Plan the cost before the job starts
Sixteen categories from site setup through handover, each split into labour, materials, subcontract and equipment, with the original budget and approved revisions kept apart. Put the contract and change orders at the top, set your contingency and overhead, and the sheet shows the margin the plan actually leaves you. The example is the fictional ensuite job from our estimate and job costing templates, to the cent.
Excel / Google Sheets compatible · blank budget and a filled example · no sign-up required
Template and page last reviewed November 4, 2026.
What is in the file
| Category | Labour | Materials | Subcontract | Equipment | Original | Revisions | Revised |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 General conditions & site setup | |||||||
| 02 Demolition | $1,200.00 | $450.00 | $1,650.00 | $1,650.00 | |||
| 03 Excavation & foundations | |||||||
| 04 Framing & structure | |||||||
| 05 Roofing & envelope | |||||||
| 06 Windows & exterior doors | |||||||
| 07 Mechanical / HVAC | |||||||
| 08 Plumbing | $2,800.00 | $2,400.00 | $5,200.00 | $1,100.00 | $6,300.00 | ||
| 09 Electrical | |||||||
| 10 Insulation & vapour barrier | |||||||
| 11 Drywall & interior finishes | |||||||
| 12 Flooring | $936.00 | $971.00 | $1,907.00 | $1,907.00 | |||
| 13 Painting & decorating | $650.00 | $650.00 | $650.00 | ||||
| 14 Cabinetry & millwork | |||||||
| 15 Landscaping & site restoration | |||||||
| 16 Cleanup & handover | |||||||
| Direct cost | $2,786.00 | $3,771.00 | $2,400.00 | $450.00 | $9,407.00 | $1,100.00 | $10,507.00 |
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Revised contract, before tax (estimate plus CO-001) | $12,550.26 |
| Revised direct cost | $10,507.00 |
| Gross profit on direct cost (16.3%) | $2,043.26 |
| Contingency, 5% of direct cost | $525.35 |
| Overhead allocation, 10% of direct cost | $1,050.70 |
| Left after contingency and overhead (3.7%) | $467.21 |
Four steps to a working document
Split every category four ways
Labour, materials, subcontract and equipment per category. The split is what makes the budget useful later: a category over budget tells you little, but one over on labour and fine on materials tells you what happened.
Revise in its own column
When a change order adds cost, enter it under approved revisions with the reference, and leave the original alone. The example's CO-001 adds $1,100 to plumbing and fixtures; the original $9,407 stays visible next to the revised $10,507.
Carry a real contingency
It is a line with a number, not a hope. The sheet holds it, and overhead, as percentages of direct cost that you can see and change.
Read the margin, then decide
The sheet shows gross profit on direct cost and what is left after contingency and overhead. In the example that is 16.3% and 3.7%. If the second number is thinner than you expected, this is the cheapest moment in the job to find out.
Planned margin is not earned margin. This is the plan; what the job actually did is budget against actual, which is the job costing template. Contingency and overhead here are percentage allocations you set, not your real business overhead: if you have not worked out what your overhead costs per month, the percentage in this sheet is a placeholder rather than an answer.
When the spreadsheet stops scaling
In BuildersBridge an approved estimate's cost becomes the job budget when none is set, and issued purchase orders show as committed cost against it. Approving a change order raises the contract, not the budget, so add the change's cost to the budget yourself, as the revisions column does here.
See how it works in BuildersBridgeCommon questions
How is a budget different from a job costing sheet?
A budget is the plan made before the work starts. Job costing compares what actually happened against that plan: committed, actual, forecast and variance by code. Same job, two documents. The example's revised budget of $10,507 is the budget the job costing template measures against.
Why keep the original budget and revisions separate?
Because a budget overwritten with every change can no longer show what the job was priced to cost. Keeping the original and adding approved revisions beside it lets you tell an approved scope change from an overrun.
What contingency should I carry?
It depends on how well the scope is defined and who carries the risk of what is found. The example uses the default 5% on a small renovation whose scope prices repairs found behind finishes as a change order. Where hidden conditions are your risk, carry more.
Should overhead be in the job budget?
Some builders allocate it per job and some carry it only at the business level. The template shows gross profit on direct cost, the same measure job costing reports, and then what is left after an overhead percentage you choose, so you can read both.
Why is the margin after overhead so much lower than the markup?
Markup is on cost and margin is on price, and contingency and overhead come out of the gap. In the example the estimate's 18% markup and the change order together leave 16.3% gross margin on the revised contract; after 5% contingency and 10% overhead on direct cost, 3.7% is left. That is a fictional example, not a benchmark.
Can I add my own cost categories?
Yes. The sixteen are a residential starting point; insert rows and the totals follow. Keep the same categories across jobs, because the value of the split is comparison.