Build an early estimate before you have chosen every product. Use the Preliminary Budget to plan item costs, additional costs and design fees, then compare the estimate with your targets.

Use Gather on the web: Budgets is not available on mobile. Mobile access is limited to project specifications, pricing, attachments and comments.

Create a project using Quick Start or Manual Setup.

If you choose Manual Setup, you can enter a client budget, markup, shipping percentage and tax percentage during project creation. These fields are optional. Any values you enter will populate your Budget when you set it up.

In your project, select Budgets, then Set Up Your Budget.

If you entered a client budget during project setup, it will already appear here. To change it, click the amount. If you have not entered one, select Set Total Client Budget. Enter the amount and press Enter to save.

Open Items to start building your estimate.

Select New Row, then Blank row.

Enter the item name and assign its Area. Add a Schedule and Type where useful.

Enter your estimated designer cost, quantity and markup, as applicable.

Review the extended client price before adding the next item.

If the product already exists on your Product Board, choose New Row, then Import from Product Board. Select the existing item in the import dialog and choose Add Items. This links your estimate to that product.

For example, four chairs with an estimated designer cost of $250 each and no markup have an extended client price of $1,000. This example excludes freight, tax and fees.

Example: a Preliminary item estimate with quantity, markup and extended client price.

Use Display Options to review your estimate by Areas, Schedules or Types. Each view shows the item costs allocated to those groups. Entering a group budget target does not add that amount to your Preliminary Total.

Review Additional Costs and Design Fees, including any values carried over from project setup, before comparing the Preliminary Total with your Total Client Budget.

Keep refining the Preliminary Budget until you are ready to move into product selection and active pricing. Moving to Working preserves a Preliminary Snapshot and is a one-way step. Review Move from Preliminary to Working Budget before advancing.