Use the Working Budget to see what your project costs your client as you source items, and to compare it with the estimate you saved when you moved from the Preliminary Budget. Budgets are available on the Core Plus plan.
Step 1: Open The Working Budget
Open your project's Budgets tab and choose Working.
Preliminary Snapshot shows the estimate Gather saved when you moved to Working. It is a read-only record and does not change as you edit the Working Budget.
Step 2: Compare Working With Your Estimate
In Items, the table is split into column groups:
Item Info: the item's name and details.
Estimate: the values you planned for each item.
Working Budget: current cost, quantity, markup and client price.
Actuals: what the item costs on its purchase orders. See Understand and Track Actuals.
Select the arrow on a group's header to collapse or expand it.
Client Price Diff compares each item's Working extended client price with its Estimate. Green means the item now costs your client less than you planned. Red means it costs more. The total at the bottom adds up the difference for every item.
If your plan changes, you can adjust an estimate.
Open the Estimate group and edit an item's cost, quantity or markup. Gather asks you to confirm first. Changing an estimate changes what the Working Budget is compared with. It does not change the Preliminary Snapshot.
Step 3: Change A Cost
Working values come from each item's linked product, so change a price on the item itself. Hover over the item's cost and select Open item to edit. Then select the Pricing tab to update or add pricing. The budget updates to match.
An item that is on a purchase order is locked on the Product Board. To change what an ordered item costs, edit the purchase order directly from the order system. Actuals in the budget shows the new cost, and your Product Board stays as it was, so what you told your client doesn't change.
Step 4: Add An Item
If something new comes up after you move to Working, add it from the bottom of the Items table. Select the arrow on New Row, then choose:
Import from Product Board: select the items you want and choose Add Items.
Blank row: add an empty row and fill in the item's details.
An imported item comes in with its current price as its Estimate, so its Client Price Diff starts at $0.00. New rows appear at the end of the table. Search for the item's name to bring it into view.
To remove an item from the Working Budget, select the three dots on its row and choose Remove from budget. The same prompt lets you also archive the linked product on the Product Board.
Step 5: Check How Much Is Left
The bar at the bottom of Budgets shows your Working Total against your client's budget, and how much remains. The bar changes color as you get close to the total.
Hover over the bar to open the allocation view. It compares Items, Additional Costs, and Design Fees with their estimates. A group's bar turns orange as it nears its estimate and red once it goes over.
Troubleshooting
Problem | What to check |
An item shows a red difference, and I did not change it | The item may have had no estimate when it was added, for example, a placeholder that you priced later. Edit its estimate if it should have one. |
I cannot edit an item's price | The item is on a purchase order. Edit the order instead. |
An item's Working pricing is blank | Check the linked product and its pricing. The estimate does not fill in for missing Working pricing. |