How to shift estimated costs between COGs and Cost Groups as well as reduce the total cost of a project [Cost Plus]

On a Cost Plus project, the standard way to move estimated costs around your budget is a $0 change order. You take money out of one spot and put the same amount into another, so the project total does not change.

Shifting estimated costs with a $0 change order

You can use a $0 change order two ways:

Between COGs in the same cost group

As an example, you planned to build a deck with your own crew, but now a trade partner is doing it. You have $8,000 in carpentry labor to move. Enter -$8,000 under the Labor COG in the "Deck & Fences" cost group, and $8,000 under the Trade Partner COG in that same cost group.

Between different cost items or cost groups

As an example, framing materials came in $3,000 under budget, and the cabinets came in $3,000 over. Enter -$3,000 under the Materials COG in the "Framing" cost group, and $3,000 under the Materials COG in the "Cabinets" cost group.

Here are the steps to follow:

Start a new change order

Open the project and start a change order the same way you would for any change. If you need a refresher, see Create a Change Order.

Add a minus line where the money comes from

Pick the cost group and COG that has money to spare. Enter the amount you want to move as a negative number, like -$8,000.

Add a plus line where the money goes

Pick the cost group and COG that needs the money. Enter the same amount as a positive number, like $8,000. The change order total should now read $0.00.

Approve the change order

You can approve it manually yourself, or send it to your client to sign, whichever fits your process. Once it is approved, the estimated costs move to their new spots on every report. See Change Order Statuses and Change Order Signatures for how each option works.

Reducing the total cost of a project

As you work through a project, there will likely be categories of work that become completed.

Demolition is a great example.

Let’s say you had $16,000 in this category and you only spend $14,000.

If you want to reflect this in the budget then you can do this very easily by:

Visiting the Cost to Completion tab within the project
Navigating to the Demolition cost group
Clicking the "Complete" checkbox

The "Remaining" column will calculated to $0.00, and this change will be reflected across all column and summary totals on all reports.

This feature is helpful when producing Client Summary’s in your invoicing process however, use caution when doing this as once you take those funds out of the project, it’s difficult to input these back in from the client’s perspective.

Pro Tip

We recommend exercising extreme caution when reducing the total of a projects cost until you are certain that you won’t need the funds in a different cost group. It’s always better to underpromise than underdeliver!

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