How to Track Your Project Budget: Forecast vs Actuals

This article explains how to use Billdr Pro’s budget table to track costs and profits on a project. It walks you through assigning cost codes, organizing expenses, handling change orders, and linking invoices to the correct categories / divisions.

Written By Francois Jullien

Last updated 22 days ago

Full Guide: How to Use the Budget in Billdr Pro

The budget table in Billdr Pro helps you compare your expected costs and profits with actual expenses and revenue throughout the project.

1. Start with Your Categories and Cost Codes

  • When you create a new project, the budget table will be empty.

  • Go to your quote and assign a cost code to each category. These codes are based on:

    • Divisions (e.g., electrical, painting)

    • Subdivisions (more detailed subcategories)

  • To set this up efficiently:

    • First, define your cost code from here

    • Make sure your categories match a cost-code in your quote

2. Populate Your Budget Table

  • Once the quote is signed and your contract is created, your budget table will populate automatically with:

    • Forecasted costs

    • Expected profit

    • Planned invoice amounts

  • Add markup in your contract to define profit expectations. This is critical for the profit side of your forecast vs actuals.

3. Handle Change Orders

  • When a client requests changes (e.g., upgrading tiles):

    • Open the change order from the Contract page

    • Add the appropriate category from the contract or catalog

    • It will pull in the right division automatically if the cost-code is associated with the category

4. Track Actual Expenses

  • Billdr Pro tracks actual expenses from:

    • Purchase orders

    • Expenses/Receipts

    • Invoices

  • To review uncategorized expenses:

    • Go to the Expenses tab

    • Assign them to the correct cost codes

    • Once categorized, expenses will automatically show up in the right budget row

5. Monitor Budget Status

  • Open divisions to see how much you’ve spent at a detailed level

  • For example, you might see:

    • Electrical is fully spent (no budget left)

    • Painting still has $320 remaining

6. Connect Invoices to the Budget

  • If you create an invoice from expenses, cost codes are inherited automatically

  • If invoicing from a change order or the initial contract, cost codes are pre-assigned

  • If invoicing from the payment schedule, you’ll need to:

    • Go to the Invoices tab

    • Click the field to assign cost codes manually