Work a project's budget

One working ledger of cost codes, then the financing underneath it, then the invoices billed against it.

The budget tab opens on four numbers: the budget, what has been spent, what remains, and the borrower's share. Under them sits the working ledger, which is the developer's own cost codes. Under that sits financing, and under that the invoice register.

The ledger stands on its own. A project has a budget before it has a lender, and an all-equity deal never gets one, so nothing here waits on a loan to exist. Loans attach underneath with their facility, their lender lines and their terms.

Reading a cost code row

A row reads as a sentence about the code: this is what it holds, this is what has already been promised out of it, this is what has actually been billed, and this is what is left.

Committed sits between budget and spent because that is where it falls in the sentence. A commitment is spending that has been decided and has not arrived yet.

Remaining is budget less spent, not budget less committed. Subtracting both would count the same money twice on its way through, and a subcontract that has been fully invoiced would read as consuming its line twice over. Where a line is promised past its budget, the committed figure says so on its own.

Moves and change orders

Two different things can change a budget and the page keeps them apart. A reallocation moves money between cost codes and leaves the total exactly where it was. A change order is new scope and new money, and it moves the total.

That distinction is the reason a budget can grow without anybody deciding that it should, so both live on this page where the difference is visible.

The views under the page

Financing, the lender line map, invoices, borrower funds and the interest reserve are views off this page rather than separate screens. You reach each one from the row that summarises it, and the page returns to that view after a change, so the page opens on the numbers you came for.