Budget, commitments, payments and changes

One budget sheet and two trackers. The budget holds every category with the basis of each number, so you always know how much of your total is a guess, an allowance, or a signed commitment. The change tracker records what moved the budget and why. The payment tracker records what has actually left your account and which lien waivers came back. The method is taught in Module 6; the example rows are the fictional Alder Street kitchen from Module 7, after the owners signed with Hale & Daughters.

Sheet 1: the budget

One row per item, not per contractor. A single contract usually becomes several rows (its schedule of values), because a lump sum hides which parts are allowances. The basis column is the most important one on the sheet: a number that is "unknown" or a "rough estimate" is a placeholder, an "allowance" is a placeholder inside a contract, a "bid" is an offer that expires, a "contract" is a commitment, and "actual" is an invoice you have seen. The summary above the table counts how much of your money is still resting on placeholders.

Contingency reasoning, exclusions and unknowns

Write the reasoning down, not just the number. A contingency you can explain is one you can defend when someone proposes spending it on an upgrade in week two.

Sheet 2: change tracker

Every change to the contract, whether it adds or removes money, gets a number, a reason, a cost, a schedule impact, and a signature before the work happens. The reason column is for your own learning as much as the record: at the end of the project it will show you whether the changes came from your own choices, from what the walls contained, or from gaps in the drawings. Approved changes should be reflected in the budget sheet's "current estimate" and "committed" columns; this sheet is the audit trail that explains the difference from the first budget.

Sheet 3: payment tracker

What actually left your account, to whom, for what, and what came back with it. The lien waiver column matters more than it looks: a waiver is the document that says the person you paid will not later claim against your property for that money, and the kind of waiver (conditional or unconditional, progress or final) decides what it is worth. The forms, whether you can demand one, and whether suppliers and subcontractors you never hired can claim against your home, vary by state and are a question for your attorney or your state's licensing or consumer agency. Retainage is money you hold back from each payment until the punch list is done; record what you are holding so it is not forgotten at the end.

How to use the three sheets together

• First budget (Module 6): fill the "first budget" column with your category estimates, most of them "rough estimate" or "allowance". The summary's uncertainty readout will say so. That is the honest state of a first budget.
• After bids and contract (Module 7): replace estimates with the contract's schedule of values and set "committed" to the contract amount. Allowances inside the contract stay labelled "allowance" until a selection turns them into a real number (Module 8).
• During construction (Modules 9 to 11): each approved change in Sheet 2 updates the matching row's current estimate and committed figures. Each payment in Sheet 3 updates the row's "paid to date". Never let paid exceed committed on a row without a change order explaining why.
• Contingency: owner's contingency is your money, held outside any contract. Spend it on unforeseen conditions and errors, not on upgrades, and move the reason for every draw into Sheet 2.
• Download each sheet as CSV before a lender meeting, and export the whole binder from the binder page regularly; this page is saved only in this browser.