Managing Budgets on a Job (Project)

ServiceTrade's Project Management suite of features is now available for Premium and Enterprise customers.

If you are interested in upgrading to access these features, please contact your ServiceTrade Account Manager or email am@servicetrade.com

This article will walk you through how to view, edit and manage your Budget from a Project. If you have not already created a budget for a job, see this article for steps to do so.

Once you are done editing a budget, and it has been approved, it's important to lock the budget.

Prerequisites

• Budget Management requires a Premium or Enterprise account with Project Management Role Permissions enabled.
• A Budget has been created for a Project.

Executive Summary

The Executive Summary gives you a bird's eye view of your budget.

• The Interactive Pie Chart gives you a proportional view of your budget; each slice represents the total budget for every Item Type. Hovering over each slice shows the Item Type, the number of items of that type, the total budget of that type, and the percentage of that type.
• Budget Total (Original) shows you the original budget amount when you first locked this budget.
• Budget Total (Revised) shows you the revised budget value if you have made any changes to the original budget, it will be the same value as Budget Total (Original) if no changes have been made.
• Change Order Totals is the dollar difference between the Revised that you proposed via Change Orders and the Original Budget.

Project Value and Estimated Margin

Budgets also give you a summary view of your Project's Value (the total price of all items on this job) and Estimated Margin.

In this example, we initially have no price set for any items as we edit this unlocked budget. As we add prices you can see the Project Value and Estimated Margin change in real-time.

Syncing Budget Items to Job Items

If you add Budget Items to a Budget, you can apply these changes to Job Items. Click the following article to learn more about Budgets.

1. Follow the normal steps for creating a budget and adding items to a budget.
2. At the bottom left of the budget, check to select the Apply these changes to Job Items automatically checkbox.
3. Click Save.

Collapsible/Expandable Services and Movable Items

You can Collapse or Expand the budget details of the services being performed on the job by clicking the arrows to the right of the services.

Grabbing the hamburger-shaped icon to the left of each item allows you to move budget items between services being performed on the job.

Custom Item Descriptions and Delete Items

Clicking the trash can icon to the right of each item allows you to delete that specific item from your budget.

The pencil icon to the right of each item description allows you to create custom item descriptions.

Remove and Reinstate Budgets

• When a budget is in Draft status, clicking the lock icon will display the Remove Budget Icon. Selecting Remove Budget, allows you to remove the budget from the job.
• If you have removed a budget and you click +Add New Budget you'll see a link option at the top of the page to Reinstate a previously removed budget.
  • Clicking this link will show you the most recently removed budget. Clicking the green Reinstate Budget button will reinstate that removed budget.

Note 1: only the most recently removed budget is saved and available to be reinstated. All other previously removed budgets cannot be reinstated.

Note 2: Once you have created a Change Order for this budget, the budget will be permanently locked. It will make your budget unremovable.

Lock and Unlock Budget

The Lock and Unlock icon on a Budget communicates the budget's state. A locked budget indicates that the budget has been finalized, and subsequent changes should be tracked via a change order.

The locking of a budget allows for better management of users being restricted from making unwanted changes that might result in mismanagement of initially set budget assumptions.

• Lock Budget - When your budget is unlocked the text to the right of the lock icon will read Budget in Draft. 
  Note: Clicking the icon opens a drop-down menu where you can select Lock Budget. 
  Once you have created a Change Order for this budget, the budget will be permanently locked. It will make your budget uneditable and record the lock event in your budget history. To make additional changes, you will have to submit an additional change order.

Editing a Locked Budget

Before the budget has been locked, you can make any changes you like to the budget. However, if you are making changes outside of the original scope of your budget, you should lock the budget, then create Change Orders.

Once it has been locked, you will need to create a Change Order. Click Here to Learn more about Change Orders.