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Budget (Job Costing)

The Budget Management module is the job costing layer of Vincore. It combines planned budget values, approved changes, committed cost, actual cost, and forecast balance into a single job, phase, and cost-code view.

Open Budget Management.

The current web UI includes these tabs:

  • Budgets
  • Initial Budget
  • Change Order Budget
  • Actual Cost
  • Committed Cost
  • Cost to Complete
  • Budget Reports

What Job Costing Means Here​

In Vincore, job costing is built from five financial buckets:

  • Initial Budget: baseline plan
  • Change Order Budget: approved adjustment to the plan
  • Committed Cost: obligations not yet fully realized
  • Actual Cost: cost already incurred or recognized
  • Cost to Complete: forecast of remaining spend

The Budgets tab rolls those buckets together by Job, Phase, and Cost Code.

End-to-End Workflow​

The typical operating sequence is:

  1. Create the WBS structure for Job, Phase, and Cost Code.
  2. Enter or import Initial Budget.
  3. Add approved scope changes in Change Order Budget.
  4. Let commitments flow from Inventory and Subcontract, or enter manual Committed Cost rows.
  5. Let actuals flow from operations, or enter manual Actual Cost rows.
  6. Forecast remaining spend in Cost to Complete.
  7. Review Budgets and Budget Reports for final job-costing visibility.

Workflow and Approval Rules​

  • Manual budget records use the shared status path open -> submitted -> approved.
  • Only approved manual rows are included in job costing.
  • Rows projected from Inventory or Subcontract are treated as approved automatically.
  • Projected rows are read-only inside Budget Management.
  • Approving manual budget rows requires an active approval workflow and a user role that matches an approval step.

Manage Period Controls​

  • Initial Budget, Change Order Budget, Actual Cost, Committed Cost, and Cost to Complete are checked against configured manage periods.
  • Create, edit, bulk save, and delete actions can be blocked when the target period is not open.
  • This protects job costing from back-dated changes in locked control periods.

Budget Summary Logic​

The consolidated job-costing values are calculated as:

  • Allocated Budget = Initial Budget + Change Order Budget
  • Spent = Actual Cost
  • Committed = remaining commitment balance
  • Remaining = Allocated Budget - Spent - Committed - Cost to Complete

This is what the Budgets tab uses for summary strips, grouped totals, and reports.

Tab-by-Tab Guidance​

Budgets​

Use Budgets as the final job-costing dashboard.

Behavior​

  • Shows only approved manual rows and projected rows
  • Groups results by Job, Phase, and Cost Code
  • Highlights over-budget positions through the calculated remaining balance

Initial Budget​

Use Initial Budget to capture the baseline cost plan.

Required fields​

  • Project
  • Cost Code
  • Entry Date
  • Amount

Common optional fields​

  • Phase
  • Item
  • Unit
  • UOM
  • Unit Cost
  • Hours
  • Area
  • Description
  • Document attachment

Workflow impact​

  • Included in job costing only after it reaches approved

Change Order Budget​

Use Change Order Budget for approved budget adjustments after scope or value changes.

Required fields​

  • Project
  • Cost Code
  • Entry Date
  • Change Order Type
  • Amount

Workflow impact​

  • Included in job costing only after it reaches approved

Actual Cost​

Use Actual Cost for direct manual actuals and for viewing projected actuals from operating modules.

Required fields for manual rows​

  • Project
  • Cost Code
  • Actual Cost Type
  • Entry Date
  • Amount

Projected actual-cost sources​

  • Approved Consumption / Usage
  • Posted Rental Usage
  • Approved or paid Subcontract Invoice
  • Paid Miscellaneous Expense

Workflow impact​

  • Manual rows follow open -> submitted -> approved
  • Projected rows are read-only and already treated as approved

Committed Cost​

Use Committed Cost for manual commitments and projected procurement or subcontract obligations.

Required fields for manual rows​

  • Project
  • Cost Code
  • Commitment Type
  • Entry Date
  • Ordered Amount

Projected commitment sources​

  • Approved or closed Purchase Order
  • Approved or closed Equipment Rental
  • Approved or closed Subcontract Agreement
  • Approved or closed standalone Subcontract Work Order
  • Approved or closed Subcontract Variation

Commitment balance behavior​

  • Downstream receiving and actual-cost documents reduce open commitment balance
  • The budget view uses the remaining commitment balance, not just the original ordered amount

Cost to Complete​

Use Cost to Complete to forecast what is still required to finish the work.

See Cost to Complete for field, period, import, and approval guidance.

Required fields​

  • Project
  • Cost Code
  • Entry Date
  • Amount

Workflow impact​

  • Included in job costing only after it reaches approved

Budget Reports​

Use Budget Reports for summarized job-costing outputs.

See Budget Reports for the current report list, filters, measures, and export behavior.

Behavior​

  • Uses approved and projected rows only
  • Supports reporting by Job, Phase, and Cost Code
  • Includes summaries for Initial Budget, Actual Cost, Committed Cost, and Cost to Complete

Cross-Module Cost Flow​

Budget Management depends heavily on upstream modules:

  • Inventory Operations feed commitments and actuals through Purchase Orders, GRN, Rental Usage, Consumption, and Miscellaneous
  • Subcontract feeds commitments and actuals through Agreements, Work Orders, Variations, and Invoices

For those operating flows, see:

Practical Reading​

If you want a fast business interpretation of the job-costing screens:

  • Initial Budget answers what was planned
  • Change Order Budget answers what changed in the plan
  • Committed Cost answers what is contractually obligated
  • Actual Cost answers what has already hit cost
  • Cost to Complete answers what is still expected to be spent
  • Budgets answers whether the job is still financially healthy