Working With Your Job's Budget

Review the Budget Overview article to see what settings you need to use the budget.

Four ways to get to a job's budget:

1. On the main Job's tab, search for the job(s); right click on a job; and select Budget from the list of tools.
2. On the main Job's tab, click on any job and then click "Go" in the tool bar and select Budget from the list of tools..
3. Open a job file and select Budget from the Job Options tool bar.
4. On the Job Cost screen, click on the budget button.

Two ways to enter estimate amounts:

1. Enter the amounts manually. If you have done the set up, as soon as you enter these amounts Chronicle will calculate the allowed expense.
2. Import the amounts from an Xactimate estimate.

 Things to know when working with the budget:

1. Since the activity cost is calculated based on a percentage: Just type the total amount estimated for this activity and press enter. If the bottom of the screen indicates that the activity cost method isn’t set up yet, you must complete that activity cost setup before you can budget the activity.
2. If one area is over budget and another is under budget you can "borrow" from the under budget item and add it to the over budgeted item by clicking in the Total Estimate field and adding or subtracting from the amount.
3. The Save button saves your changes but keeps the budget open so you can continue to make other changes; Save & Close saves the changes and closes the budget window.
4. For activities to show up in the budget they must be added to the job.
5. If you are using subactivities, they are only visible and their amounts can only be added or adjusted on the individual labor, sub, and materials tabs. You will need to set a total budgeted amount for that activity on the Total Budget tab and then divide it manually between the subactivities on those tabs.
6. The Xactimate estimate must be saved from Xactimate as a PDF and must contain the Recap by Categories section.
7. If you choose to use subactivities, they will only appear on the individual labor, sub, and material tabs. You will only import the estimated amount for the activity. After the import or manual entry of this number, you must manually divide the activity estimate between these subactivities.