Budget vs actual is a cost report, usually by cost code or BOQ item, with columns for the approved budget, committed cost, actual cost and the variance. It answers a simple question: which parts of this job are running over, and by how much?
To be useful it has to be read against progress. Spending half the budget on a cost code is fine if half the work is done and alarming if a quarter is done. Many teams add a forecast-to-complete column for this reason.
The report is only as good as the coding behind it. Every purchase order, work order, wage sheet and site expense needs the right cost code when it is entered, not at month-end. Recoding a month of bills from memory is slow and usually wrong, and it hides exactly the overruns the report is meant to show.
Example
Illustrative: plastering budget ₹8 lakh, actual ₹5 lakh, committed ₹2 lakh, work 60% done. ₹7 lakh spent or committed for 60% of the work signals an overrun.
BOQ & budgeting in CivilPilot
BOQ, approved budgets and budget against committed and actual spend for every cost code.
