Building a budget with cost codes

A project budget is the financial backbone of every job. Buildra builds budgets around cost codes — a structured set of line items organized by CSI division or your custom hierarchy. Done right, the budget feeds change order tracking, pay applications, and forecasting without ever asking you to enter the same number twice.

Three ways to start

1. From a template. Pick a Buildra-provided template (Residential remodel, New construction SFR, Light commercial TI) and customize.
2. From a prior project. Copy the budget structure from any prior project; line item amounts reset to zero.
3. From a CSV import. If your estimator works in Excel, export to CSV and import.

The five steps

1. Go to /projects/<id>/budget.
2. Click Start budget and pick a starting method (template, copy, import, or blank).
3. Review and adjust the cost code structure. You can rename codes, add new ones, or merge codes you do not need.
4. Fill in budget amounts for each line. Buildra rolls up totals by division automatically.
5. Click Lock budget when finalized. From this point on, changes are tracked as change orders.

Tip: Lock the budget early. An unlocked budget is a moving target; a locked budget with explicit change orders is a defensible record.

Cost code structure

Buildra defaults to a residential-friendly CSI structure: Division 01 (General Conditions), Division 06 (Wood, Plastics & Composites), Division 09 (Finishes), etc. Each division has 5-15 line items. You can fully customize the structure under /settings/cost-codes.

Subcontract vs. self-perform

For each line item, tag it as Self-perform (your labor) or Subcontract (vendor labor). Tagging drives downstream behavior:

• Self-perform lines feed labor reports against time entries.
• Subcontract lines feed commitment tracking and the vendor invoice flow.

Contingency

Add a contingency line under General Conditions. The recommended starting point is 5% for new construction and 10% for remodels. Contingency draws happen via change order with a special “draw from contingency” flag.

Revising the budget

After lock, all changes happen through change orders. The current budget at any point is the original budget plus approved change orders. The budget page shows three columns:

• Original budget. Frozen at lock.
• Approved changes. Sum of approved change orders.
• Current budget. Original + approved.

A fourth optional column, Forecast, shows your latest expected cost-to-complete based on actuals plus open commitments. The variance between Current and Forecast is your forecasted overrun (or savings) by line.

Exporting

From the budget page, export to PDF (formatted for owner consumption), CSV (for spreadsheet work), or QuickBooks (creates items in the QBO chart of accounts).

Common mistakes

• Over-detailing.A 200-line budget reads as precise but is impossible to maintain. Aim for 40–80 lines.
• No contingency. Even on a fixed-price job, contingency keeps you honest when scope creeps.
• Skipping the lock. Without a locked baseline, there is nothing to measure change orders against.