Project budgets by OPEX and CAPEX
Each project gets a budget by cost category, marked OPEX or CAPEX, approved before it counts. Time, expenses, orders, bills and store issues fill it by themselves, with alerts at 80 % and over 100 %.
PLANSScale only
The problem it solves
- The budget sits in a spreadsheet that nobody updates once the project starts.
- You find out a project went over when the month's accounts close, not when the order was placed.
- Running costs and equipment you keep are mixed, so finance cannot split OPEX from CAPEX.
How it works
- Make a budget from the project's Budget tab: one line per category, such as Team Time or Materials, with its planned amount.
- Send it for approval in the Project Budget chain; a Projects Manager approves to start with.
- Approved, it is the project's budget. Approved time, expenses, purchase orders, vendor bills and store issues post to its lines by themselves.
- Each line shows planned, committed, actual and available; used % turns orange near the limit and red when over.
- A cost that would go over is recorded, warned or blocked, as your setting says.
- To raise or lower it, make a Budget Change with the reason. Approved, the lines change and the version goes up.
Everything it does
Categories
- Seven ready to use: Team Time, Materials, Subcontracts and Freelancers, Travel and Expenses, Software and Services, Equipment and Assets, Other Costs
- Each is OPEX or CAPEX; Equipment and Assets is CAPEX, the rest OPEX
- A cost type per category (labour, material, subcontract, expense, purchase, other) decides where costs land
- Add, edit or archive categories, for one entity or all
The budget
- Name, project, From and To dates, lines with category, OPEX or CAPEX and planned amount
- Totals: planned, committed, actual, available, OPEX and CAPEX planned, used %
- Statuses: Draft, To Approve, Approved, Rejected, Closed
- One approved budget per project; approving a new one closes the old one and moves its rows across
- Withdraw while it waits; an approved budget is closed, not withdrawn
What fills it
- Committed: confirmed purchase orders and approved store requests not yet billed or sent
- Actual: approved time (hours x cost per hour), approved expenses and settlements, posted vendor bills, store issues
- Revenue: posted customer invoices that carry the project
- A cost with no line of its category is kept as Not in the Budget
- Undoing a document removes its rows
Control and alerts
- When a cost goes over: Off (record only), Warn (the starting setting) or Block
- The check takes what is left on the line, less what other expenses waiting for approval already hold
- Refunds and negative amounts are never checked
- Alert at 80 % (a setting) and again over 100 %, once per level; going back under resets it
Changes and the ledger
- Budget Change: what changes, why, and lines that raise, lower or add a category; a line cannot go below zero
- Budget Ledger: every row with date, line, kind, source, document and amount; open the document from the row
- Budget Lines: every approved line, with Over Budget and Near the Limit filters
- A Projects Administrator can add a correction by hand and link the order, bill or invoice
Who uses it
Project managerPrepares the budget and its changes, watches the lines, and gets the alerts.
Projects ManagerApproves budgets and budget changes, or their first level in the chain.
Finance or directorApproves large budgets at a later level of the chain, for example above an amount.
Projects AdministratorSets up categories, budget control and the alert %, and corrects the ledger by hand.
Where you use it
- Web: the project's Budget tab, and Projects > Money > Budgets > Budgets, Budget Lines, Budget Changes and Budget Ledger
- Projects > Configuration > Money > Budget Categories; Settings > Project Budgets for control and the alert %
- Not in the phone app and not on the client portal
What you control
Settings
- When a cost goes over: Off, Warn (the starting setting) or Block, per entity
- Alert at (%): 80 to start with, per entity
- Budget categories, their OPEX or CAPEX and cost type
- The Project Budget and Budget Change approval chains
Approvals
- Project Budget: a Projects Manager approves to start with; add levels or a chain for amounts above a value
- Budget Change: the same, on the size of the change
Notifications
- Project Budget Alert: to the project manager at the alert % and over 100 %, in the app and by email
- Request Waits for Your Approval: to the approvers of budgets and changes, with a to-do
Works with
SmartMy HRMSWith payroll, the cost of time on the budget is each person's real cost per hour from their salary.
Questions
Can a budget block spending?
Yes. Set When a cost goes over to Block. An expense, purchase order or store request that is more than its line has left is refused, with how much is left.Can we budget by phase or by month?
Not as such. A budget has lines by category and optional From and To dates. For phases, make a budget per phase in turn; approving the next one closes the one before.Does the budget include subcontractor costs?
Yes, once the subcontractor's approved bill becomes a vendor bill and is posted, on the Subcontracts and Freelancers line. A running work order is not counted as committed.Which plan has it?
Scale. Expenses without budgets are in Growth.Related features
MONEYPurchase orders, bills and invoices on the budgetPut a project on a purchase order and it is committed on that project's budget when confirmed. Its vendor bill turns the commitment into actual cost, and customer invoices with the project count as revenue.MONEYMaterial requests from the storeMaterial asked from your store for a project is committed on its budget when approved, at the items' cost. What the store sends becomes actual cost, and the store buys only what it does not have.MONEYProject expenses, advances and settlementsYour team claims what they spent on a project, asks for an advance before a trip and settles it after. The project manager approves each one. Payments are recorded by method with proof, and a supplier's expense becomes a draft vendor bill.MONEYProfitability per projectOne row per project with revenue, cost, margin and budget used, read from the project's budget ledger. Time is costed at each person's cost per hour, and filters show the projects losing money or over budget.ACROSS SMARTMY PROJECTSApproval chainsTimesheets, billing runs, expenses, budgets, stage overrides and subcontract work go to the right people in the right order, set up by you without code. Every decision is kept with who made it, when and why.MONEYSubcontract work orders with certified measured workGive work to freelancers and subcontractors on a work order with item lines and rates. Work done is measured and certified by a Projects Manager. Running bills work out retention, advance recovery, back-charges and withholding tax.
See your next project on it.
Tell us how many people keep time, how you bill your clients today (hours, fixed price, retainers) and what you use now. We will set up one of your real projects with you.