Project budgets are made up of combinations of Projects, Cost Codes and Cost Types (Accounts). When a project is initially created the Budget Status will default to ‘Not Initiated’ meaning that no budget has been created. Once budget lines are added, users can elect to ‘Submit’ or ‘Submit Later’. Submitting later changes the Budget Status to ‘Draft’, which saves the budget so far but will allow a user to continue editing at a later point. ‘Submit’ saves the budget so far, puts it in ‘Submitted’ Status and does not allow further edits to the budget. Users with the proper security (BlueCollar Global Permissions) however, can change the status from ‘Submitted’ back to ‘Draft’ in order to make necessary edits.
For the full set of budget terms and the status lifecycle, see Project Budget Overview.
Budget entry works like a spreadsheet. Open the budget for entry, right-click the row you want to add within, fill in the entry row, and press Enter. The division is worked out from the cost code you choose, so there is no longer a separate Division step.
After you add a line, the cost code stays selected as a chip so you can add several cost types to the same code without choosing it again. Click the × on the chip (Release this cost code) to pick a different code. Cancel closes the entry row and Esc clears the fields. If something is missing, the entry row tells you: Pick a cost code first., Pick a cost type first., or That cost type is already on this cost code.
Amounts on existing lines can still be changed by double-clicking the line at the Cost Type level.
There is no separate project picker. Child projects appear as nested project rows inside the parent's budget. Right-click the child's row (or one of its division or cost code rows) and the new line is added to that child, with the parent roll-up staying correct. If the child's own budget is Submitted, the add option is greyed out with the message Addition Unavailable: This project's budget status is Submitted. Please update the budget within that project. In that case, update the budget from the child project itself.
While the budget is in Draft, right-click a cost type line and choose Delete Budget Item. You do not need to be in Edit Budget mode. You are asked Do you want to remove the {cost type}? The option is greyed out when the line already has actual or committed costs, or when it belongs to another project. Deleting a budget item also removes its BC Project General History records, so nothing is left behind for that line.
In Submitted status the right-click menu is switched off, and Edit Budget is only offered while the budget is in Draft (or Not Initiated). To add or delete lines, a user with the right permission changes the status back to Draft first (see Project Budget Overview).
Alongside the dollar amounts, the budget grid also supports entering Original Hours, Original Units, and a Description on each line. These feed the budget's Hours and Units columns, which track right alongside the dollar budget — see Project Budget Overview for the full set of columns.
When you need to share the budget or work with it offline, you can export the grid to Excel (including the dollar, hours, and units columns) or to a printable PDF Budget Report.
Importing is valuable when standing up a new project from an estimate or migrating an existing job — you can load an entire budget in one pass rather than entering lines one at a time.
| Column | Required? | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Project | Required | The BlueCollar Project Name | Elm Street Office |
| Cost Code | Required | The Cost Code | 03000 - Concrete |
| Cost Type | Required | The GL Account | 50100 - Labor |
| Amount | Required | The budget amount | 125000.00 |
| External ID | Optional | No longer required. Include it only if you want to key the records by external ID (e.g. to update them later) — a common pattern is the Project Name plus a counter, such as Construction Project&1. |
Construction Project&1 |
| Original Hours | Optional | Budgeted hours for the line | 120 |
| Original Units | Optional | Budgeted units for the line | 40 |
Whether Budgets are imported or added manually the Current and Projected Estimate dates will take on the 'Contract Date' from the Project record. If the Contract Date is not populated then the Current and Projected Estimates will be dated as of {today}'s date or the Through Date populated on the Budget UI if adding manually.