The AI Assist Tab
AI Assist is the third tab on the Budgets page, alongside Budget vs Actual and Budget list . It holds the parts of budgeting URBI prepares for you: a year-end forecast, a written explanation of this...
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AI Assist is the third tab on the Budgets page, alongside Budget vs Actual and Budget list. It holds the parts of budgeting URBI prepares for you: a year-end forecast, a written explanation of this period's variance, a suggested month-by-month spread for next year's figures, and a one-click draft of next year's budget.
The tab appears only on properties whose plan includes AI budgeting. If you do not see it, that is why.
Before you start
- You need budget Read access to open the tab and read everything on it.
- You need Manage to press any of the buttons. Without it the figures, tables and narrative are all still visible; the Update model, Generate and Refresh buttons are hidden, and so is the whole Next-Year Draft panel.
- A budget has to be selected. With none chosen the tab reads "Select a budget to view AI Assist."
Where to find it
- In the left sidebar, select Accounting, then Budget.
- Click the AI Assist tab at the top of the page.
Year-End Forecast Band
What it answers: where this budget is likely to land by the end of the fiscal year, as a range rather than a single number.
The card shows when the forecast was generated, then Band low, Band high and Confidence, followed by the forecast's own written summary. Where the model used outside figures, it lists them underneath.
How it is prepared. URBI builds this forecast automatically every Friday, for every Active budget on a property with accounting turned on, using that property's own reporting basis (cash or accrual). It is a stored result, not a live calculation, and the card says so: "Forecast runs every Friday · stored model (not live)". Once the stored copy is more than a day old it adds "Stale, consider updating", which will be true on most days of the week and is not a fault.
Before the first one exists the card reads "No stored forecast yet. New forecasts are prepared every Friday, or use Update model when you have manage access."
In the last month of a fiscal year there is nothing left to project, and the card says "Forecast unavailable because there are no future periods left in this fiscal year."
Updating it yourself. Click Update model. This queues the work in the background and confirms with "Forecast update queued, refresh in a moment". The figures on screen do not change when you click, so reload the page in a minute or two to see the new band. You can do this once every 24 hours; while you are inside that window the card tells you when it is next available, as "Update available again after ..." with the time. If the job fails you get "Forecast update failed" and your once-a-day slot is handed back, so you can try again straight away.
Schedule Allocation
What it answers: if this annual figure were spread across the twelve months the way this property actually spends, what would each month look like?
Click Generate. URBI reads up to three years of the property's own posted history and proposes a twelve-period spread for each line. It reports what it produced as a count and an annual total, then lists each one with its per-period amounts and its yearly figure.
For a grouped budget this matters: the panel lists your categories first, then individual accounts, so money you hold on a category is included rather than quietly left out.
This is a proposal you read. It does not change any budget figure by itself.
Before you have generated one, the panel reads "Generated monthly allocations appear here after generation."
How long it takes. The button spins while the work runs and usually returns within a few seconds. If it is still going after about thirty seconds you get "Allocation schedule generation is still in progress. Check again shortly." The job normally finishes anyway, so reload rather than pressing Generate again. If it fails outright you get "Schedule generation failed" and the previous proposal stays on screen.
Variance Narrative
What it answers: why this period is off plan, in sentences you can paste into a report.
Click Refresh and URBI writes a short explanation of the current period's variance from the budget's own group summaries and the figures that stand out. You get one piece of prose, not a scorecard.
URBI also refreshes it on its own on the 5th of each month for every Active budget.
Before one exists the panel explains itself in the property's own wording for the people who read it, along the lines of a variance explanation for the current period that refreshes monthly or on demand.
How long it takes. The button waits for the answer, normally a few seconds. If it runs past about thirty seconds you get "Variance narrative generation is still in progress. Check again shortly." and the work carries on in the background. A success shows "Variance narrative updated"; a failure shows "Narrative generation failed" and leaves the previous narrative in place. Pressing Refresh again when nothing has changed returns the stored answer immediately rather than paying for a new one.
Outstanding Tickets
What it answers: which open work the forecast could not put a number against.
This panel has no buttons. It lists open service tickets that the forecast model saw but could not commit money to, each with the reason it was skipped, which today is always that the ticket carries neither a cost estimate nor a schedule. Adding either one to the ticket brings it into the next forecast.
When the list is empty it reads "Open service tickets without committed forecast amounts appear here when the forecast model runs."
Next-Year Draft
What it answers: give me a starting point for next year that reflects how this year actually went.
The panel is headed Next-Year Draft and the button reads Generate FY (next year) Draft. It also shows how many completed months you have, out of twelve.
When you can use it. Nine completed months of actuals are needed. Until then the button is disabled and reads "Available after nine months of actuals are recorded in this fiscal year."
How each line is drafted. URBI starts from what was actually spent in the completed months against what was planned for those same months, and carries that relationship onto the whole year. It then adjusts for the forecast's trend on that account, and for the reallocations the property made during the year, so an account that repeatedly borrowed budget is nudged up and one that repeatedly gave budget away is nudged down. The result is spread across the months using the property's own seasonal pattern, and each line's baseline is set to the current budget's annual figure so the percentage columns have something to measure against.
What you get. A new Draft budget for next fiscal year, confirmed with "FY (year) draft created". The screen does not take you there and the budget list on screen is not refreshed, so open the Budget list tab or reload the page to find it, then edit it like any other draft.
If it takes too long. You get "Draft generation is still in progress". The draft may well have been created anyway, so check the Budget list before trying again. A second attempt on a year that already has one returns "A draft for next year already exists".
Hero Budget Chat
At the bottom of the tab, Hero sits with this budget already in context, so you can ask about variance, the forecast, or reallocations in your own words instead of reading them off a table. On a narrow screen it collapses to an Open Hero Budget Chat button that opens full screen.
When a panel cannot load
If the stored Schedule Allocation or Variance Narrative cannot be read, that panel is replaced by a card saying it could not be loaded and to refresh the page. Nothing is lost: both are stored results, and reloading brings back whatever was last generated.