Creating budgets
Typically, you create a job before creating a budget. You can create new jobs in 3-5 Jobs (Accounts Receivable).
Important! To match historical job costs with a budget, you must enter them both using the same method.
Consider the following points before creating a budget:
- If you do not break costs apart into cost types, enter the total cost of each cost code in the Other column.
- If you perform unit-based work or issue unit-based change orders, Sage 100 Contractor automatically calculates the unit costs (based on the units entered in the Cost Code). Enter the quantity of units in the Quantity box.
- If you anticipate changes and want to preserve the current budget, set the original budget.
Important! Only four of the buttons in the data control activate areas in 6-2 Budgets: First, Previous, Next, and Last. The Display Lookup drop-down arrow displays the Accounts Receivable Lookup window, and the detail button displays the 3-5 Jobs (Accounts Receivable) window.
To create a budget:
- Open 6-2 Budgets.
- Using the data control, select a specific job.
- In the Phase list, click the phase for which you want to create a budget.
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To populate the budget grid with cost code values, do one of the following:
- To import cost codes from a Lookup window, right-click the cell and click Display Lookup Window, or click the drop-down arrow. Then double-click each item to import it into the budget.
- To import cost codes from a Picklist window, right-click the cell and click Display Pick List Window. Then double-click the items that you want to import into the budget. Next, click the Insert Selected Items button to import all the selected items into the budget.
- To import a *.budget_grid file, click Options, point to Import, then click Grid File. Browse to the appropriate file, then double-click it.
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In the grid, for each cost code:
- In the Hours cell, enter the estimated hours if the cost code has associated labor costs.
- In the Material cell, enter the material costs.
- In the Labor cell, enter the labor costs.
- In the Equipment cell, enter the equipment costs.
- In the Subcontract cell, enter the subcontract costs.
- In the Other cell, enter the miscellaneous costs.
- On the File menu, click Save.
Note: If you exported the budget from Takeoffs, Sage 100 Contractor inserts the data from the takeoff.