Feature · Cost tracking
Catch the blowout at 2%.
Not at close-out.
Budget vs committed vs actual, live on every job. Variance alerts fire at 2%, 5% and 10% so margin erosion shows up while you can still do something about it, not in a report you run after the money’s gone.
7 days free · $199 first month · $435/mo after · Month-to-month
01 / What it does
What this feature does
Cost tracking in VIABUILD is the live picture of where each job’s money is going. Three numbers, kept current: your budget, what you’ve committed through purchase orders, and what you’ve actually been billed. Because invoices flow through the AP inbox and POs come from the budget, those numbers update as the job runs, not when someone finds time to reconcile a spreadsheet.
On top of that sits variance alerting. When committed or actual starts pulling away from budget, you hear about it at 2%, 5% and 10%, early enough to act.
02 / Why it matters
Why builders need it
Spreadsheets lag reality
A budget-vs-actual sheet updated “when there’s time” tells you about a blowout weeks after it happened. By then the money’s spent.
Margins erode quietly
Cost creep rarely arrives in one big hit. It’s a dozen small over-runs. You need to see them adding up, early.
Committed ≠ actual
What you’ve ordered matters as much as what you’ve been billed. Tracking committed cost shows exposure before the invoice lands.
Close-out is too late
Finding out a job lost money at handover means you can’t fix it. Real-time tracking moves the discovery forward.
Decisions need live numbers
Approving a variation or a change order is easier when you can see exactly where the job sits right now.
Portfolio view for owners
Across every active job, see WIP and margins at a glance, not three tabs and a spreadsheet stitched together.
03 / The VIABUILD way
How VIABUILD handles it
Live budget vs committed vs actual, with alerts.
Your budget comes from the estimate you won on. Purchase orders draw down the committed column. Supplier invoices, captured and matched in the AP inbox, fill in actuals as they arrive. Because the data flows through one platform, the three columns stay in sync without manual reconciliation.
Variance thresholds at 2%, 5% and 10% watch every cost line. When a line drifts, you get an alert against that job, so you’re reacting to a 2% problem instead of explaining a 20% one.
- Budget vs committed vs actual, live
- Fed by estimates, POs and the AP inbox
- Variance alerts at 2%, 5% and 10%
- Per-line cost visibility
- Portfolio WIP and margin view
- No manual spreadsheet reconciliation
04 / The workflow
How it runs, step by step
- 01
Budget from the estimate
The estimate you won on becomes the job budget, your baseline for cost.
- 02
Commit via POs
Purchase orders draw down the committed column as you order.
- 03
Actuals from invoices
AP-matched supplier invoices fill in actual cost as bills arrive.
- 04
Watch the variance
Each cost line is compared to budget continuously.
- 05
Get alerted early
Thresholds at 2%, 5% and 10% flag drift before it becomes a blowout.
- 06
Act in time
Adjust scope, chase a variation, or change suppliers while it still moves the number.
05 / FAQ
Common questions.
Budget is what you planned to spend (from the estimate). Committed is what you’ve ordered through purchase orders but may not have been billed yet. Actual is what suppliers have actually invoiced. Tracking all three shows both your current spend and your exposure.
Costs update as work flows through the platform: POs draw down committed, and AP-matched invoices fill in actuals as they arrive. There’s no separate spreadsheet to reconcile, so the numbers reflect where the job is now.
VIABUILD watches each cost line against budget and alerts you when it drifts, at 2%, 5% and 10%. The idea is to catch margin erosion early, while you can still act on it.
Yes. Xero is your accounting ledger; VIABUILD tracks job cost in construction terms (budget, committed and actual per cost line, live). Bills sync between the two with tracking categories so the picture stays consistent.
06 / Keep reading
Related features & guides
See where your margins really are.
Start with 7 days free: full platform, real data. $199 for your first month, then $435/mo. Set up a live job and watch budget, committed and actual move together.