A monthly rhythm

Once a year — generate next year's budget, applying a what-if if you already have growth or pricing targets, and shape the months if your trade is seasonal.
While the plan is still being argued — build the alternatives as drafts rather than overwriting anything, put them side by side in Compare Scenarios, and adopt the one that wins the argument. The business keeps working to the Active budget throughout.
At the start — spend a few minutes in Edit Budget weighting particular reps or categories: the total locks to redistribute rather than re-key, or a totals view to move a whole rep's month in one figure.
Every month — open the Budget Report, read the variance by rep, then switch View by to customer or region to find where the gap comes from. Save the views you check regularly as Favourites.
At a glance — keep the Budget widget on your dashboard for the month-to-date and year-to-date position between reviews.