# RC-021B — Planning Experience Revamp (Budget-First Philosophy)

Act as Senior Product Designer, Senior UX Designer, Senior Wedding Consultant, and Senior PHP Engineer.

This is NOT a feature release.

This is a Product Experience redesign.

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IMPORTANT
====================================================

Keep the current database architecture.

Keep the existing calculations.

Keep the existing payment engine.

Keep the existing category engine.

Keep Estimated Cost / Actual Cost internally.

Keep Budget Payments.

Keep Variance calculations.

Keep Timeline integration.

Keep Workspace architecture.

Do NOT redesign the backend.

Do NOT redesign the database.

This release focuses ONLY on the user experience.

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PRODUCT DIRECTION
====================================================

The current implementation behaves too much like an Expense Tracker.

It feels closer to accounting software than a wedding planner.

The Budget Planner should instead feel like a Wedding Planning tool.

Users should think:

"I am planning my wedding."

NOT

"I am managing accounting records."

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NEW PHILOSOPHY
====================================================

Budget is the center.

Vendor is only supporting Budget.

Timeline is only supporting Budget.

Everything begins with Budget.

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NEW USER FLOW
====================================================

The new experience should become:

Step 1

Set Wedding Budget

↓

Step 2

Review default categories

↓

Step 3

Allocate budget per category

↓

Step 4

Choose Vendor

↓

Step 5

Enter Deal Price

↓

Step 6

Record Payments

↓

Done.

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REMOVE ACCOUNTING FEELING
====================================================

Reduce visible accounting terminology.

Avoid exposing unnecessary finance concepts.

Avoid exposing implementation details.

Users should never feel they are filling accounting forms.

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EXPENSE PAGE
====================================================

The current Expense page is too technical.

Instead,

think of every Expense as

one Wedding Budget Item.

The interface should focus on:

Category

↓

Vendor

↓

Budget

↓

Deal Price

↓

Paid

↓

Remaining

↓

Next Payment

↓

Notes

Everything else should become secondary.

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VENDOR
====================================================

Vendor is no longer a standalone planning module.

Vendor exists only to support Budget.

Each Budget Item has one Vendor.

Vendor stores only:

Vendor Name

PIC

Phone / WhatsApp

Deal Price

Paid

Remaining

Next Payment Date

Notes

No CRM.

No quotation management.

No communication history.

No meeting logs.

No package comparison.

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BUDGET DASHBOARD
====================================================

The dashboard should immediately answer:

How much money do I have?

Where is my money allocated?

Which category is over budget?

Which category still has spare budget?

Display something similar to:

Venue

Budget
40 jt

Deal
38 jt

Remaining
2 jt

Photography

Budget
15 jt

Deal
17 jt

Over Budget
2 jt

At the bottom display:

Total Budget

Total Deal

Remaining

Overall Variance

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TIMELINE
====================================================

Timeline should stay independent.

Timeline tracks activities.

Examples:

Meet Photographer

Venue Survey

Food Tasting

Pay Decoration DP

Final Meeting

Timeline should NOT become a finance module.

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DO NOT REMOVE
====================================================

Internally,

keep:

Estimated Cost

Actual Cost

Payments

Status

Variance

These are useful calculations.

Simply hide complexity from normal users.

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GOAL
====================================================

The Couple should feel like they are planning a wedding.

Not operating accounting software.

The implementation should remain technically powerful,

but the interface should become dramatically simpler.

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DELIVERABLES
====================================================

Explain

1. New user flow

2. Updated page hierarchy

3. Updated Budget Planner UX

4. Updated Vendor relationship

5. Which screens change

6. Which backend components remain unchanged

7. Which calculations are reused

Do not rewrite the database.

Do not rewrite business logic.

Redesign the experience.