Resources/Templates/Construction budget
Free template
Plan and track job costs by category: budgeted, committed, actual, variance and percent spent, with a contingency line, a change order line and a summary at the top. The Excel file does the math; the PDF is ready to print.
[Your company name] · Job # [Number]
Every approved change and every contingency draw, dated and explained.
What’s in it
Original budget, approved change orders, revised budget, committed, actual to date, variance, percent spent and contingency left.
From design and permits to cleanup, with blank rows for your own. Rename them to match how you estimate.
Three money columns for every category: what you planned, what you’ve signed for, and what you’ve paid.
Excel works them out on every line and turns overruns red, so problems stand out.
Set contingency as your own percent of the subtotal, then log each draw so you know what’s left.
Approved change orders raise the budget. Pending and rejected ones are listed but don’t count.
How to fill it in
FAQ
Committed cost is what you’ve agreed to pay: signed subcontracts and purchase orders, paid or not. Actual cost is what you’ve paid or been billed so far. Tracking both shows an overrun when you sign for it, before the bills arrive.
There’s no single right number. It depends on how many unknowns the job has, such as the age of the house, work behind walls, and how complete the plans are. The template leaves the percent blank so you can set it for each job. See contingency in the glossary.
An approved change order adds its cost to the budget on the change order line. Charge the cost of that work to the same line, so the original categories still compare with your original estimate. Put each change on a signed change order first.
No. The estimate is the price you give the client. The budget is your plan for what the job will cost you. Comparing the two, and then the budget with actual costs, is the heart of job costing.
At least at every payment draw, and any time you sign a sub or a large purchase order. On busy jobs, a quick weekly update keeps surprises small.
Yes. Enter your estimated cost per category as the budget, then record commitments and actual costs as the job runs. The variance and percent-spent columns show where the job is making or losing money while there’s still time to act. For profit per job across all your jobs, ECHOPS reports sales, materials and labor; see job costing software.
Yes. The 18 cost categories run from design and permits to cleanup, so they fit a kitchen, bath or whole-home renovation as well as new construction. Rename the categories to match how you estimate, delete what you don’t need, and set a contingency for what may be behind the walls. It’s a free Excel file for residential jobs, with a printable PDF.
The preview at the top of this page shows the layout: a summary with original budget, approved change orders, revised budget and variance, then a line per cost category with budgeted, actual and variance, plus contingency and change order lines. Fill it in from your own estimate’s costs; a sample budget only becomes useful once it holds your numbers.
Related
Price and schedule changes in writing, signed before the work.
Get the template →Line items, tax and totals, with an Excel version that does the math.
Get the template →Turn cost into a price at any markup or margin.
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