Over-budget check on site material requests
Each site material request shows what it will likely cost and what is left on its budget line, before anyone orders. A request that goes over is flagged for its approvers, with an approval chain of its own, or blocked until the budget is revised.
PLANSFrom Growth
The problem it solves
- The budget is checked when the purchase order is placed, but by then the site has been promised the material.
- Two engineers ask for the same cost head in the same week, and each request looks fine on its own.
- The approver signs a request without knowing it eats the last of the steel budget.
How it works
- Approve the project's building budget. From then on every material request of the project is checked against it.
- Site staff add the materials as usual. Each line shows its Likely Cost and the Budget Left on its budget line.
- The Budget tab shows the request's likely cost and whether it is within or over the budget. A red band says when it goes over.
- On Send for Approval, the costs are refreshed and the check runs again. The request is marked Over Budget, with by how much.
- An over-budget request goes to the chain Over the budget, where you can add a director. Or, with Block It, it is not sent until the budget is revised.
Everything it does
How it is worked out
- Likely Cost: the material's cost price x the quantity, in the project's currency, converted for the line's unit
- Budget line: the line of the cost code at the request's place, else that cost code's whole-project line
- Cost code: the request line's own, else the project's Material Cost Code
- Budget Left: current budget less committed, less spent, less what other open requests still ask
- Open requests are those waiting, approved or ordered; only their part not yet ordered counts
What counts as over
- A budget line asked for more than is left on it
- A priced material whose cost code is not in the budget: all of it is over
- A material with no cost price, or no cost code anywhere, is not checked; the Budget tab says so
- No approved budget: the request shows No Approved Budget and is not checked
On the request
- Material tab: Likely Cost and Budget Left per line, Budget Line as an optional column; lines over the budget in red
- Budget tab: Likely Cost, Within the Budget or Over the Budget, the check, and Over by once sent
- Over Budget is kept as it was when sent, and written in the chatter
- List column and search filter Over Budget
Flag or block
- Flag It, the Approver Decides: the default; the request is sent marked over
- Block It: Send for Approval stops and lists each budget line, what was asked and what is left
- Set per entity
Who uses it
Site engineer or supervisorSees the likely cost and the budget left while asking, on the web or in the app.
Approver in the chainSees which requests went over and by how much, and approves or sends them back.
Construction ManagerRevises the budget when a request is blocked, and sets the Material Cost Code on the project.
Construction AdministratorChooses Flag It or Block It, and adds levels to the chain Over the budget.
Where you use it
- Web: Construction > Site > Material > Material Requests (the Material and Budget tabs, the Over Budget filter)
- Web: Construction > Projects > Configuration > Costs and Payments > Budget Settings (Site Material Requests)
- The SmartMy Construction app: likely cost, budget left and over or within as lines are added, and whether it will be blocked. Built and in testing, not in the app stores yet
- Not without signal: the app shows no check offline, and the server checks the request when it is sent
What you control
Settings
- Requests over the budget: Flag It, the Approver Decides (default) or Block It
- The project's Material Cost Code, for lines without a cost code
- The chain Over the budget: the usual approvers to start with
Approvals
- Site Material Request: Construction Managers approve to start with
- Over the budget: a chain made for every entity, used only for requests marked Over Budget. It starts with the usual approvers, and you add levels such as a director
Notifications
- Approvers get each request in Approvals and as a to-do
- No message of its own when a request goes over; it shows on the request, in the list and in the chatter
Questions
Where does the likely cost come from?
From each material's cost price, times the quantity asked. Keep cost prices up to date on your materials; a material with no cost price is not checked.Do other requests waiting for approval count?
Yes. Requests waiting, approved or ordered take their part not yet ordered off the budget left. Two requests for the same cost head cannot both look fine.Can site staff see the whole budget?
No. They see the likely cost of their request and the budget left on the lines it uses. Budgets themselves are for Construction Managers.Is the purchase order still checked?
Yes. When the order is confirmed, its lines are checked against the budget again, and an order past the budget needs a Construction Manager.What happens to a blocked request?
It stays a draft with the list of what went over. Revise the budget through a budget revision, or reduce the request, then send it again.Related features
MONEYMaterial requests, orders, transfers and issuesSite staff ask for material from the site or the app, and a manager approves. The request becomes a purchase order to the site store or a transfer from another site. What arrives is issued to the work, a place or a subcontractor. Every order carries the project, cost code and place.MONEYBuilding budget with 80 and 100 % alertsOne budget per project, by cost code and place, approved once and changed only by approved revisions. Costs from site flow into it every hour. The project manager is told when a line passes 80 % and 100 % used.MONEYCommitments, forecast and over-budget checksEvery budget line shows what is already ordered or contracted, what is spent, what is still to come and where the line will end. A project purchase order that goes past what is left of its line needs a Construction Manager to confirm it.ACROSS SMARTMY CONSTRUCTIONApproval chainsBudgets, material requests, wage runs, work orders, subcontractor and client bills, client updates, piece work, permits and more need approval. They go to the right people in order, set up without code. Every decision is kept with who made it, when and why.PORTAL AND APPThe SmartMy Construction app, also offlineOne app for Android and iPhone for the people on site. It has today's site report with photos, the muster roll and check-in, snags and inspections. It also has material requests and issues, measurements, plant log sheets and safety. What is entered without signal is kept on the phone and sent when the signal is back. Clients, subcontractors and buyers use the same app for their own pages.
See your next site report on it.
Tell us what you build, how many sites you run and how your client hears about progress today. We will set up a project with you and send your first daily update.