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Company Direct Costs Setup Guide

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Table of Contents

Overview

Introduction to Company Direct Costs

To set up the Company Direct Costs tool, configure it in the Company level Admin tool. This includes defining approval routing rules, configuring fieldsets, custom fields, and default statuses to ensure non-committed invoices such as fuel, equipment rentals, materials, and job-site services are coded accurately and reviewed before payment.

To standardize your direct cost tracking and approval process, configure the following settings:

  • Set Up Custom Approval Workflows: Use company-level workflows to route invoices automatically to project managers before accounts payable issues payment. You can set rules based on dollar amounts, vendor types, or specific projects.

  • Assign Granular Permissions: Assign custom permission templates based on user roles. Grant accounts payable staff permission to create, edit, and batch-process invoices, while allowing project reviewers to review charges, dispute line items, and approve payments.

Considerations

Before you set up the Company Direct Costs tool, review the permissions needed to configure it, how to give each user the right level of access, and how to set up project roles so reviewers see the right invoices.

Required User Permissions

  • To set up the tool:

    • ‘Admin’ level permissions on the Company level Direct Costs tool. Only Admin users can edit the tool’s Configure Settings.

    • ‘Admin’ level permissions on the Company level Admin tool, to manage project roles.

  • To assign user permissions:

    • ‘Admin’ level permissions on the Company level Directory tool, or access to manage Company Permissions Templates.

  • To assign people to project roles:

    • ‘Admin’ level permissions on the Project level Admin tool for each project.

Additional Information

  • Supported file types for uploads and the direct cost email address: .pdf, .jpg, and .png.

  • Invoices can come in three ways:

    • Uploaded from your computer

    • Pulled from the company Documents tool

    • Forwarded to your company’s direct cost email address

 Note
Company Direct Costs permissions work differently from most Procore tools. ‘Read Only’ is the right level for project reviewers, even though they can still complete their review and coding tasks. See Set User Permissions below.
Prerequisites

  • Your company’s vendors are added to the Company Directory.

  • Projects that will receive direct costs have a budgets set up. The budget codes available for selection are only those that have been “budgeted”. 

Set User Permissions

The permission level you give a user decides which invoices they can see:

  • Users with Standard or Admin permissions can see direct costs across all projects. This comes from the granular permission View all direct costs in the Direct Costs tab which can not be removed from either permission set. 

Users with Read Only permissions don’t have that granular permission. They only see direct costs for projects where they hold a project role you’ve chosen in the tool’s settings. See Set Up Project Roles.

Who

What they do

Recommended permission level

Direct Cost Administrator

Manages the tool. Edits configuration settings and has full control of uploads.

Admin

Accounts Payable / Accounting

Uploads or forwards invoices, checks AI-filled details, submits for review, and sends approved costs to the ERP. Sees invoices across all projects.

Standard or Admin

Project Reviewer / Approver (for example, Project Manager or Project Engineer)

Reviews invoices for their own projects, adds budget codes, and approves or sends back for revision.

Read Only, plus an assigned project role
 Tip
Use Company Permissions Templates to give the same access to everyone in a role (for example, an “AP / Accounting” template and a “Project Reviewer” template) instead of setting permissions one user at a time.
 Note
By default project reviewers can only edit line item details and can’t edit the invoice details that accounting/AP entered. If something is wrong, they can send it back for revision or you can change what Project Reviewers can edit using Granular Permissions. 
Set Up Project Roles

Project roles control who can review and approve direct costs on each project. This is the most important part of setup.

  1. Go to the Company level Direct Costs tool.

  2. Click Configure Settings (gear icon).

  3. Under Project Assignee, select the project roles that can review and approve direct costs. For example, Direct Cost Reviewer or Project Manager.

  4. Click Save.

  5. On each project, make sure the right people are assigned to those roles.

When a user with Read Only permissions is assigned one of these roles on a project, they can see and review that project’s direct costs. When accounting submits an invoice for review, it goes to the users in those roles on the invoice’s project.

 Important
Read Only permissions and project roles work together. A user with Read Only permissions who isn’t assigned one of the selected roles on a project won’t see any direct costs in the tool.

Company-Level Configurations

Set up rules and default settings for direct cost tracking across all projects in your organization.

  • Settings

    • AI Autofill. This setting is responsible for scanning uploaded files and extracting text, dates, numbers, and currency values. Once documents are uploaded (PDF, PNG, JPG), the engine scans the document layout, identifies context labels, and suggests values for corresponding form fields.

    • Line Item Configuration. This configuration mapping rules, column targets, and validation checks for repeating table rows and line items extracted from your documents. Line Item Configuration specifies the exact destination for each extracted table column in your account.

    • Email Forwarding. Provides a unique, project-specific inbound email address. Any supported document attached to an incoming email is parsed by the system, automatically generating a corresponding direct cost entry in your project's Direct Costs tool. Serves as the dedicated receiving point for email-based cost capture without requiring team members to log into the web application to manually upload files.

    • Project Assignee. Users assigned to these roles on an individual project can see and approve direct costs for that project. Ensures sensitive financial records and cost entries forwarded via email or generated by AI Autofill are routed only to authorized team members on that specific job.

  • Workflows

    • Workflow Settings. Ensures every direct cost follows your standard to approval stage such as Project, Assignee Review, Accounting Sign-off before costs formally post to the job budget.

Permissions & User Matrix

Permission Types

  • Read Access: View direct cost entries, status updates, and linked budget lines.

    • Read-Only: View information only. Users cannot add, edit, or delete items.

    • Full: View all financial data, reports, and system settings without restrictions.

  • Create / Edit Drafts: Log new expenses, attach receipts or invoices, and edit saved drafts.

  • Submit for Approval: Send draft entries into the review queue for manager approval.

  • Approve / Reject: Verify submitted expenses to post them to Budget Actuals, or reject invalid items.

  • Admin Config: Manage company-wide settings, General Ledger (GL) accounts, tax rules, and approval workflows.

Access Status Indicators

  • Yes: Authorized. The user role can actively perform this action.

  • No: Restricted. The action is blocked for this user role to prevent unauthorized changes and maintain financial security.

  • Full: Complete administrative control across company and project settings.

This table defines role-based access levels to ensure financial accuracy and operational control.

Role / User Group
Read
Create / Edit Drafts
Submit for Approval
Approve / Reject
Admin Config

Field Engineer / Subcontractor

Read-Only

No

No

No

No

Project Engineer

Full

Yes

Yes

No

No

Project Manager

Full

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Project Accountant / Admin

Full

Yes

Yes

Yes

Full

Set Up Custom Workflows

Automate the review process by routing direct cost items based on custom organizational rules.

  1. Establish automated routing criteria and configure system rules based on expense criteria:

    1. Dollar Value Thresholds: Require additional approval steps for higher costs. For example, items over $1,000 require Secondary Approval.

    2. Cost Code Rules: Route specific trades, for example, steel or concrete directly to designated division managers.

    3. Expense Type Restrictions: Create specialized review steps for equipment rentals or regulatory permits.

  2. Define roles for each stage and designate standard approval roles to ensure operational oversight:

    1. Step 1 (Creator): Project Engineer drafts and submits the entry.

    2. Step 2 (Reviewer): Project Manager verifies costs and attachments.

    3. Step 3 (Approver): Project Accountant approves and posts to job costs.

  3. Configure Automated Notifications:
    Set up system notifications and email alerts to keep stakeholders informed:

    1. Action Required: Notifies designated approvers when an item enters their queue.

    2. Status Updates: Alerts the creator when an entry is approved or modified.

    3. Rejections: Sends immediate notifications with reviewer notes back to the submitter if revisions are needed.