Overview:
Project Budget allows you to structure your project into clear sections or stages.
You can then add the applicable Cost Codes for each stage. Cost Codes enable you to separate and accurately track activities—even when the same technicians or teams are involved in different types of work.
For example, technical labour can be split into separate Cost Codes for filter installation and HVAC system installation, allowing timesheets and purchase orders to be recorded against the correct activity. Each Cost Code generates a unique identifier and becomes a dedicated tracking category for costs and labour.
Within each Cost Code, detailed line items can be added for products, labour, equipment, or subcontractors. These line items capture quantities, purchase prices, markups, and sales prices, forming the project budget. Together, these Cost Code Groups comprise the project budget and are directly fed into the Budget Forecast Cost Tracker for accurate cost visibility and control.
Step 1: On a Project, navigate to Project → Builder, and add a stage
Click + Add New Stage
Enter the name/description of the stage
Step 2: Add cost codes for each stage
Click on + Add Cost Code
Select a cost code that you'd want to track for this stage
You can search by the code or name, or by Cost Centres
Select the relevant Cost Code
Once added, you can change the description to be more specific to this project
Step 3: Add line item for each Cost Code
Under each cost code, you can add a more detailed line item level. Each line item represents a product, Service (labour), Equipment, and Subcontractor.
Click + Add Line item
Populate the line item:
Item Type – Select Service, Product, Equipment, or Subcontractor.
Code – Select an item from your Inventory Catalogue.
Description – Automatically populated based on the selected code. You can update this if needed.
Qty – Enter the budgeted quantity for this line item.
Purchase Price – Automatically populated from the selected code. You can update this if needed. This represents the cost incurred by the business.
Markup % – Automatically populated from the selected code. You can update this if needed.
Sales Price – Automatically populated from the selected code. You can update this if needed. This represents the amount charged to the customer.
Billable – Tick this option if the item is billable.
Step 4: Review your Project Budget using different views
This is a sample snippet of a project builder with multiple stages added along with cost codes and line items.
You can switch between different views:
Detailed View
Summary View
Collapse All View
On the Project Builder, you can also see the Budget Summary.
This tells you your Cost Budget $ vs your Sales Budget $
