Budget Settings

Project administrators can access the settings for Cost Management from the Settings tool in the left navigation. This article focuses on the Budget settings:

• Budget Code Format
• Budget Name Format
• Budget Overview Columns
• Lock the Budget
• Allow Internal Budget Transfer
• Schedule Budget Snapshots
• 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

Budget Code Format

Create your budget code format by following the guidelines in the Budget Code Setup article. Define the 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 based 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.

Lock the Budget

Once the original budget setup is finalized, select the Lock Budget 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 tool, 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, 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.

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 such 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 this option is selected as the main contract type, any additional costs added to change orders will be hidden from the client. For example, if a 10% markup is added to a $10,000 concrete works change item, the client will only see the final cost of $11,000 on their invoice.
• Unit Price - Work carried out which will be calculated based on detailed measurement of task progress.

To add a 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:

1. Go to the Budget tool.

2. Switch to the Main Contract tab.

3. Enter the edit mode .

   

4. Choose the contract type in the Type column.

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

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, 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 those to prepare a 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 Create Custom Attributes for more information.

Default Email Message

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