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 ReceivableLookup window, and the detail button displays the 3-5 Jobs (Accounts Receivable) window.

To create a budget:

  1. Open 6-2 Budgets.
  2. Using the data control, select a specific job.
  3. In the Phase list, click the phase for which you want to create a budget.
  4. 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.
  5. In the grid, for each cost code:

    1. In the Hours cell, enter the estimated hours if the cost code has associated labor costs.
    2. In the Material cell, enter the material costs.
    3. In the Labor cell, enter the labor costs.
    4. In the Equipment cell, enter the equipment costs.
    5. In the Subcontract cell, enter the subcontract costs.
    6. In the Other cell, enter the miscellaneous costs.
  6. Click File > Save.

Note: If you exported the budget from Takeoffs, Sage 100 Contractor inserts the data from the takeoff.