6 Key Phases for Budgeting a Construction Project

6 Key Phases for Budgeting a Construction Project

As a project manager, your role is to manage the whole project for the best time, cost, quality, and overall planning. Fortunately, there are ways to optimize the cost of your project, managing the budget and staying on track the whole time. While Fund Control can help you organize and manage your loan, here are the key phases to incorporate to ensure your construction project stays on budget.

Write the First Budget Draft – Then Throw It in the Trash

The first budget for a project that you write up is going to be the hardest. Once you write out a very rough draft, lining up everything that needs to be accounted for, you have the first model that’s going to be the budget for the whole project. Get with people who have experience in writing detailed budgets, as well as team members who can do live work estimates. Once you have a draft in order, you can start tightening it and actually perfecting it.

Understand and Account for All Core Costs

What are the absolute necessities for getting your project started, keeping it going, and finishing it out? Figure out all the equipment, resources, software, travel expenses, and team members that you’ll have to have to make this project a success. Double check that list, then show it to three people who have experience with construction project budgets and get them to look over it too.

Account for Potential and Sudden Change

Unexpected surprises with construction, needing to replace equipment, cutting into overtime, and much more are easy ways that your budget for the whole project can change in a flash. Make sure that you’ve accounted ahead of time for any unexpected holdups with the project, any necessary overtime hours for your team members, and always remember to overestimate with your resources. In most cases, it doesn’t hurt to have resources left over at the end.

Manage and Keep Track of Your Resources

While you should always overestimate with your resources so you don’t cause a delay in the construction project, at the same time, that doesn’t mean you should use out your resources as quickly as possible. On the contrary, be conservative with your resources. It also never hurts to keep an observant eye on your resource inventory on a regular basis. Depending on the popularity and foot traffic for your project, you may want to check your inventory on a monthly, weekly, or even daily basis.

Manage Construction Loans

When you’re accounting for the budget, what you pay back at the end for your construction loan should be factored into your overall costs. Because managing loans is labor intensive and time consuming, it’s best to use a risk mitigation software program, like Fund Control, which allows you to set up your loan to whatever specifications you need. It has an easy-to-use and friendly interface, so you can control every document, necessary inspection, disbursement, and much more with just a few taps on your mobile device.

Speak to an Expert

You can get your construction project budget in order and everything accounted for easily using ECL Software. Call us at 800-625-5972 or shoot us an email at info@eclsoftware.com to get started on making your entire construction project that much easier. The Fund Control solution is all about efficiency, functionality, and convenience.