A construction cost tracker is the sheet a small contractor keeps before buying software and the sheet the software has to reproduce: one row per line of the estimate, and columns that answer where the line stands today. This page is that sheet, column by column, with the formula in each and the weekly update that keeps it true, worked on the $449,075 job used across this site. It is deliberately a sheet a contractor can build this afternoon; the construction cost tracking page on this site explains the arithmetic and the construction project cost tracking page runs it across a whole job. The construction cost estimator on this site produces the first column.
Columns one to three: code, description, budget
The first two columns identify the line: the cost code and the description, taken from the estimate so the tracker's rows are the estimate's rows. The third is the budget, the estimate's amount for the line, and it changes only when a change order is approved, on a dated row of its own in a change log the sheet keeps beside it. On the worked job the rows are concrete, framing, roofing, the mechanical trades, drywall, finishes, site work, contingency and markup, adding to $449,075. A tracker whose budget column can be typed over is a tracker that will be typed over on a bad week; the change log is what keeps it honest, and the SBA's guide to managing finances, linked below, is a plain introduction to keeping that kind of record.
Columns four and five: committed and spent, from documents
Committed is the sum of subcontracts and purchase orders signed against the line; spent is the sum of invoices approved against it. Both are entered from documents, one row per document in a second sheet with the date, the payee, the code and the amount, and the tracker's columns are sums of that sheet by code. On the worked job the framing line reads $90,000 committed on the day the sub's contract is signed and nothing spent until the first invoice. A tracker where committed and spent are typed straight into the summary loses the documents behind them, and the 1099-NEC guidance linked below is one reason the payee has to stay with the amount.
Columns six and seven: left and forecast, the two formulas
Left is budget less the larger of committed and spent, and it is the column read first, because it goes negative on the day a contract exceeds its line. Forecast at completion is committed plus any expected additional cost for a subbed line, or spent plus cost to finish for a self-performed one, entered as a judgement each week. On the worked job the framing line with an $88,000 budget and a $90,000 subcontract reads left at negative $2,000 and forecast at $90,000 on the day of signing, and the contractor decides then whether contingency covers it. A total row adds each column, and contract sum less total forecast is the margin the job is heading for.
The weekly update, and when the sheet becomes software
Once a week: enter the contracts and purchase orders signed, enter the invoices approved, update the forecast on any line where the judgement changed, read the left and forecast columns and the total. Twenty minutes for a small job. The sheet stops being enough when there are several jobs, when the owner's draw has to be produced from the same lines, or when two people need to enter documents on the same day; that is the point where DrawScheduleWorks Pro takes the same seven columns, keeps the documents behind them, and prints the pay application from the same rows. The construction cost estimator on this site prints the budget column to start from.
Questions people ask about construction cost tracker
What columns does a construction cost tracker need?
Code, description, budget, committed, spent, left and forecast at completion, one row per estimate line, with a total row. Left is budget less the larger of committed and spent; forecast is a weekly judgement per line.
Where do committed and spent come from?
From a second sheet with one row per document: date, payee, code, amount. Contracts and purchase orders sum to committed, approved invoices to spent. Typing totals straight into the summary loses the documents.
When should I move from the sheet to software?
When there are several jobs, when the owner's draw has to come from the same lines, or when two people enter documents on the same day. The software keeps the same seven columns and prints the pay application from them.