Construction cost tracking is the estimate read backwards while the job runs: for each line the estimate carried, what has been committed by subcontract and purchase order, what has been spent to date, and what is left, so that an overrun is a number on a line rather than a feeling at the end. A construction cost tracker that shows totals only has tracked the job and not the lines, and construction cost control is impossible without the lines, because control means deciding something on one of them while there is still time. This page works the tracking on the hub's own estimate, a $449,075 job with $355,000 of building and site work, says what cost control in construction projects is as arithmetic, and points at the free estimator on this site whose lines the tracker is built on, with no account.
The four columns per line: estimate, committed, spent, left
Take the estimate's lines: on the hub's example, the building at the contractor's own cost per square foot, $330,000; site work, $25,000; contingency, $35,500; overhead and profit, $58,575. Break the building into the trades the schedule of values carries and track each: estimate, the line's figure; committed, the subcontracts and purchase orders signed against it; spent, the invoices paid to date; left, the estimate less the spent, with the committed-but-unspent shown so the left is not misread. A framing line estimated at $90,000 with a $90,000 subcontract and $54,000 paid has $36,000 left and $36,000 committed, which is fine; the same line with a $102,000 subcontract has already overrun by $12,000 before a dollar more is paid.
Construction project cost tracking as the draw runs
Each draw to the owner bills the share complete of each line, and each sub's draw is a cost against that line, so the tracker and the billing are two sides of one record: the framing line has billed 57.5% to the owner and paid 60% to the sub, and the difference is the GC's margin on that line at this date. Tracking the two together is what shows a line that is being billed faster than it is being spent, which is cash, and one being spent faster than it is billed, which is the problem to raise now. The construction project billing software guide on this site says what the record must keep for the draws; the tracker is the same lines with the costs against them.
Cost control in construction projects: the decision the numbers permit
Control is the decision the line's numbers allow while the line is still open: a $12,000 overrun on framing committed in month two can be recovered from the contingency, which is what the $35,500 is for, or offset on a line not yet committed, or put to the owner as a change if the cause is a change. The same overrun found at the end is a loss. Construction cost control is therefore the discipline of reading the four columns per line at every draw, and the arithmetic is a subtraction; what is hard is keeping the columns current, which is what a record does and a spreadsheet stops doing in month three. The Small Business Administration's guide to managing a business's finances, linked below, is the plain-language reference for the margin the control is protecting.
From the tracker to the record
The tracker's lines are the estimate's, the committed figures are the subcontracts and purchase orders, the spent figures are the invoices paid, and the billed figures are the draws: four documents the contractor already writes, kept against one project. The free construction cost estimator on this site produces the lines with contingency and overhead and profit shown, and the free schedule-of-values draw bills against them; the paid plan keeps the estimate, the subcontracts and every draw against the project so the four columns are a lookup at every application, exported when the accountant or the owner asks.
Questions people ask about construction cost tracking
What does construction cost tracking track?
Each estimate line's figure, what is committed against it by subcontract and purchase order, what is spent to date and what is left, alongside what has been billed to the owner on that line. Overruns show on the line, while there is time to act.
How is cost control different from cost tracking?
Tracking keeps the four columns current; control is the decision the columns permit while the line is open: recover from contingency, offset on an uncommitted line, or raise a change with the owner. Found at the end, the same overrun is a loss.
Is there a free construction cost tracker?
The free estimator on this site produces the lines and the free draw bills against them; the paid plan keeps the estimate, subcontracts and every draw against the project so the committed, spent and billed columns are a lookup.