Reward cycle publishing and budget calculations allow you to skip the validation process if that step has been done in the last 24 hours, to save processing time when setting up reward cycles and making small changes. The 24.07 update allows this option when calculating budget pools as well. 

If a budget pool has been calculated with the validation step in the last 24 hours, the Skip Validation option will appear when you click the Calculate Budget Pools button on the Budget Pools page. If you select the Skip Validation check box, then the validation step will not be done and the calculation process will take less time to complete. It will be noted in the process logs when validation is skipped. 

Twenty-four hours after the most recent validation step was done, the validation step is not optional and must be done again.