# Budgets

> The internal cost model for a bid. Assemblies priced from your libraries and driven by takeoff quantities, with margins, tax and a push to the proposal.

Source: https://automatedconstruction.io/tidy/docs/features/budgets
Section: Features

A budget is your internal cost for a bid. It is a list of priced **assemblies**, such as "ACT ceiling: tile, grid and wall angle", "Install crew", "Scissor lift rental" or "Fire-stopping subcontract". Each assembly takes a quantity from your takeoff (or one you type) and prices itself from its parts. Margins turn cost into sell, and **Send to proposal** carries the sell figures into your proposal. The client never sees the budget.

## Where to find it

- Sidebar: **Budgets** (under **Home**). Budgets are grouped by project.
- On a bid: the **Budget** tab.
- In a workspace: the **Budget** button in the top bar.

## How the money flows

1. Measure in a [workspace](https://automatedconstruction.io/tidy/docs/features/workspaces). Each measurement has a subject.
2. Link an assembly on the budget to that subject. Its quantity follows the takeoff.
3. The assembly prices itself from its components, at cost.
4. Per-type margins (and labour burden) turn cost into sell.
5. **Send to proposal** writes one proposal line per assembly.
6. Submit the proposal to the client.

## Assembly types

| Type | What it is | Its lines are |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Material | A priced composition, such as ceiling tile and grid | Components |
| Labour | A crew and its hours, priced by rate, hours or crew-day | Roles |
| Equipment | A rental item, priced by day, week or month | Items |
| Subcontract | A package of scope, bought and leveled | Inclusions and bidders |

### Material

Each component has a unit, a pack size and pack type, a waste %, whether to round up to whole packs, and a unit or pack price. A preview shows how many packs and dollars a sample quantity comes to.

### Labour

Price each role by rate (units per hour), by hours, or by crew-days (days x crew x hours per day). Burden is applied to the whole labour group as a markup.

### Equipment

Rate period, rate and number of periods, plus delivery, pickup, operator, fuel, damage waiver and fees. The duration can follow a labour assembly's crew-days.

### Subcontract

A package with inclusions, exclusions and a list of bidders whose prices you compare. See [Subcontract leveling](https://automatedconstruction.io/tidy/docs/features/subcontract-leveling).

## Quantities from the takeoff

- **Quantities from** in the budget header picks which workspaces feed the budget. You need edit access to a workspace to choose it.
- In an assembly, the **Takeoff source** picks the file, the subject and the measurement (area, length, perimeter, volume or count). Or switch to **Manual quantity**.
- Formulas can use `{qty}`, `{area}`, `{length}`, `{count}`, `{perimeter}` and `{volume}`. Type `@` in a formula to pick a takeoff total.
- When the takeoff changes, **Budget actions > Sync takeoff quantities** updates the linked assemblies. Typed quantities stay as they are.

## Margins and tax

The cost summary reads like math: **Total cost** + **Markup** = **Sell after markups**, then **Tax on sell**. Set margins for each type (Material margin, Labour burden and margin, and so on). Admins set the company defaults in **Admin > Settings > Proposal > Estimating**, and only admins can change tax for a bid.

Mark an assembly as an **Alternate** to price it and print it without adding it to the total.

## Several budgets per bid

A bid can have as many budgets as you need, each with a type:

| Type | Use it for |
| --- | --- |
| Estimate | Bid-stage pricing for the invitation |
| Revised estimate | Re-priced after a scope change or addendum |
| Change order | A priced change to awarded work |
| Contract | The buyout budget after award |
| Future phase | Rolled forward for later work |

**Roll over** copies a budget into a new draft on the same project or another one.

## Working together

Only one person edits an assembly at a time. If a teammate has it open you see "{name} is editing this" with a **Take over** button. Each assembly has a **History** tab showing who changed what, people and agent alike.

Lines the agent wrote are flagged until someone clicks **Mark reviewed**, or **Review all** in Budget actions.

## Export

**Budget actions > Export to Excel** downloads a summary sheet and a sheet of every line, grouped by type with margin and sell.

## What the agent can do

With the **Budgeting & Libraries** plugin on, the agent can build assemblies, fill cells, add and remove rows, read the levelling board, save templates and push assemblies to a draft proposal. Every change that moves money shows an approval card first.

## Related

- [Build a budget](https://automatedconstruction.io/tidy/docs/guides/build-a-budget)
- [Cost Library](https://automatedconstruction.io/tidy/docs/features/cost-library)
- [Proposals](https://automatedconstruction.io/tidy/docs/features/proposals)