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The Navigation Sidebar​

The Navigation Sidebar is the panel on the left of every open budget. It shows the budget's account tree — majors (departments) and the accounts under them — and is the fastest way to jump around a budget, see totals at a glance, and keep your place while you work.

Which sidebar? Line Budgeter has three left/right panels people call "the sidebar". This article covers the Navigation Sidebar inside the budget editor. The Library sidebar (My Projects, Recent, Starred, Elements, Ratebooks, Storage Used) is covered in The Workspace Library; the budget's right-hand Sidebar tool panel (Tax & Fringes, Incentives, Notes, Pre Flight, Heads Up, Change Log…) is summarized at the end of this article.

What you see​

From top to bottom:

  1. Level buttons — Topsheet / Accounts / Details. These show which level of the budget you're looking at and let you move up. Topsheet takes you back to the top sheet from anywhere. When you're in a line-item (Details) view, the second button becomes Accounts ▸ Details — click Accounts to go up one level to that account's line list.
  2. Budget total (optional). A Gross Total: or Net Total: line for the whole budget. It appears when Display Budget and Production Totals on Nav sidebar is turned on in Preferences → General Settings, and Display Total at Top of Navigation Bar in Preferences → View Options controls whether it sits at the top.
  3. Column header — Acct / Department Name with two small buttons:
    • Sort — toggles the tree between account-number order and alphabetical department-name order (production subtotal breaks are respected).
    • Collapse All — folds every major back up, clears any pinned majors and returns you to the Topsheet.
  4. The account tree. One row per major, in the same order as the Topsheet. Click a major to expand it and list its accounts; click it again to collapse. Click an account to open that account's line items in the grid. Each row shows its number and name, a thin color strip on the left if the major or account has a flag, and (if Display Budget and Production Totals on Nav sidebar is on) the total on the right, formatted in the budget's primary currency with negatives in parentheses. A lock icon marks a locked account.
  5. Session tracker at the bottom:
    • Session Started — the date/time this editing session began (the calendar icon opens the budget Calendar).
    • Session Total — net change to the budget total since the session started (the history icon opens the Change Log).
    • Last Edit — the amount of the most recent change (the refresh icon resets the session, zeroing Session Total and Last Edit and restarting the timer).
    • In a Goalpost budget this area shows Assumption Amount and Local Spend Amount instead.

Right-click on a major​

With Edit Mode on, right-click a major in the tree for:

  • Pin Account Open / Unpin Account — a pinned major stays expanded while you collapse or move around the others; useful when you're bouncing between two departments. Pins are cleared by Collapse All.
  • Lock Account / Unlock Account — locks every line in that major against edits. Locked accounts show a lock icon here and on the Topsheet; the budget reminds you that an "Account can be unlocked from the Topsheet or Navigation Sidebar." In a workspace, locking needs the Can lock/unlock budget files / …budget departments permissions.

If Edit Mode is off you'll see "Edit Mode is Off — Turn on Edit Mode to make changes to the budget. You can change this setting in Preferences." and the tree is navigate-only.

Tips​

  • The sidebar follows your selection in the grid, so the highlighted row always tells you which major/account you're in.
  • Totals in the sidebar update live as you type; if totals are hidden by your workspace permissions (Hide budget totals), they stay hidden here too.
  • Dark Mode restyles the sidebar along with the rest of the editor.
  • Keyboard: Ctrl/⌘ + O opens the Library (Projects), Ctrl/⌘ + 7 opens Elements, Ctrl/⌘ + W closes the current budget tab. The full list is at docs.line.pm/shortcuts.

The other panels, briefly​

Top tab bar (app window). Line Budgeter doesn't have a global left nav; instead the top bar holds the Line logo tab (Dashboard), one tab per open budget or ratebook (close with ×, drag a tab out to its own window when you have three or more), a + button that opens the Budget Builder, a connection badge (Online / Offline Mode / No connection), and your profile menu (plan & budget count, Go Offline/Online, workspace switcher, Account Manager, Log out, app version). On Windows/Linux the ☰ menu holds the File/Edit/View/Help menus; on macOS they're in the system menu bar.

Right-hand Sidebar (budget editor). Icon buttons for Tax & Fringes, Incentives, Tags, Notes, Pre Flight, Universals, Episodes, Associate Reference, Search, Heads Up, Change Log and the Clipboard Manager, with a Selected Total footer. The gear (Customize Side Bar Elements) lets you arrange tools into Top, Bottom and On The Sideline. In a workspace the owner can set this panel to View Only for a member via the Sidebar custom permission.