Front office and Owner's box

These two screens sit under My club. Front office is where you set the scouting budget, turn on draft autopilot and read your payroll. Owner's box shows the goals your owner sets each season.

Front office

Open Front office from My club. It has three parts.

Scouting department

Set your scouting budget here. A bigger budget gives you sharper scout grades. A smaller one leaves your scouts guessing.

1. Open Front office in the offseason.
2. Move the Budget ($M) slider. It runs from $2M to $12M in steps of $0.5M. Below $4M the screen reads "Blurry, your scouts are guessing". Above $9M it reads "Sharp, your board can beat the market".
3. Select Set allocation.

You can only change the budget in the offseason, or on day one of the first season. After you set it, the screen reads "Locked for this offseason. You can change it next winter." The Dashboard prompts you to set it during the Winter Meetings step. The prompt does not block you from advancing, so check it yourself before you move on.

The budget counts against your cap. It shows in the Scouting row under the salary table.

Draft autopilot

The Draft autopilot switch lets the system pick for you. It uses your queue first, then your scout board. While it is on, your picks resolve at once, with no 4-hour clock and no email. Turn it off at any time. From the next round you pick for yourself. See Draft for the queue.

Salary commitments

The salary table lists every contract still paying. It shows each player's position and age, and one column for each season. Select a name to open the player page.

• Payroll is the total for each season.
• Cap room is what is left after payroll and scouting.
• In the offseason the table shows next season's books, because every dollar you commit goes against next year's budget.
• Future seasons assume today's budget.

Small marks explain a row:

• dead is dead money from a player you cut, or a buyout from a club option you declined. The money stays on the books.
• ext means an extension is signed. It starts when the current deal ends.
• minors marks a player on the farm.
• (auto) marks a minimum-salary year that renews every season. It is not guaranteed money.
• Club option is a dashed cell after the last year of a deal. It is not in Payroll until you exercise it.
• Player option marks a year inside the deal. It counts in Payroll, but the player decides whether he plays it.
• A final contract year shows in red.

Minor-league deals at or under the exemption limit do not count against the cap. Hover over a year to see which rule applies.

Scouting and draft autopilot appear only on your own team. On another team you see its salary table.

Contract terms

An extension offer and an offseason free agency bid can carry two extra terms. Each button shows how the term changes the player's price. A club option and a partial guarantee raise the price. A player option lowers it.

• Option year: None, Club or Player. A club option adds one season after the deal. Your club decides at the end of the deal whether to keep that season. A player option makes the last season of the deal his choice. With a player option, an extension can run one year less than the longest term he accepts.
• Guaranteed: 100%, 75% or 50%. This is the share of the normal dead money you pay if you cut him. A deal that is 50% guaranteed costs half the normal dead money when you release the player.

Some league settings hide these controls. Then every deal is fully guaranteed and has no option.

You decide a club option on the player page with Exercise or Decline. You can do this from the playoffs until the Options & expirations step of the offseason. A declined option costs your club a 10% buyout as dead money. See Options & expirations.

A traded contract keeps its option and its guarantee, and the new club decides. A new extension on a deal with an open option cancels that option, with no buyout.

Owner's box

The owner sets goals for your team each season. The result moves next season's budget. Open Owner's box from My club to see where you stand.

The Owner's box link shows only when owner expectations are on. If they are off, the screen says so. The commissioner turns them on in the Commissioner screen. See Commissioner. An AI-run team has no owner goals.

Goals for this season

Each goal has a bar, a reading and a status. A notch on the bar marks where a team exactly on pace would be today. If your fill is past the notch, you are ahead. The status reads one of:

• On pace, or Being met right now for a goal you already meet.
• Out of reach when the math no longer works. The screen shows the arithmetic.
• Met or Missed once the season is graded.

An accumulating goal also shows a projection of where it ends up. Owners ask for goals like these:

• Make the playoffs.
• Win a set number of games, or at least a floor.
• Build a top farm system. See every farm system opens the Farm systems board.
• Debut homegrown prospects.
• Keep payroll under a set amount, or stay under budget.
• A package of two goals. Both halves have to land, and the screen shows each half.

For a wins goal, See the standings takes you to the Dashboard.

From the owner

This pane holds a quote from the owner and a short note on the stakes. Meeting the goals raises next season's budget by 2%. Missing them cuts it by 2%. Results add up across seasons, but the total never goes past 5% in either direction.

The owner's standing shows as one of Backing the GM, Satisfied, New arrangement, Restless or At odds. Under the standing, the screen shows how many goals the owner has seen met under this GM, and the budget change the owner's backing is worth now. A league on older goals shows an Owner confidence meter instead.

You can open another team's Owner's box. The goals and results are public in the news feed.

Next: Minors and farm systems.