Overview
The Direct Costs module in INGENIOUS.BUILD is used to record and manage project-related expenses that fall outside of formal contracts or vendor-issued invoices. These are often internal or miscellaneous costs, such as employee reimbursements, travel, mileage, labor, or company-paid materials that still need to be tracked for accurate project budgeting.
By logging direct costs in this module, teams can maintain a complete financial picture of their project, ensuring both contracted and uncontracted expenses are properly captured.
Why Use This Module?
Capturing direct costs ensures:
Project budgets reflect all financial activity, not just contracted work.
Teams can track internal spending or reimbursable expenses at the employee level.
What You'll See
Upon accessing the module, you’ll see a table of all existing entries, including:
Direct Cost Name
Cost Code
Status (e.g., Pending, Paid)
Type (e.g., Expense, Other)
Amount
Employee Name
Date of Direct Cost
You can filter the list by date, status, cost code, type, or employee using the panel on the right.
How to Add a New Direct Cost
To log a new expense:
Click Add Direct Cost in the upper-right corner.
Fill in the required fields:
Direct Cost Name
Date of Direct Cost
Employee Name
Type (e.g., Expense, Labor, Other)
If you select Other, you will be prompted to indicate who initially paid for the cost—Employee or Company.
Project or RFP
Site Address (Only on Projects with Multiple Sites)
Cost Code
Direct Cost Amount
Click Next Step and add a note or import a file if needed.
Click Submit Direct Cost, or Save as Draft if you'd like to complete it later.
Statuses Explained
Each direct cost entry can move through one of five statuses:
Draft – Initial state, editable.
Pending – Submitted for review.
Approved – Confirmed by a reviewer.
Paid – Reimbursed or completed.
Rejected – Declined or marked invalid.
Only Draft entries can be edited. To update a non-Draft entry, you'll need to change its status first.
🗑 To delete a direct cost, its status must be set to Draft. Once in Draft:
The trash icon will appear next to the entry.
Click the trash icon to delete the direct cost.
To change the status:
Click into the Direct Cost entry you want to modify.
Then click the Change Status button located in the upper-right corner of the screen.
Multisite Project Notes
If your project uses Multisite, you must:
Select the correct Site Address when creating the cost.
The system will then auto-load cost codes specific to that site.
Direct Costs in the ACR
Any direct costs will show in the 'Your Budget' of your Master Project Budget/ACR module. Here's a description of which status populate in certain columns of the budget:
Pending - Pending Direct Costs Column
Approved - Approved Direct Costs Column
Paid - Paid Amount ($) Column