Budgets allow you to calculate your job costs, determine overheads, track commissions, and see your profit margin on a job.
The budgeting tool in JobNimbus roof software is available to Professional subscribers on the Financial tab of both Jobs and Contacts.
Here, we’ll help run you through the basics to get you started using our budgeting tool.
Getting Started with Budgets for Jobs & Contacts
Enabling Budgets in Account Settings
By default, the Budget feature is turned off. JobNimbus has features like this turned off to make the interface simpler and easier to learn for new users.
To enable the Budget feature, go to your name at the top right corner and choose Account Settings. Only admin users can access Account Settings. On the Features tab, click the Enable button to turn on Budgets.
Creating a Budget
To start creating a budget, go to any Job or Contact. Click on the Financial tab for that Contact or Job. You will now see a Budgets grid and an Add Budget button.
- Job/Contact: This is the Job or Contact you’re making the Budget for.
- Price: This is the price you plan to charge the customer. You can either enter a manual total price or choose an existing estimate on this Job/Contact as the starting price. You start with the price here and then add your costs, commissions, and overheads down below for your margin to automatically calculate for you.
- Budget Date: The date you’re creating this Budget for. Under the Budget’s overview section, you can enter your costs, overheads, and commissions.
- You can pre-set a template for what items automatically appear on your Budget by going to Account Settings → Budget tab.
- Use the Add Line Item link to add as many costs and overheads as you need for this Budget. When you add a new budget line item, the following box will open to allow you to enter the details of this cost or overhead.
- Description: The description of the Budget Line Item.
- Amount/Percentage: The fixed amount or percentage of the Budget Line Item.
- Subtotal: The subtotal for the Budget Line Item.
- Total: The updated total after each Budget Line Item is applied. You can hover over any line item, and a little “X” will appear, allowing you to remove that line item from this Budget.
Add a Commission
The Add Commission box allows you to enter the details of your commission amount and who the commission is for. You can set up a default commission template as a starting point for new budgets by going to Account Settings > Budget tab.
- Description: The description of the commission.
- Percentage: The percentage amount of the commission to be paid.
- To: Who the commission is for. There are three options:
- This breakdown does not go to a specific user: The commission is not paid to any particular JobNimbus user.
- Sales Rep of Job or Contact: The commission will be paid to the user designated as the Sales Rep on this Job or Contact.
- This user selected below: The commission will be paid to the JobNimbus user specified in the drop-down list.
Click the Save Commission button to add this commission to the Budget. The list of commissions is displayed along with the overall Net Profit and Net Margin of the Budget:
When you’re done, click the Save Budget button to save the changes to the Budget.
Viewing a Budget
Once you’ve created a Budget, the Budget’s overview information is shown at the top. The specific Budget Line Items and Commissions are shown below. At the bottom, you can add notes to this Budget as well.
Marking Commissions as Paid
JobNimbus also provides an easy way to track which commissions you’ve paid out. On the list of commissions for the Budget, there is a Manage column with a Mark Paid link button.
To mark a commission as paid, click the Mark Paid link button. The paid date will automatically be noted, and the status will update to show that the commission was paid.
The Mark Paid button also toggles to Mark Unpaid, allowing you to reset the commission if you marked it as “paid” by accident.
Budget Menu Options
The Budget menu provides a few options for working with and managing the Budget.
- Edit: Put the Budget back into edit mode, where you can change line items and commissions.
- Add Note: Add a note to this Budget.
- Delete: Delete the Budget.
- NOTE: Only Admins can delete items.
Managing Budgets on a Job or Contact
To see a list of Budgets on a Job or Contact, go to the Financial tab of the Job or Contact. The Budgets grid will display the list of Budgets for that Job or Contact, along with a link to view or edit those Budgets, the date the Budget was set for, the Gross Profit, Net Profit, and the status of the Budget.
Budget Like a Pro
And that’s it! Now you’re ready to get out there and start budgeting your work within our job management software.
If you have any more questions about how to set up Work or Material Orders using our new tools, please leave a comment below or email us at support@jobnimbus.com.