Job costing that shows budget vs. actual in real time
See exactly where every job stands: budget, committed cost from purchase orders, actual cost from approved vendor bills and logged labour, and what remains — updated the moment you approve a bill. No spreadsheets, no month-end surprises.
The problem
Most builders don't know a job is over budget until the final invoice. Estimates live in one place, POs in another, and vendor bills in a shoebox — so there's no single number for what a job has actually committed and spent versus what it was budgeted.
How BuildersBridge solves it
Budget → Committed → Actual → Remaining
Every active job shows its budget, committed cost from issued POs not yet billed, actual cost from approved bills and logged labour, and what's left — as one live row, with a forecast and projected profit on the job.
Purchase orders that commit cost
Issue POs to suppliers and subs; once sent, each PO counts as committed cost until bills recorded against it replace it with actual cost.
Bills that become actuals
Approve a vendor bill and it rolls straight into the job's actual cost and the remaining-budget figure.
Change orders that protect margin
Approved change orders are added to the revised contract and pending ones are shown separately, so you can see what scope changes are worth before they are billed. Raise the budget when a change adds cost.
Worked example: the same job before every invoice has arrived
The ensuite from the estimating example, two weeks in. Three purchase orders are out, two vendor bills and a disposal bill are approved, and the crew has logged 40 hours. These are the figures the project screen would show for these records.
| Record | Status | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| PO: tile and setting materials | Received, billed in full | $971.00 |
| PO: vanity, toilet and fixtures | Sent, no bill yet | $2,800.00 |
| PO: plumbing sub | Sent, rough-in billed | $2,400.00 |
| Bill: plumbing rough-in, against its PO | Approved | $1,200.00 |
| Bill: disposal bin, no PO | Approved | $450.00 |
| Labour: 40 h at a $52 cost rate | Logged | $2,080.00 |
| Change order: niche and glass door | Approved by client | $1,450.00 |
| Change order: heated floor | Sent, not approved | $900.00 |
| Figure | Amount | How it is worked out |
|---|---|---|
| Budget | $9,407.00 | Cost of the approved estimate |
| Committed | $4,000.00 | Issued POs less the bills already recorded against them |
| Actual | $4,701.00 | Approved bills plus priced labour |
| Remaining budget | $706.00 | Budget less actual and committed |
| Forecast cost | $9,407.00 | The larger of budget, or actual plus committed |
| Revised contract | $12,550.26 | Approved estimate plus approved change orders |
| Projected gross profit | $3,143.26 | Revised contract less forecast cost |
Only $2,621.00 of vendor bills has arrived, but 92.5% of the budget is already spent or promised, so the job is flagged at risk now rather than at the final invoice. The approved change order raised the contract, not the budget: if the niche and door add cost, raise the budget to match, or the profit figure will look better than it is.
What it does today, and what it does not
- Works todayBudget, committed, actual, remaining, forecast and projected profit per job, worked out from the POs, bills, labour and change orders on it.
- You do thisApproving a change order raises the contract, not the budget. Raise the budget yourself when the change adds cost.
- Plan limitLabour hours from timesheets reach job cost on the Pro and Enterprise plans, where time tracking is included. On Team and Growth, labour cost comes in through bills or is tracked outside the app.
- Not yet builtQuickBooks and Xero sync are in development, so bills are entered in BuildersBridge rather than pulled from your accounting system.
Frequently asked questions
- Are job costing programs different from full construction software?
- Standalone job costing programs tell you what a job consumed, but somebody still has to feed them the budget and the bills. Here the budget arrives from the approved estimate and the costs arrive from purchase orders and vendor bills already in the system, so the costing is a view of work that already happened rather than a second round of data entry.
- What is job costing in construction?
- Job costing tracks the money on a specific project — its budget, the costs committed via purchase orders and subcontracts, and the actual costs billed — so a builder can see budget-vs-actual and protect margin before the job is finished.
- How does committed cost differ from actual cost?
- Committed cost is money you've obligated through purchase orders that haven't been billed yet. Actual (billed) cost is what approved vendor bills have added. BuildersBridge shows both, plus remaining budget, on every job.
- Does approving a bill update the budget?
- It updates the job's position, not the budget itself. When you approve a vendor bill against a project, actual cost and remaining budget recalculate straight away; the budget figure only changes when you change it.
- Can I see profit across all active jobs?
- The Financials view rolls budget, committed, billed, and remaining across every active job, so you see company-wide exposure at a glance.
- What does a budget variance look like here?
- A job budgeted at $80,000 with $31,000 of approved bills and $52,000 of issued POs not yet billed has $83,000 spent or promised. Remaining budget shows −$3,000 and the job is flagged over budget while it is still running, not at the final invoice.
- How do I track construction job costs before all supplier invoices arrive?
- Issue a purchase order when you order the material or book the sub. From the day it is sent, its amount counts as committed cost on the job, so the budget shows the spend before the supplier invoices. When the bill arrives and is approved against the PO, that part moves from committed to actual. In the worked example below, only $2,621 of bills has arrived but 92.5% of the budget is already spent or promised.
See job costing software done right
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