An addition or an ADU is a small new-construction job wearing a remodeling contract: six months long, paid in draws, built by eight subs and a crew, and priced before anyone dug. The estimate was probably fine. What breaks the margin is the gap between the costs you've committed to and the costs you've been invoiced, and that gap is widest exactly when a client asks how it's going.
Obra runs the ADU as one ledger for its whole life. Every sub you sign goes into the forecast's remaining to spend from that day. Every permit receipt, lumber delivery and crew purchase arrives by photo, email or WhatsApp and is confirmed to the job. Every draw is recorded against the contract. The page shows expected final cost and expected margin, and it shows them in month two, not month seven.
Long jobs lie in a specific way
Month two: foundation poured, framing sub half-invoiced, job looks 28% profitable. Month five: every sub has invoiced, the fee increase came through, the client upgraded the bath, job is 11% profitable. Nothing went wrong; the early number was just measuring invoices instead of commitments. The committed costs guide covers the second table that shows the floor, and Obra keeps that table for you.
Draws, collections and the cash you actually have
On a draw-based build, the money in the bank is the client's until it's earned. Obra shows, per project, what's been collected against the adjusted contract and what's left to collect, so the question "can I pay the framer this week" gets an answer from the job rather than from the account balance. The retainage and progress billing calculator works the draw arithmetic if your contract holds retainage.
What Obra doesn't do on an ADU
Plans, permitting workflow, lender draw forms, scheduling. Keep those where they are. Obra is the job's money, current from the field, in English and Spanish, exported cleanly to the accountant when the certificate of occupancy finally arrives.