Overview
The Project Budget is where you build and track project financials. You can enter values as flat numbers or detailed line items, store rough estimates in the ROM/Planned Budget column, and track profit alongside cost across the project lifecycle.
The Project Budget has two views, selectable in the top-right corner:
Your Budget (Principal) — the internal Prime Contract budget. Tracks Budgeted Cost, Budgeted Profit, Budgeted Margin, and Budgeted Revenue in addition to standard budget columns.
Owner Budget (Advisory/Agent) — the client-facing budget. Tracks Original Budget, Approved and Pending Budget Reallocations, Current Budget, and Projected Budget.
Both views share the ROM/Planned Budget column.
Prerequisites
The project budget structure must already exist with cost codes added. See Creating the Project Budget for instructions on setting up the budget and adding cost codes.
Entering Budget Values
You can build your Original Budget by entering flat values directly into cost code cells, or by breaking a cost code down into detailed line items with a calculator icon.
Option A — Enter Flat Values
A Flat Value is a single budget number typed directly into the cell, similar to entering a value in Excel.
a. Find the cost code you want to add a budget for.
b. On the Owner Budget view, click into the cell in the Original Budget column for that cost code and type the value.
c. On the Your Budget view, click into the cell in the Budgeted Cost column and type the cost value. Then click into the Budgeted Profit cell and type the profit value (or leave as $0 if not tracking profit at this cost code).
d. Values save when you click out of the cell.
Option B — Use Budget Line Items
Budget Line Items are individual items that combine to give you your estimate or original budget for a single cost code. For example, you can build an estimate using labor hours, cost per square foot, allowances, and other variables.
Tip: Workspace Administrators can create Budget Line Item templates to standardize budgets — consistent line items, calculations, and unit prices.
a. Click the calculator icon in the Budgeted Cost or Original Budget column for the cost code you want to add line items to.
b. Choose how to add line items:
Load from Template — apply a pre-configured Budget Line Item template. Some fields will populate automatically.
Add New Budget Line — manually create a new line item.
c. For each line item, fill out:
Description
Unit of Measure
Quantity
Unit Price (rate)
d. On the Your Budget view, apply a markup percentage to automatically calculate profit and revenue for the line item. For example, 800 hours of labor at $200/hr = $160,000 cost. A 10% markup produces $16,000 profit and $176,000 in revenue at a 9.09% margin.
Tip: If you've entered an area in Project Settings, you can pull it in automatically by selecting the applicable area from the Unit of Measure dropdown.
e. Click Save to save the line, or Save and Update Next to save and move to the next line item.
ROM/Planned Budget Column
The ROM/Planned Budget column lets you hold a Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) or planned estimated value on the budget without submitting the full amount for approval. This column is available on both the Your Budget and Owner Budget views.
Enable the column
The ROM/Planned Budget column is not shown by default. To display it:
Click Manage Columns at the top right of the Project Budget.
Under Your Budget/Prime Contract or Owner Budget (depending on the view), check ROM/Planned Budget.
Click Save. The column appears as column A at the far left of the budget grid.
How it's used
This supports two workflows:
From a Project Request — when a project request in a Capital Plan is converted into an active project, the estimated cost is preserved and carried into the ROM/Planned Budget column. The Capital Plan continues to use the ROM estimate as the source of truth for anticipated cost until the project's Original Budget receives full approval, at which point the Capital Plan switches to the active project data.
Direct Entry — you can enter a ROM value directly on the budget without going through Capital Plans. This is useful when you want to plan for the full scope but only need to approve part of it. For example, holding a $2.5M total ROM while submitting only $500k in soft costs for initial approval to issue design contracts.
To enter a value directly, click into the $ input in the ROM/Planned Budget column for the cost code and type the value.
Note: Commitments (contracts, change orders, invoices) can only be issued against approved budget lines. The ROM/Planned value stays visible for planning but does not authorize spend until it is officially approved.
Profit Tracking Columns (Your Budget / Prime Contract only)
Profit tracking is available on the Your Budget (Principal) view. It provides live visibility into profit at the cost code and category level throughout the project.
Budgeted profit columns
Budgeted Cost (B) — the underlying baseline cost, excluding profit.
Budgeted Profit (C) — the profit amount planned on top of cost.
Budgeted Margin (%) (D=C/E) — auto-calculated as Budgeted Profit ÷ Budgeted Revenue.
Budgeted Revenue (E=B+C) — auto-calculated as Budgeted Cost + Budgeted Profit. This is the total value you plan to bill the client.
Live profit columns
Under the Profit column group:
Current Profit (Z=H-X) — auto-calculated as Total Current Revenue minus Total Anticipated Cost.
Current Profit Margin (%) (AA=Z/H) — auto-calculated live profit margin. Negative margins are flagged to help catch overruns from change orders.
How adjustments affect the budget
Approved Budget Reallocations (F) — move funds internally between cost codes without changing underlying contracts.
My Executed Contract Changes (G) — approved change orders that amend existing prime or vendor contracts (for example, a $20,000 change order updating the total current revenue).
Total Current Revenue (H=B+C+F+G) — the current total revenue including budgeted revenue and approved changes.
Net Revenue
Net Revenue (L=K-(M+N)) is calculated as Projected Revenue minus external committed vendor costs (Original Contract + Executed Change Orders). Internal labor and direct costs are tracked separately under Direct Costs, so Net Revenue reflects revenue retained before internal overhead.
Unallocated Funds
Unallocated Funds (V) show the remaining budgeted funds that roll into profit once buyouts are complete and no additional pending items are expected. This column lives under the Vendor Costs (Pending) and Direct Costs (Pending) group.
Additional column groups
Beyond the columns above, the Project Budget includes column groups for:
Total Anticipated Cost — projected total cost across contracted and pending items.
Variance — Variance To The Budget (Y=X-H).
Invoiced Gross Work Complete — Gross Previous / Current Application, Material Stored Offsite, Gross Total Completed & Stored, Gross Balance To Complete.
Invoiced Retention Summary — Previous / Current / Material Stored Retention amounts and percentages, plus Total Retention Amount.
Invoiced Net Value Work Complete — Net Previous / Current Application and Net Balance To Complete.
Invoiced Payment Information — Paid Amount, Paid Percent, Unpaid Amount, Unpaid Percent.
Cell drill-down and layout views
Click into any cell to see the exact source contracts or change orders driving the number.
Use Manage Columns and View Settings to customize which columns are visible.
Use Standard View (default) to see all columns, or create a custom layout to hide granular columns and match a simpler client format.
Owner Budget Columns
The Owner Budget (Advisory/Agent) view is the client-facing budget. Its column set focuses on approved and reallocated budget values rather than profit:
Original Budget (B) — the approved baseline budget value.
Approved Budget Reallocations (C) — funds reallocated between cost codes.
Current Budget (D=B+C) — the current approved budget after reallocations.
Pending Budget Reallocations (E) — reallocations pending approval.
Projected Budget — the projected budget with pending items included.