited, and they are what 2027 gets compared against. Set them to Approved. It takes a minute per file and it keeps history fixed: a bulk change made for the coming year cannot reach back into a year that is already closed.

This matters more as a portfolio grows. A dozen properties with a few working files each means a lot of files that can still change.

What locking does not do

A lock keeps a file from changing. It does not check whether the numbers in it are right, and it will hold a wrong assumption just as firmly as a correct one. That is why the review before submission still matters, and why the settings that drive recoveries are worth checking before the lock rather than after.

What a purpose-built tool adds is that the approved budget, the revisions, the reforecast and the history all live in one place with one name, instead of in a folder of workbooks. If your 2027 approval round is about to run on file names, see how Kardin handles budgeting and reforecasting, or ask us to walk you through it. Kardin works alongside Yardi, MRI, RealPage and other accounting systems rather than replacing them.

Frequently asked questions

Should a budget be locked while it is waiting for approval?

Yes. Once it is submitted, the file should stop changing, so the numbers ownership is reviewing are the numbers in the file. In Kardin, setting a file to Pending Approval locks it; every module is grayed out except Reports & Exports, so reviewers can still pull reports.

What happens if ownership sends the budget back with changes?

Set it back to Working, make the changes, and lock it again when it is resubmitted. The file’s History records each change with the date, time and the person who made it, so the revision is traceable rather than a new copy with a new file name.

How do you build a reforecast without changing the approved budget?

Copy it forward rather than editing it. In Kardin, Roll to Reforecast creates the reforecast from the approved budget as a separate file, and versions under that reforecast hold quarterly snapshots. The approved budget stays exactly as it was signed.

Can you still run reports on a locked budget?

Yes. Locking stops edits, not reporting. In Kardin, Reports & Exports stays available on a file that is Pending Approval or Approved, and Quick Reports run from the action menu without opening the file or using a license.

Why lock prior-year budgets too?

Because a file left in a working state can still be changed, and last year’s approved budget is what this year gets compared against. Setting older files to Approved keeps the history fixed, and means a bulk change made for the coming year cannot reach back into a year that is already closed.

Sources

• Kardin Portal end-user training, 2026 (Kardin recording). Workflow states (Working, Pending Approval, Approved), what stays available on a locked file, History and Revert, Roll to Reforecast and versions. The quotation is verbatim.
• Kardin Budget Bytes: Lock a Kardin budget file (the Workflow feature as a prerequisite) and Revert to a previous budget version.
• Kevin Whalen, Senior Managing Director, Cushman & Wakefield, quoted in Commercial Property Executive, July 2026, on November as the month to wrap up budgets and issue estimate letters. The full calendar with sources is on the Kardin CRE budget calendar page.