Construction management Q&A
How do I track a construction site's budget in real time?
Short answer
- Set the budget by cost centre — labour, materials, subcontractors, equipment — at the start of the project.
- Log confirmed costs (work statements, material invoices, labour hours) as they happen.
- The system deducts each cost automatically from its matching cost-centre budget.
- Track spent vs. budgeted on the dashboard, at project or stage level.
- Set an alert threshold so you're notified automatically before the budget is exceeded.
What the law says (brief)
- Romania's Accounting Law 82/1991 — expenses must be recorded against supporting documents such as invoices and work statements.
- Fiscal Code, Art. 331(2)(g) — VAT reverse charge for construction works and subcontracting, applicable to subcontractor invoices included in the budget.
- Government Decision 907/2016 — the general cost-estimate structure many project cost centres are modelled on.
Practical examples
- Example: a 500,000 RON project has its budget split across 4 cost centres — labour (180,000 RON), materials (220,000 RON), subcontractors (80,000 RON), equipment (20,000 RON). After the structural stage, materials have already used 210,000 RON of the 220,000 RON allocated — the dashboard flags the 95% threshold, and the contractor adjusts finishing orders before going over.
Common mistakes
- Budgeting the project as one lump sum, with no cost-centre breakdown — you can't see WHERE the overrun is happening.
- Logging costs late, at month-end — the budget shows an old snapshot, not the actual site situation.
- Not setting alert thresholds — the overrun is only spotted at final settlement, when it's too late to act.
How 4construct helps
- Cost-centre budgeting in the Budgets and Costs module.
- Costs are deducted automatically from the budget as work statements are confirmed in the site journal.
- Overrun alerts per cost centre or stage, sent automatically to the project administrator.