Budget

The Budget tool is the project’s cost plan. You enter the original budget per cost code and cost type; the tool computes the rest from the other financial tools: approved and pending change orders, commitments and direct costs. This page walks through the screens. For the ideas behind it, see Cost codes and budgets.

Open it from the project: Tools → Budget (/companies/{company}/projects/{project}/tools/budget).

The budget grid

The Budget tab groups lines by division (the root of each cost code) with subtotals and a grand total. Each line is a cost code plus a cost type: Labor, Equipment, Materials, Subcontracts or Other.

Column	Where the number comes from
Original Budget	What you entered on the line
Modifications	Net transfers in and out of the line
Approved Budget Changes	Approved prime contract change orders and approved Budget Changes
Revised Budget	Original + modifications + approved budget changes
Pending Budget Changes	Prime contract change orders still in pricing, pending, revised or proceeding
Projected Budget	Revised budget + pending budget changes
Committed Costs	Approved subcontract and purchase order lines, plus approved commitment change orders
Direct Costs	Direct costs that are approved, pending or revise-and-resubmit
Pending Cost Changes	Commitment lines and commitment change orders not yet approved
Projected Costs	Committed + direct + pending cost changes
Projected Over/Under	Projected budget − projected costs. Negative means a projected overrun

Owner changes move the budget columns; commitment changes move the cost columns. Drafts don’t count anywhere. If a cost code has committed or direct cost but no budget line, it still shows up, tagged No budget line, so cost never disappears from the report.

Add a line

Move money between lines

Transfers are Modifications. Click Create Modification, choose From Line Item and To Line Item, enter the Transfer Amount and a note. The Modifications tab lists every transfer with its from and to lines, so contingency drawdown and buyout savings stay visible.

Budget changes that come from outside the budget (an owner allowance, a scope addition you are carrying yourself) go on the Budget Changes tab. A Budget Change starts as a draft, goes under review, and is either approved or voided. Approved ones show up in Approved Budget Changes. The Change History tab lists them with their amounts.

A change event can also post to the budget: when you close it, its budget-change amounts post by cost code.

Forecast cost at completion

The Forecast tab adds three columns:

• Forecast to Complete. By default this is projected budget minus projected costs, never less than zero. Type your own number to override it on a line; clear it to go back to automatic.
• Est. Cost at Completion. Projected costs + forecast to complete.
• Projected Over/Under at completion.

A manual forecast is the PM saying “I know something the commitments don’t show yet”. Use it.

Snapshots and variance

Lock the budget

Once the original budget is final, someone with Admin on Budget can click Lock Budget. While locked, original line items, modifications and forecast overrides are read-only, and a banner says so. Changes after that go through a Budget Change or a change event, so the original stays what you bid. Unlock Budget reverses it.

Export

Export Budget CSV downloads every current line with the budget and forecast columns. It exports the current budget, not a filtered view; use a snapshot’s CSV for a frozen copy. See Export to CSV and PDF.

“Budget data unavailable”

If a source the budget reads from is inconsistent (for example, a change order chain that points at the wrong contract), the tool shows Budget data unavailable with the reason instead of a wrong total. Fix the record it names, then click Retry budget. Your snapshots are still available from that screen.

Permissions

Read Only can view the budget. Standard can create and edit lines, modifications and forecasts. Admin can delete and lock or unlock. See Set up permission templates.