The 'Create Budget Code' feature in Procore's Project Financials tools lets your team create custom budget code descriptions to satisfy different use cases. Some examples include:
To learn how to create custom budget code descriptions, see the Answer below.
If you want to capture more granular detail about a single budget code, review this example.
Let's assume your Procore project is using only the default segment items in Procore's Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). In the 'Cost Code' segment, which is based on the CSI MasterFormat), there is an existing cost code segment item for contingencies (17-010 - Contingency). While the money in your contingency fund comes from the same budget code, it is important for your team to ensure that your coding system accurately records and tracks the following:
To address this scenario, you can use Procore's custom budget code description option to create two (2) descriptions for a single budget code. This allows your team to distinguish between the budget code is used for an allowance versus when its used for a contingency. In the illustration below:
You can also create additional budget code descriptions for each budget code to suit your organizations specific needs.
When creating segments using Procore's budget code structure, it is important to note that tiered segments are delimited by a dash (-) and segments are delimited by a period (.) by default. Some Procore clients prefer to use delimit budget codes with spaces (or different characters) to simplify the descriptions and to improve readability.
Using the same example as above, you can also use Procore's custom budget code description option to simplify and improve readability of your budget codes. This can improve readability of your budget codes, as shown in the illustration below:
The illustration below shows you how the custom descriptions can improve readability.
If you want to shorten budget code descriptions to conserve space in the user interface and in your reports, review this example.
In this example, let's assume your Procore project is also using the default segment items in Procore's Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). However, you want the budget code descriptions to be shorter than the default length.
To address this scenario, you would create custom budget codes for any codes that you wanted to shorten. For example:
You can also create additional budget code descriptions for each budget code to suit your organizations specific needs. This illustration shows you the difference between two descriptions in the budget. The illustration below shows how shortening a budget code description conserves space. This also helps readers when generating reports.
Now that you understand why you might want to create custom budget code descriptions, there are two (2) methods that you can use to create them in Procore:
You can add a custom budget code description when using the 'Create Budget Code' feature in Procore's Project Financials tool. When creating the code, be sure to choose the Custom option button as shown below. Then type the custom description in the text box, as shown below. For step-by-step instructions, see Create Budget Codes in Procore's Project Financials Tools.
Capture Granular Detail About a Single Budget Code This example shows a single budget code with a custom description that distinguishes when the code is used for an allowance in a financial line item. |
Improve the Readability of Your Budget Code Descriptions This example shows how you can use custom budget code descriptions in our environment to simplify your codes and to improve readability. |
Shorten Budget Code Descriptions to Conserve Space This example shows a single budget code with a custom description that was shortened to conserve space in the user interface and reports. |
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If you've already created act's budget code structure and added budget code line items, you can download the Microsoft Excel template in your project's Budget tool. This provides you with a list of all your project's existing budget code line items. You can then open the budget template in Microsoft Excel (or another third-party spreadsheet program) and update the existing entries in the 'Description' column.
In this example, you can see that the budget code description has been circled. Notice how its being clipped in the 'Description' column of the Project level Budget tool? You can create a budget code description to shorten it.
Below is an example of the corresponding row in the budget import template when viewed in a Microsoft Excel spreadshee. It shows the 'Description' column and the value we want to change.
Below is an example of the custom budget code description. It shows the 'Description' column and the new value that we entered.
Below is an example of how the custom budget code description will appear in the the project's Budget tool, after your complete the steps and import the template.