Budget vs. Actual Tracker (Free, Saves in Your Browser)

How it works

Budget versus actual is the whole payoff of tracking costs by code. Put the estimate in the budget column — one line per cost code — and the real spend in the actual column as receipts come in. Each row's variance tells you where the money went; the pattern across jobs tells you which line of the next estimate to fix.

variance = actual − budget · variance % = variance ÷ budget

The example above is a remodel where materials ran 10% over — annoying, survivable — and labor ran 27% over. If the last three jobs say the same thing about labor, that's not bad luck; it's a systematic underestimate, and the next bid can correct it. That feedback is worth real money, from arithmetic a table does for free.

How to use it

1. Keep the starter codes or rename them to match how you bid; add rows for the codes you estimate at.
2. Enter each code's budget from the estimate before the job starts.
3. Once a week, update the actuals from the receipts and invoices you've logged.
4. Export a CSV when the job closes and keep it — the comparison across finished jobs is where the lessons are.

Everything stays in your browser: nothing is sent anywhere, and coming back to this page brings the table back. Copy link puts the whole table into the address so you can send it to a partner or bookmark a second project.