Who it's for: the owner, the project manager and their deputy. The site manager sees costs; the investor (client) doesn't see the budget.
What you'll do: set the project's execution budget, split it into cost categories, compare it with planned task costs and actual spending, and cover an overrun with a transfer or a new budget version.
Before you start
- The budget is on every plan, in full from Start: the execution budget with the planned result, category pools, versions with a reason, transfers between pools and the Costs module.
- The budget is your internal cost plan. The contract value and amendments are agreed with the investor separately. See How the investor approves a contract amendment.
Steps
1. Set the execution budget
There are two ways to set the budget, depending on whether the price is already agreed.
You have a contract or know your cost
- When creating the project, in the Contract & budget step, enter the contract value and set the budget, e.g. from the profit you want to make. See Getting started.
- You can change the budget later in the Budget module.
You're preparing an offer — budget from the cost plan
You can treat the project as an offer: first break down the work and its costs, then work out the investor's price from that breakdown.
- When creating the project, in the Contract & budget step, choose Not yet — I'm preparing an offer. The project is created without a contract and without a budget.
- In the schedule, add costs to tasks: an amount entered by hand or calculated from materials and resources. See How to build a schedule.
- In Budget you'll see the Plan from tasks broken down by category. Click Create the first budget from the cost plan — the task amounts become the budget pools.
- Work out the price in the project, on the Contract value card: set the Target profit, and Buildinio shows the Offer price from the cost plan (cost plan + profit).
- When the investor accepts the offer, click Use as contract value — the price goes into the contract.
2. Split the budget into categories
- In Budget, split the amount into cost categories and subcategories, e.g. labour, materials, equipment, subcontractors.
- You can get a suggested split based on the project type or build it yourself. If schedule tasks already have planned costs, you can create the first budget straight from them.
3. Compare three numbers
In each category you see side by side:
- the budget pool — how much you plan to spend,
- the task cost plan — costs entered on tasks or calculated from materials and resources,
- actual costs — expenses recorded in Costs. See How to add a cost.
When tasks add up to more than the pool, the overrun shows next to the category.
4. Cover the overrun
You have two options:
- a transfer — spare money in one category covers the gap in another. The total budget doesn't change,
- raising the budget — you immediately see the planned result after the change. If the budget would exceed the contract, Buildinio suggests an amendment.
Every change is a new budget version with the reason saved in the history.
What happens next
- The planned result is the contract value minus the higher of two amounts: the task cost plan or the execution budget.
- The cost-at-completion forecast shows two scenarios: based on the plan for the remaining work, and if the cost-to-progress ratio so far continues. If the higher one exceeds the budget, you see it before the job ends.
- Reports separate the cost of the original work from the cost of rework from acceptances and issues.
Troubleshooting
- I don't see the offer price. It only shows while the project has no signed contract, and only once tasks have a cost plan.
- The investor asks about the budget. The investor doesn't see the budget, costs or profit. They see the contract value, amendments and their own expenses.
- I run the project as the investor (Solo plan). Instead of an execution budget you get an Investment budget with a reserve. See Solo plan — investor and contractor in one project.
- The result is falling below target. Check which categories exceed their pool and decide: a transfer, a new budget version or a contract amendment.