🚨 We’ve phased out the Legacy Budget 🚨
The Legacy Budget is not available to new users, but it remains accessible to those who joined Buildertrend before November 2024 and only for open jobs created before April 2025.
For more information on the Job Costing Budget, please review this Help Center Article!
The Legacy Budget is used to centralize all financial features for an accurate overview of your job's financial status. From planned expenses to variances that occur with every job, all internal costs are tracked in order to ensure nothing is missed during a build.
Legacy Budget Overview Help Video
Watch the video below to learn more about the Legacy Budget.
To view the legacy budget, scroll to the Financial section and click Budget Legacy.
Before reviewing the Legacy Budget, ensure that your Cost Codes and Cost Categories are set up appropriately, as they determine the overall format.
A Price Breakdown is included, showing your Gross Profit calculations.
Select Total Breakdown for an in-depth view of your financial assets for this job.
Next, let's review the column headers for the Estimate.
Estimates: Displays financial data pulled from Estimate
Revised Costs: Editable column to update estimated costs. Available only after locking Estimate.
Bills/POs: Tracks job expenses or your actuals.
Time Clock Labor: Labor Costs tracked in the Time Clock
Total Bill/PO Cost: Combined cost of all Bills and Purchase Orders, plus Builder Variances.
Total Costs: Displays all totals combined - Bill/POs, Builder Variance, Customer Variance and Time Clock Labor (If utilized).
Projected Costs: Total anticipated spend. This column takes the greater of Estimates (when not locked/pending approval), Revised Costs, Total Costs, or Paid. When your estimate is locked/approved, Projected Costs ignores the Estimate value.
Paid: Shows what has been paid
Outstanding Payables: Displays how much is left to be paid
Complete: Allows you to manually mark a Cost Code as complete. You can do this when you know that all anticipated costs have been realized, when all the work is done, or just to make a quick projection about how your projected cost and profit might change if this part of the job were done. Since this is a manual input, it can also be unchecked at your discretion.
Cost-to-Complete: Represents how much more money you should expect to spend in order to finish this part of the job (per cost code) or the whole job (the sum of this column).
Calculated as "Projected Costs minus Paid" costs.
When a Cost Code is marked complete, its Cost-to-Complete will be zero.
The top right of the Estimate provides reporting options to Compare Columns. Select the dropdown to access the desired data.
The information displayed within the Legacy Budget columns will automatically adjust to reflect the correct comparison.
Collapse the Cost Category to see a high-level view by clicking the caret beside the desired category.
Create an Excel copy by select Export on the top.
Customizing Your Legacy Budget View
Stay on top of your financial health by accessing, sharing, and reviewing information within the Legacy Budget. Customize grid views to efficiently save and report the data that matters most to you.
First, navigate to the Financial tab at the top, then select Legacy Budget.
Then, select Manage Saved Views by clicking into the three dots next to your viewing options.
Within the Manage Saved Views window, you may update your current grid view, edit an existing grid view, create a new grid view, or set a Default View.
Continue reading below to learn how to complete grid view actions.
Updating Current Grid View
To Update Current View, show a dropdown to add new columns by selecting the checkboxes, or remove any unwanted columns by selecting the "x" next to the field name.
👍 Pro Tip: Once you click in the Columns box, you can type in a keyword to quickly find the columns you are looking for.
Next, click Apply View.
You have now updated your view, but have not saved this view for future use. You will see this in a message "Your view has unsaved changes.".
To ensure you have access to this view again, select New View.
*Note: Amounts from hidden columns will still calculate in the Legacy Budget.
After selecting New View, the Manage Saved Views window will open again.
Add a Label (Title) and decide access:
Mark as private makes the custom grid only viewable by the user who created it. If the grid isn't marked as private, then all users with access can utilize the grid.
Set as default makes the custom grid the default grid for the user who checks that box. This ensures that every time the user clicks into this particular feature, this grid will automatically be applied. It will not make it the default grid for all users. However, each user has the option to make this grid their default.
Click Add to save and add the custom grid to Your Saved Views.
You will now see your new view within Your Saved Views.
To set this view as your new Default View, select the three dots beside the desired view, then Set as default view.
Creating a New Grid View
To create a new grid view, select Add New Saved View from the Managed Saved Views window.
Add a Label (Title), then add desired fields using the dropdown, by scrolling and selecting, or typing to search the field name.
Choose the appropriate checkboxes:
Mark as private makes the custom grid only viewable by the user who created it. If the grid isn't marked as private, then all users with access can utilize the grid.
Set as default makes the custom grid the default grid for the user who checks that box. This ensures that every time the user clicks into this particular feature, this grid will automatically be applied. It will not make it the default grid for all users. However, each user has the option to make this grid their default.
Then, click Add.
This will save the custom grid to Your Saved Views.
You may now toggle between views by clicking in the View dropdown.
Default Legacy Budget View for the Client Portal
You may grant active clients access to a modified, client-facing Legacy Budget though the Client Portal.
Select a job, and navigate to Job Info.
Select the Client tab within the Job Info window. Then check Budget under Financial Permissions and select "Use the legacy Budget format".
Click into the Columns box, utilizing the dropdown to add or removed columns applied to the Legacy Budget visible through the Client Portal. Click Save.
The Legacy Budget within the Client Portal will now reflect the changes.
Interested in Learning More? 📚
The Buildertrend Learning Academy is your one-stop-shop for your online education, whether you're new to Buildertrend or an experienced user looking to learn more.
If you have any questions or require additional support, feel free to chat with us, send an email: support@buildertrend.com, or give us a call at 1-888-415-7149. We’re always happy to help.