A Fund Request in Profit.co is a project-level capital request that Project Managers submit to draw funds from an already-approved portfolio budget. It's the bridge between a portfolio's approved budget and actual project spending, tracked on the Funding Request Tab alongside Budget Request.
Table of Contents
- What Is a Funding Request?
- Why Do Funding Requests Matter?
- How Do I Set Up and Submit a Funding Request?
- What Happens When You Use Funding Requests?
- How Is a Funding Request Different from a Budget Request?
- What Are the Best Practices for Funding Requests?
- Related Articles
- What Are Some Frequently Asked Questions About Funding Requests?
What Is a Funding Request?
A Fund Request is a project-level capital request. Once a portfolio budget is approved, individual Project Managers submit Fund Requests to draw funds from that allocated pool. It's raised by the Project Manager and approved by the Portfolio Owner, distinct from the Budget Request that reserved the capital in the first place.
On the Funding Request Tab, found in a project's Financials section alongside Budget Request, the same five fiscal year summary cards track Total Budget, Budgeted, Funded, Spent, and Remaining, but for disbursement rather than the initial budget reservation. Funding requests are also one of eight distinct approval contexts in Profit.co's PPM module, with their own configurable approval chain.
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
| Request Type | Initial Funding, Development Phase, or Additional Funding. |
| CapEx / OpEx Breakdown | Split of capital versus operating expenditure within the total request. |
| Milestone-Level Cost Plan | Cost breakdown mapped to each project milestone, so every dollar is tied to a delivery event rather than a lump sum. |
| Financial Benefits | Expected revenue growth, cost savings, or margin improvement. |
| Non-Financial Benefits | Risk mitigation, compliance, or operational resilience. |
| Benefit Owner | The named individual accountable for benefit delivery after execution. |
| Funding Period | Start and end dates with quarterly phasing. |
| Justification | A brief narrative on why the project warrants funding. |
Why Do Funding Requests Matter?
Approving a portfolio budget does not mean every project within it is automatically funded. Without a structured fund request process, capital gets consumed without discipline, projects overspend, priorities blur, and there's no clear record of what was funded, by whom, and for what purpose.
Every fund request must be justified by the value it's expected to deliver, not just its cost, which is why financial benefits and non-financial benefits are both captured at request time. Those commitments become the baseline value realization is measured against once the project is complete.
How Do I Set Up and Submit a Funding Request?
Step 1: Configure the Funding Approval Chain
- Under Settings, an admin builds the approval chain for the Funding Requests context, one of the eight configurable PPM approval contexts.
- For each sequence, choose the approver type: the employee's designated approver, their direct manager, department head, PPM Admin, or a custom list.
- Toggle Parallel Flow on if all approvers in a sequence should act simultaneously instead of waiting in line.
Step 2: Set the Budget Authoring Window
- Admins set a Budget Authoring Window that controls when users can create or edit funding requests for a given fiscal year.
- Choose Dynamic dates, which adjust automatically with your planning cycle, or Static dates, which are fixed to the calendar.
Step 3: Submit the Funding Request
- From the Funding Request Tab, the Project Manager submits a Fund Request, providing the Request Type, CapEx/OpEx breakdown, milestone-level cost plan, financial and non-financial benefits, Benefit Owner, funding period, and justification.
- Add a comment, with rich text, audio, or video, to give reviewers context for the request.
- Click Submit for Approval to send the request to the Portfolio Owner, who approves Fund Requests raised against their portfolio.
Step 4: Align Through Catchball, Then Track Approval
- Like Budget Requests, Fund Requests go through Catchball, a structured alignment between the Project Manager, Portfolio Owner, and VRO on scope, cost, and benefit commitments before project-level capital is released.
- Open the Approvals Hub and select the Funding tab to see requests you've submitted or that are waiting on you, each showing status Pending, Approved, or Rejected and any reviewer comments.
Note
A Fund Request can only be raised once its portfolio's Budget Request has been approved. Budget approval reserves capital for the portfolio; it does not release it to any project.
What Happens When You Use Funding Requests?
| Scenario | What Happens |
|---|---|
| You submit a funding request outside the configured Budget Authoring Window. | Profit.co prevents the request from being created or edited until the window opens for that fiscal year. |
| A Fund Request is approved. | Automated approval workflows notify stakeholders instantly, capital is formally released to the project, and the project's dashboard becomes active in Profit.co, showing allocated budget, timeline, and related information. |
| A funding request is rejected at any approval sequence. | The request does not release funds, and the rejection with any reviewer comments is recorded on the request. |
| Approved funding is not fully spent by the end of the fiscal year. | The Funding Request Tab shows the unspent portion as Remaining, which you can use to forecast cash flow needs into the next period. |
How Is a Funding Request Different from a Budget Request?
A Budget Request reserves capital at the portfolio level; a Fund Request releases capital at the project level. They're raised and approved by different roles, and carry a different level of detail.
| Dimension | Budget Request | Fund Request |
|---|---|---|
| Raised By | Portfolio Owner | Project Manager |
| Approved By | Cost Center Head | Portfolio Owner |
| Level | Portfolio / Strategic | Project / Operational |
| Purpose | Reserve capital for a portfolio | Release capital for a project |
| Detail Level | High-level cost and benefits | Milestone-level cost and benefits breakdown |
| Trigger for Next Step | Allows Fund Requests to be raised | Project execution begins |
What Are the Best Practices for Funding Requests?
- Configure the Budget Authoring Window before fiscal year planning starts, since a window that opens too late blocks teams from submitting funding requests when they actually need to.
- Treat Catchball as a real negotiation, not a formality. Its purpose is to align the Project Manager, Portfolio Owner, and VRO on scope, cost, and benefit commitments before capital is released, not just to collect a signature.
- Build the milestone-level cost plan before submitting, since a Fund Request ties every dollar to a delivery event rather than releasing a lump sum.
- Capture non-financial benefits alongside financial ones, since risk mitigation, compliance, and operational resilience are legitimate returns that a purely financial view would miss.
Related Articles
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Budget approval reserves capital for the portfolio; it does not release it to projects. Each project must submit a separate Fund Request, which is individually evaluated and approved before any spending is authorized.
Not all investment value is measured in dollars. Risk mitigation, regulatory compliance, and operational resilience are legitimate returns on capital, so capturing non-financial benefits ensures the full value of an investment is tracked.
No. Catchball also applies to Fund Requests, with the Project Manager, Portfolio Owner, and VRO aligning on scope, cost, and benefit commitments before project-level capital is released.
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