# Nebula FAQs Answers to common questions about setup, planning objects, budgets, workflows, reporting, and core terms. Rendered guide: https://planitnebula.io/help/nebula-faq ## Getting started The basic setup sequence and mental model for starting work in Nebula. ### What is the basic hierarchy in Nebula? Nebula is organized as Workspace → Projects → Media Plans → Placements, with allocations, fees, creative context, reports, and insights connected around that core planning structure. A workspace is the client or team environment. Projects are the stable containers. Media plans are the actual budget and date planning objects. Placements are the individual planned media line items. ### What should I create first: a project or a media plan? Create the project first. A media plan belongs to a project, so starting with the plan before the project exists will feel backwards. ### What counts as a project? A project should be the stable container you want to plan, report, and collaborate around. For agencies, that may be a client or account. For in-house teams, it may be a brand, line of business, region, initiative, or campaign family. ### What counts as a media plan? A media plan is the budgeted plan for a defined period or scope: Q2 media, FY26 awareness, spring enrollment, launch campaign, and so on. It is not just a single channel buy unless that single buy is truly the whole plan. ### What’s the fastest path to get my first plan live? 1. Set up workspace users and planning taxonomy. 2. Create the project. 3. Create the media plan with date range and budget. 4. Add placements. 5. Fill monthly allocations. 6. Add fees, vendors, and notes. 7. Attach creative or brand context. 8. Review budget totals. 9. Submit, approve, or share when ready. ### Can I import from spreadsheets? Yes, but the right path depends on the spreadsheet and your workspace setup. For a small plan, manual entry may be fastest. For larger migrations or recurring imports, ask your Nebula admin or support team whether assisted migration, a template import, or a technical import workflow is the right fit. ### Can I duplicate last month or last quarter’s plan? Yes. Duplicate a plan when the previous structure is reusable, then adjust dates, budget, allocations, placements, fees, and creative context for the new period. ## Planning and budgets How dates, placements, allocations, taxonomy, fees, and readiness fit together. ### Why do dates matter so much? Nebula uses plan and placement dates to generate allocation rows and compare spend over time. If dates are wrong, the budget grid and monthly allocation logic will feel wrong downstream. ### Why does my placement budget not automatically match my monthly allocations? Placement budget and allocation totals have a relationship: placement budget should equal the sum of its allocations, and plan budget should equal the sum of its placements. If those drift, reconciliation gets confusing. When fees apply, use gross amounts and let Nebula calculate net where possible. ### What is a placement? A placement is the planned media line item: channel, objective, format, budget, timing, notes, vendor, and context. For example: Meta / Lead Generation / Static + Video / May–June / $25k. ### What are channel, objective, and format — and why are they required? They are the planning taxonomy that makes the plan useful later. Channel is where it runs. Objective is what it is trying to do. Format is the kind of media, creative, or delivery unit being planned. ### Where do fees live? Fees are attached to media plans, not floating separately. Configure them in the workspace so they can apply across plans with the right platforms and rules. ### Where do creatives and designs fit? Nebula is not just a budget table. Creative and design context can live alongside the media plan so the team can understand what is running, what assets are needed, and which creative decisions connect to the plan. ### What are brand assets for? Brand assets are reusable source materials: logos, guidelines, creative references, product imagery, approved brand files, and other materials people should use or reference. ### How do I know whether my plan is ready? - A project is selected so the plan lives in the right reporting and collaboration context. - The plan dates are set and match the period the team intends to manage. - The total budget is entered before placements are reconciled against it. - Placements have been created for the media activity the plan needs to track. - Each placement has a channel, objective, and format so it can be filtered and reported later. - Monthly allocations are filled in for the periods where spend should land. - Fees are added when they apply to the plan or its placements. - Creative and brand context is attached where the team needs it for review. - Internal notes and open questions have been resolved or captured where approvers can see them. - The approval workflow is complete if your team requires approval before the plan is active. ## Workflow and collaboration How approvals, editing, permissions, conversations, archive, and delete should be treated. ### Can I edit a live or approved media plan? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It depends on workflow state, lock state, and permissions. Editable versus locked plans determine when changes can be made and who can make them. Configure access and workflow settings to match how your team reviews and approves work. ### How should I handle changes after a plan is approved? Use workflow and versioning intentionally. Do not silently overwrite the plan like a spreadsheet. Nebula’s strength is governance: revision history, compare/revert, approvals, and internal discussion. ### Who can see, edit, or approve things? Workspace roles and permissions control access for added users. Map roles such as admin, planner, reviewer, approver, client/stakeholder, or read-only to the way your team actually works. ### How do I collaborate inside Nebula instead of Slack or email? Keep plan-specific decisions attached to the plan, placement, creative, or insight. That keeps approvals, context, and revision history from scattering across Slack, email, and documents. ### What is the safest way to make bulk changes? Dry run first, especially for insights, placements, archive, or delete actions. Scope bulk operations by project plus report, plan, or time period — not just by project name. ### What happens if I archive something? Archive removes an object from active working views without fully deleting its history. Use it when you want to put work away but preserve the record. ### When should I delete instead of archive? Delete is permanent removal. It is riskier than archive and should be used carefully, especially for media plans, placements, insights, and anything tied to reporting history. ## Reporting and insights Where performance context belongs and why scoping matters. ### What are insights? Insights are structured performance takeaways tied back to projects, reports, and time periods. They are not random comments; they are the “so what?” attached to performance context. ### Why is an insight not showing where I expected? Insights are scoped. Workspace, project, and media-plan reports do not all show the same insight by default. Create or move the insight at the report level where it belongs. ## Core terms Plain-English definitions for the most important Nebula objects. ### Can you explain the main Nebula terms? - **Workspace:** The top-level environment for a company, client, or team. It holds projects, users, planning taxonomy, brand assets, workflows, and media planning data. Example: Hawthorn State University. - **Project:** The stable container inside a workspace. It groups related media plans, insights, creative context, and reporting context. Example: School of Futuristic Technologies. - **Media plan:** The planned media effort for a defined scope, budget, and date range. It organizes placements, allocations, fees, vendors, approvals, and supporting context. Example: Q2 2026 Paid Media Plan. - **Placement:** A line item in a media plan describing where media runs, what it is trying to do, what format it uses, when it runs, and how much budget is assigned. Example: Meta / Lead Generation / Static In-Feed / May–June / $25,000. - **Allocation:** The time-based budget breakdown for a placement, usually by month or planning period. Example: $30k allocated as $10k in May, $10k in June, and $10k in July. - **Channel:** The media environment or platform where the placement runs. Example: Meta, Google Ads, LinkedIn, TikTok, CTV, Programmatic, Paid Search. - **Objective:** The intended outcome of a placement. Example: Awareness, Traffic, Lead Generation, Sales, Engagement. - **Format:** The media or creative format used for the placement. Example: Static Image, Video, Carousel, Story/Reel, Paid Search, Performance Max. - **Vendor:** The partner, platform, publisher, or supplier associated with a placement or buy. Example: Meta, Google, a publisher, a CTV partner, or a media vendor. - **Fee:** A cost layer attached to the media plan that is not simply placement budget. Example: Agency management fee, vendor production fee, pass-through tech fee. - **Creative:** A creative item, concept, message, asset set, or creative unit associated with the media work. Example: Spring Open House Lead Gen Ads. - **Design:** A visual or buildable creative object inside Nebula’s creative layer. Example: A display ad concept, social layout, or campaign visual. - **Brand asset:** A reusable source or reference asset tied to the workspace or project. Example: Logos, colors, guidelines, product imagery, approved brand files. - **Insight:** A structured performance takeaway connected to a project, report, or time period. Example: Lead quality improved after reallocating budget to branded search and remarketing. - **Report:** A reporting context or period that insights can belong to. Example: FY26 Summer Promo Report or April Monthly Report. - **Workflow stage:** The current state of a media plan or object in its review or approval process. Example: Draft, Internal Review, Client Review, Approved, Archived. - **Approval:** A formal review checkpoint that controls whether a plan or change is accepted, rejected, or moved forward. Example: Planner submits plan → internal lead reviews → stakeholder approves. - **Version history:** The record of how a plan or object changed over time. It supports compare/revert and auditability. Example: What changed, when, and by whom. - **Comment / dialogue:** Conversation attached to the work itself so decisions stay near the plan, placement, creative, or insight. Example: A plan-specific approval discussion. - **Archive:** A way to remove an object from active working views without destroying the record. Example: Put it away, do not delete its history. - **Delete:** Permanent removal. Use carefully for anything tied to planning or reporting history. Example: Actually remove it. ### What is the short version of the Nebula model? - A workspace is the environment where your team works. - A project is the client, brand, initiative, or campaign family you are working on. - A media plan is where the team plans the spend for a defined period or campaign scope. - A placement is one planned chunk of media spend inside the plan. - An allocation explains when that placement budget should be spent. - An insight captures what the team learned from performance afterward.