Investment budget

What the budget is

Every company in the Execution phase has one document that says what it will be paid for the works. BuildColab names it by your position in the chain:

The budget is the baseline for everything that follows: payment applications are made against it, change orders create its new versions, the schedule is built on it, and the financial dashboard compares it with your costs. That is why it is read-only: both sides of a contract must keep the same numbers, and every change goes through a change order.

• A project has one budget per company. /projects/{project}/budget always opens it; /projects/{project}/budget/{boq} opens a specific document, for example from the project page tile.
• The page always shows the latest version, in full, with all categories and the grand total in the header. Older versions are in the change history.
• If your company has no budget yet, the page shows "No bills of quantities available" (Няма налични количествено стойностни сметки).

How an investor gets a budget

An investor prepares one or more budget drafts in the Budgeting phase, then accepts one of them. Accepting is described in detail on BoQ documents and versions list and Partial acceptance. In short:

1. Price every position of the draft. A draft with a zero total or with positions priced 0 cannot be accepted as a whole.
2. On the Drafts page click Budget acceptance (Приемане на бюджет) on the draft card and confirm with Yes (Да). To accept only the priced part, open the draft and use Accept part of the budget; the rest moves to Draft - budget changes (Чернова - промени по бюджет).
3. The draft becomes the budget, the project moves to Execution, and BuildColab signs a contract of your company with itself on the accepted version. That self-contract is the baseline that payment applications and change orders run against.

1. The page title Budget (Бюджет) or Contract with client (Договор с възложител) with the project name.
2. The Categories (Категории) button in the action bar.
3. The switch Costs (committed · certified · margin) (Разходи (ангажимент · сертифицирано · марж)) in the categories panel.
4. The Committed (Ангажимент), Certified (Сертифицирано) and Margin (Марж) columns.
5. A Committed value changed by a change order: the small figure next to it is the difference from the previous commitment (here +1 225,00). A margin below zero would be shown in red: you contracted more than the budget line.

The action bar on the budget page

The word "Reports" has two meanings in English. In this action bar Reports (Отчети) means payment applications. The time-phased cost and resource reports are on the separate Reports (Справки) screen; see Reports.

How to show committed, certified and margin in the budget

1. Open Budget or Contract with client in the project sidebar.
2. Click Categories (Категории) in the action bar.
3. Switch on Costs (committed · certified · margin) (Разходи (ангажимент · сертифицирано · марж)).
4. Three columns appear after the line value: Committed, Certified, Margin. Category rows show the totals of their lines.

A line with no subcontract shows a dash; hovering it in Committed shows "Not committed" (Несвързано). The full rules, including how lines are matched, are on Financial dashboard: committed, certified, margin.

The Commitments window

Click a value in Committed to open Commitments (Ангажименти). It lists every subcontract line counted on the budget line: subcontractor, contract, quantity × unit price and a status:

• "by structure" (по структура) marks a contract line matched to the budget line by its place in the BoQ structure rather than by a direct link; "note differs" (бележката е различна) means the two lines have different notes.
• "Commitment {delta} vs previous · {change order}" shows the last change order that moved the amount.
• History (История) expands older, inactive commitments. "No active commitment" (Няма активен ангажимент) means nothing currently counts.

If a budget line was carried into a change order that is not finalized yet, its commitment has no line in the current budget for a while. A banner Commitment without a live line (Ангажимент без жива позиция) above the BoQ shows such amounts: "The budget line was carried into a change order that has not been finalized yet". After the change order is finalized, the commitment returns to its line.

If the costs cannot be loaded, you see "The costs could not be loaded — the cost columns are incomplete." with Try again (Опитай отново).

1. The Committed value that was clicked.
2. A commitment with subcontractor, contract, quantity × unit price and the Active (Активен) status.
3. The History (История) section.
4. A Superseded (Заменен) commitment replaced by a change order.

How to change the budget

The budget itself is never edited in place. Depending on the situation:

• Investor, ordinary change: click Budget changes (Промени по бюджет) and start a change; when it is finalized, the budget gets a new version. See Change orders and extensions.
• Investor after a partial acceptance: continue the remaining lines in Draft - budget changes on the Drafts page and accept them later; each acceptance adds a new version. See Partial acceptance.
• Contractor: your client changes the contract through a change order; you accept or decline it. If your client sent a contract update request, the project page shows You have a contract update request with Make a change.

How to bill against the budget

1. Click Reports (Отчети) in the Related group of the action bar.
2. In the payment applications panel, create a new payment application or continue a draft, and send it for approval.
3. The approved total appears on the project page under Reported (Отчетено) and in the financial dashboard.

The whole process is described in Payment applications.

Common questions

Related

• BoQ documents and versions list
• Partial acceptance
• Change orders and extensions
• Payment applications
• Financial dashboard: committed, certified, margin
• Costs