How to Use the Budget Tab

Overview
Your Budget tab is where you track all of your estimated line item costs and compare them against the actual costs you enter, so you can see the profit or loss on each line item and the overall project.

Before You Begin

• Have an existing estimate ready with line items entered.
  
  

1. Go to Jobs, then open the project you want to price from Pipeline or Job list.

2. In the left-hand sidebar, under the Production section, click Budget directly.

3. Scroll across the columns to move between sections, from Estimating, to Materials, to Labor, to your actual costing (which you enter manually as work progresses), to Payments, to Profit.

4. Scroll to the bottom of the tab to view the totals for the entire project.

5. Click the icon next to a budget item to check its approval status. If this icon is showing, the client has not yet approved this scope.

6. Click the icon indicating the item is not yet complete to change its status, marking the item as completed.

7. Click the billing icon on a selected item to mark it for client billing. Once marked, you can view it in the Payments tab. An icon will also indicate when an item has not yet been paid for by your client; the system automatically updates this status once payment is made.

8. Click the grouping control to change how items in the Budget tab are grouped.

9. From the Group by construction stage dropdown, choose your preferred grouping option, such as Group by construction stage, Group by vendor, or Group by budget code.

10. Click the column visibility icons to hide or show specific columns within the Budget tab, including Progress, Classification, Labor, Materials, Budget Totals, Payments, Final Price, and Unit Pricing.

Budget Sections Explained

Construction Stage / Grouping Options

You can group your budget items by Construction Stage, Vendor, or Budget Code. This flexibility allows you to organize data according to how you manage your workflow—whether that's by project phase, supplier, or financial code. The grouping function enhances clarity and helps you review totals more efficiently.

Approval Status

This column indicates whether each budget item has been approved, completed, billed, and paid. These visual indicators (colored icons) make it easy to understand the status of each line item at a glance, ensuring no step is missed in your billing and project tracking process.

Estimating Section

This section defines the quantities and units for each material, along with their unit cost and extended cost. It represents the foundational pricing information for each line item in your budget.

• Quantity: How many units are required.
• Unit: The measurement (e.g., ft², hours, each).
• Unit Cost: The base cost per unit.
• Extended Cost: Total cost before markup.

Markup and Budgeted Profit

Following the estimating section, these columns display the markup, expected budgeted profit, and profit margin for each item. This helps users see how much profit is built into each line and ensures pricing aligns with target margins.

Costing Section

This area outlines your Vendor, Budgeted Cost, and Actual Cost. You can track what has been spent on each item, manually update costs, and add Purchase Orders (POs) or Expenses. This section is critical for understanding how your actual spending compares to your budgeted projections.

Payments Section

The Payments columns track all client-related payment details for each budget item. Here you can view:

• The Total Approved Price
• The Amount Sent for Payment Request
• The Percentage Paid
• The Amount Received
• The Remaining Balance to be Requested

This provides a transparent view of payment flow throughout your project.

Profit Section

The Profit section calculates your actual profit by comparing budgeted costs, actual expenses, and payments received. It's an at-a-glance indicator of how well the project is performing financially and where adjustments might be needed.

Additional Columns

Other columns and icons allow you to track Progress, Classification, Labor, Materials, Budget Totals, Final Price, and Unit Pricing. Each can be shown or hidden using the view customization toolbar, helping you tailor the Budget Tab layout to your preferences.

Why This Matters

• Gives you a single place to compare estimated costs against actual costs so you can see profit or loss on each line item and the overall project.

• Lets you track approval, completion, billing, and payment status for every budget item at a glance.

• Helps you decide whether pricing needs to be adjusted on future projects based on how a project actually performed.

Summary

The Budget tab lets you compare the estimated costs of your line items against the actual costs you enter, tracking quantities, unit costs, markup, labor, materials, payments, and profit for each item and for the project as a whole. Use the grouping and column visibility controls to organize the view by construction stage, vendor, or budget code, and to focus on the information most relevant to your workflow