Overview

The Master Project Budget is your go-to spot for all of your project financials. Use this article to learn how to set up your budget structure, including cost codes, categories, and phases.

Prerequisites

If your budget will use a company Project Cost Codes template, the template should first be configured by your workspace Administrators.

Owner's Rep workspace only: Be sure you are on the desired budget by clicking the tab at the top right and selecting either Owner Budget or Your Budget. To understand the difference between these budgets, review the Owner Budget & Your Budget help article. Most likely, you will be using the Owner Budget.

Process

You can use a template to build your project budget or add categories and cost codes individually. You can also rename categories and cost codes directly on your budget.

If Using a Cost Code Template

Within the Project, go to the Master Project Budget/ACR Module:

Click Create Single Master Budget. To understand the Feasibility Study option, review the Creating Budget Option Feasibility Studies help article.

2. Click Load Cost Codes from Template.

The pop-up window will display the templates available in your workspace. Your workspace Administrators configure these. Choose the appropriate one and click Load Selected.
Once you confirm your base currency, you can click Confirm.

TIP: If you are unsure which template to use, click the Preview button to preview a template before applying it.

Your budget will populate with the categories and cost codes from the template. You can start from a template and make modifications as needed. Note: The template won't include your Budget Item Lines Amounts, you still need to add them using another template or entering them manually.

To append or overwrite a cost code template, click + Add >Load from Template. Select the template and choose Overwrite or Append.

Note: If you choose Overwrite, this will erase the previously selected template and any entered budget values.

If Adding Categories and Cost Codes Individually

If you are not starting from a template:

Click + Add > + Add Cost Code to begin creating your budget structure from scratch.

Note: We strongly recommend starting from a template to save time. Your company may require you to use a template to ensure consistency across your organization. If you are unsure, check with your workspace Administrators.

Your budget structure can include categories, sub-categories, and cost codes.

To add those items manually:

Click + Add > + Add Cost Code.
- In the pop-up window, you can add new Categories and Cost Codes by selecting the respective dropdown and clicking + Add New Category or + Add New Code.

Edit Existing Categories and Cost Codes

Once a category or cost code is on your budget:

Edit it by clicking the 3 dots >Edit.
Delete a category or cost code by clicking the 3 dots > Remove.

Adding Phases to your Budget

If your project is multi-phase, you can include multiple Phases in your budget. For example, you may have one Phase called "Building A" and another Phase called "Building B."

To add a Phase, click + Add >Add phase(s)

Once the Phases are added, you'll notice that all your cost codes uploaded prior to creating the phase, will be nested within the first Phase created. Note that you can repeat a cost code template across multiple phases or upload a different template.

To add cost codes to a phase, on the phase line item, click the 3 dots > Add cost code or Load from Template. You can alsoEdit orRemove a Phase from here.

You can move a category or code from one phase to another:

Click the 3 dots > Move to > Select the Phase from the list (shown above).

Additional Features

You can now take a snapshot of your budget's current state and continue to edit it while keeping a record of a previous version.

You can change the column view for your budget by using the Standard view drop-down outlined below.
You can add a budget dashboard by clicking the graph icon outlined below.

Once your budget structure is in place, you can start preparing your Original Budget by adding the Budget Item Lines!

Next Steps

Building the Master Project Budget / ACR