Understanding Projects
Overview
When you create a project in Buildwise, it becomes your one-stop hub for handling every aspect of managing the project — from creating estimates and change orders to tracking labor, materials, and trade partner expenses that automatically generate job costing reports. You can select Fixed Cost or Cost Plus project types, and Buildwise helps you manage the budget appropriately based on your selection.
This article covers what components are in a Project, the differences between Cost Plus and Fixed Cost contracts, and a few best practices to get you started.
Project Dashboard
When you create a project, a dashboard is created for that project. Tabs across the top of the dashboard give you quick and easy access to each project component.
Dashboard Tabs
| Estimates | View existing estimates or create a new one |
| Expenses | View expenses entered for the project |
| Change Orders | View existing change orders or add a new one |
| Cost to Completion report | Manage the project’s budget |
| Job Costing report | View estimated to actual costs across COGs |
| Labor report | View estimated to actual hours on the project |
| Schedule | View the project schedule’s phases and tasks. |
| Daily Logs | View daily logs added by Team Members. |
| Client Summary | Summary report page only available for Cost Plus contracts |
| Overview | Settings page for the project |
Cost Plus or Fixed Cost: Which Model Should You Use?
Depending on the project's scope and complexity, you can use a Cost Plus or Fixed Cost Contract Type to create estimates, change orders, and track expenses.
To help you decide which pricing model is best for a specific project, the following sections define Cost Plus and Fixed Cost contracts and provide some benefits and risk factors to consider. For a more thorough breakdown of both models, refer to the article Should I Charge Cost-Plus or Fixed-Cost?
Cost Plus
In a cost-plus contract, the client agrees to reimburse a contractor for the cost of goods expenses such as labor, materials and trade partners incurred in completing a project, plus an additional mark-up fee typically representing the contractor's contribution to overhead and profit.
| When to use it | Often used for complex projects in which many details are unknown prior to the start of the project. |
| Benefits | Flexibility for adjustments and change during the project, with high transparency for the client that may encourage greater collaboration and innovation. |
| Risk | Higher transparency throughout the project balances the risk between the contractor and the client. |
Fixed Cost
A fixed-cost contract is an agreement in which a contractor is paid a set amount for a specific scope of work (SOW) regardless of the actual costs incurred during the project. Estimates and invoices are typically shared as either a lump-sum price that does not include a breakdown of project components or in grouped costs per category without line item breakdowns. Fixed-cost contracts are favored by clients who want to avoid unexpected cost overruns, as they provide certainty on the maximum amount payable for the project.
| When to use it | Typically used when project details are clear and predictable, allowing for accurate cost estimation. |
| Benefits | Can be used effectively to produce the right contractor's overhead and profit contributions while also providing clients certainty about the final contract price they don't get from a cost-plus job. |
| Risk | Fixed Cost contracts provide the lowest amount of transparency to the client and place more of the risk on the contractor, who must complete the project within the agreed budget and timeframe to ensure profitability. |