Some project expenses do not require clients to make any selections, such as the cost of dumpsters, cleanings, permit fees, porta potties, etc.
There are two ways that you can handle these, if you are using budget tracking on your projects:
- You can create a specification item on the selection sheet. As you set up those items, put in the budget amount, which will then show on the selection sheet and on the budget.
- You can bypass the selection sheet and set up the cost directly on a line item on the budget page. As long as you've given your clients access to see the budget, then they'll see the amount there. Even add a note on the line item, and share it with the client, if you'd like.
The steps above, using CoConstruct's budgeting feature, are by far the best way to handle these charges, since that's what the budget was designed to do.
However, if you are not using budget tracking in CoConstruct, here are two workaround approaches to still show these numbers:
- When you create your monthly invoices for clients you can also create a monthly change order that could be called "September General Conditions" for example, that would document those conditional charges that were incurred for the month. That way, the grand total on the E&A page would match from month to month with your invoices.
- Create a single selection item called "Budget Reconciliation." You would go ahead and make the choice on it so it would show up on the E&A page and just update the dollar amount "price" on the item as needed. This would basically serve as a plug number to make everything balance.
The first idea shows the adjustment each month. The second acts more as an ongoing bucket.