Budget Settings

Project administrators can control several Cost Management settings within the Budget settings tab:

• Navigate to Budget Settings in Cost Management
• Budget Code Format
• Budget Name Format
• Budget Overview Columns
• Budget Lock
• Allow Internal Budget Transfer
• Schedule Budget Snapshots
• Budget Forecast
• Date Range Based Resources
• Main Contract Schedule of Values
• Main Contract Types
• Budget Payment Application Approval Workflows
• Document Templates
• Dates for Main Contract and Budget Payment Application
• Custom Attributes
• Default Email Message

Navigate to Budget Settings in Cost Management

1. Click Module Selector .

2. Select the Services tab.

3. Select Cost Management in the left panel.

   Note: If you enter Project Admin directly from Cost Management, you start in this position.

4. The General secondary tab is selected by default. Switch to the Budget tab.

Budget Code Format

Build up your budget code format, following the guidelines in the Budget Code Setup article. Define budget code segments before importing a budget into Cost Management.

See the Budget Code Setup article to learn how to:

• Set up budget code segments
• Download a budget template and import a budget
• Work with segment code master list by adding, editing, and locking segment values

Budget Name Format

Select one or more budget segment descriptions as the default name of new budgets.

When you rename budget segments, delete them, or change the order in the Budget Code Segments setting, the default names will also change.

Budget Overview Columns

Project administrators can manage the name, group, and order of existing columns. They can also create custom columns calculated on project values or other columns.

To manage existing columns and create custom calculated budget columns, click Manage.

To change where existing columns appear (group and position), rename them and control which appear by default. Select the column name and choose the desired option beneath the list view.

To learn more about managing custom columns, see the Create Custom Columns article. See the Budget and Contract Tables article to understand the logic behind those tabs in Cost Management.

Budget Lock

Once the original budget setup is finalized, toggle the On button to lock it.

After a budget is locked, the quantities, units, unit costs, and ratios of the forecast are also locked. However, with the Forecast tab, you can still:

• Edit the start and end dates
• Create or delete forecast distributions
• Link schedule tasks to the budget
• Calculate ratios

Allow Internal Budget Transfer

Turn on to enable members to make an internal budget transfer from the budget summary view.

Toggle on Approval Workflow to create a workflow for budget transferring. Learn more about setting up Approval Workflows.

Learn more about internal budget transfers which you can do in the Budget tool, from forecast adjustments, or in the Change Order tool for PCOs and SCOs.

Schedule Budget Snapshots

Set up automatic snapshots to capture budget data at regular intervals. You can configure the frequency, day, time, and duration for which snapshots should be taken:

1. Choose between weekly or monthly snapshots.
2. Specify the day of the week for weekly snapshots. For monthly schedules, snapshots occur only once per month.
3. For monthly schedules, define the specific instance of the day within the month (for example, first, second, or last). The default value is first. For example, selecting second Tuesday schedules the snapshot for the second Tuesday of each month.

When configuring snapshots, you’ll receive an estimate of how many snapshots will be generated within the specified time frame.

To delete a schedule, click Edit schedule, and then select Remove schedule.

Snapshots are accessible in the Budget tool, where you can filter between manually and automatically created snapshots.Learn more about Budget Snapshots.

Budget Forecast

Budget forecast allows you to forecast both revenue and costs, providing visibility into projected fees by calculating the difference between forecasted budget revenue and forecasted costs. This enables general contractors to manage scenarios where time-related resources may change (such as increased hours) without exceeding the Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP), requiring either change order transfers or internal budget transfers.

Turn on to show budget forecast columns and allow budget forecast adjustments. Recommended when using a cost plus main contract.

If the toggle is on:

• Columns Billed To Date, Budget Forecast Adjustments, Forecast Budget To Complete, and Forecast Final Budget are visible by default in the budget overview.

• Budget forecast adjustment columns Qty, Unit, Unit Cost, and Amount are visible by default in the budget overview and forecast adjustment bottom flyout.

  

• Budget forecast columns in date range resources are visible by default. See Date Range Based Resources to learn how to configure the frequency settings.

• You can generate a PCO from budget and forecast adjustments and make budget transfers.

  

Related articles:

• Budget and Contract Tables
• Create Forecast Adjustments
• Create a PCO from Forecast Adjustment

Date Range Based Resources

If budget forecast is on, you can configure the billing and actual cost frequency so that Qty Elapsed updates on the same schedule. If the revenue forecast is off, there is an option to configure the actual cost frequency only. In both scenarios, this setting cannot be changed once any date range based resource has been distributed in cash flow.

• Set frequency to monthly or weekly. Monthly is the default one.
• Set offset to a number from 0 to 99. O is the default value.

Qty Elapsed represents the count of completed periods (weeks or months) based on your frequency settings. The system determines this by:

1. Calculating the arrival date for each period based on your settings:

   • Monthly frequency: Last calendar day of the month + offset workdays
   • Weekly frequency: Last workday of the week + offset workdays

2. Counting completed periods: If the current date is on or after the arrival date for a period, that period counts toward the Qty Elapsed total.

3. Respecting workday settings: The calculation follows your project's defined workdays.

In the budget bottom flyout, the Billing Frequency and Actual Cost Frequency columns indicate the frequency settings. All resources will share the same frequency configuration.

See Date Range Based Forecasting to learn how to use these settings to create and manage date range resources.

Main Contract Schedule of Values

Show change orders in the main contract as line items or a column. Individuals can toggle this view in the main contract, but this selection sets the default view. See the Main Contract article for more information.

You can toggle this view for:

• The Main Contract tab
• The Budget Payment Application tab

To do so:

1. Expand the Main Contract Schedule of Values section.
2. Select As Line Items or As a Column using the radio button.

Main Contract Types

A main contract is the primary contractual agreement entered into directly, for example, between an owner and a main contractor. When creating a new main contract, you can choose your main contract type from the predefined options or add one in the settings to fit your company's needs.

Choose from the presented options:

• Cost Plus - Work carried out based on actual cost plus additions as but not limited to overheads and profit.
• Fixed Price - Work carried out for a fixed sum where actual costs incurred may differ from the incoming value paid. If you choose this option, markup cost item values will be spread over normal cost items in approved owner changes. Learn more about spreading markup budget values. When you choose this option as the main contract type, any additional costs added to change orders will be hidden from the client. This means that if you add a 10% markup to a $10,000 concrete works change item, the client will only see the final cost of $11,000 for the concrete works item on their invoice.
• Unit Price - Work carried out which will be calculated based on detailed measurement of task progress.

To add a new main contract type, click Add in the upper left corner of the Main Contract Types.

To assign a contract type to a line item by a drop-down list, enter the edit mode in the Main Contract tab.

To learn how to create a contract, see Work with Contracts.

Budget Payment Application Approval Workflows

Project administrators can create custom approval workflows for budget payment applications. This allows you to automate the routing of documents for internal review and keep the consistency and transparency of company-defined processes across projects. Learn more about approval workflows.

Document Templates

Create standard main contract and budget payment application template formats using fields that automatically populate with data. See the Create and Manage Document Templates article for more information.

Dates for Main Contract and Budget Payment Application

You can define a default value for dates and choose to have them displayed on the home page. This will help you manage the schedule in Cost Management. To do so, open the More menu and click Edit.

Note: Items without the More menu can't be displayed on the home page and can't be edited.

If applicable, you can choose the default value for the date. Use the relative date option for cases where an activity is relative to the date of another activity (for example, while creating a procurement schedule). The relative date option is only available for editable system-generated dates and custom dates.

Available document variable examples are shown by clicking Show More. You can use these to prepare document templates.

Custom Attributes

Create custom attributes for the details panels within budget items, main contract items, and budget payment applications in Cost Management. See Custom Attributes for more information.

Default Email Message

Customize the default email message for budget payment applications submitted for review.