Real-time budget tracking from WBS phase to corporate portfolio — with zero rounding errors, per-currency discipline, and an AR aging dashboard that replaces four hours of manual reconciliation with an eight-minute review.
The Financial Picture BuildOS Provides
BuildOS gives Tom and Sarah three financial lenses simultaneously:
Three Budget States
Every budget phase moves through three states as a project progresses. Understanding these states is fundamental to reading BuildOS financial reports:
WBS Phase Budgets
Budgets are tracked at the WBS phase level — the same phase codes used by the schedule (Foundation, Framing, MEP, etc.). This means budget status and schedule status are always aligned. If Foundation is 60% complete on the schedule, Tom can see immediately whether Foundation spending is also tracking at 60% — or whether it's already at 90%.
Each budget phase record tracks:
- WBS code and description (e.g., 3.x — Foundation)
- Estimated cost (baseline)
- Committed cost (contracts + POs)
- Actual cost (paid invoices)
- Variance amount and variance percentage (vs. estimate)
- Currency code (USD or CAD — never mixed)
Invoice Lifecycle
Invoices from subcontractors and vendors flow through a defined approval process:
| Status | Meaning | Who Acts |
|---|---|---|
| Pending | Invoice received, awaiting review | Sarah reviews against PO and WBS phase |
| Approved | Invoice verified and approved for payment | Sarah or Tom approves; moves to committed if not already |
| Rejected | Invoice disputed — incorrect amount, wrong phase, or unauthorized work | Sarah flags with notes; vendor notified |
| Paid | Payment issued; amount moves to Actual | Sarah marks paid with payment date |
Each invoice is linked to a specific WBS phase. When an invoice is approved, the committed amount for that phase updates automatically. When it's marked paid, the actual amount updates. The financial dashboard reflects these changes in real time.
Corporate Financial Dashboard
The corporate dashboard gives Tom a consolidated view of all active projects. It refreshes daily (a background job runs at 4 AM UTC) and presents:
AR Aging — Accounts Receivable Tracking
AR aging is the measure of how long money owed to the firm has been outstanding. BuildOS tracks AR in four buckets, each representing a different level of collection risk:
| Bucket | Age of Receivable | What It Signals | Typical Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current | 0–30 days | Normal — within standard payment terms | No action needed |
| 30-Day | 31–60 days | Slightly late — may be administrative delay | Friendly reminder to client |
| 60-Day | 61–90 days | Significantly overdue — attention required | Direct outreach; confirm receipt and intent to pay |
| 90+ Day | >90 days | At risk of non-collection | Escalate to owner; consider lien or collections |
AR aging snapshots are taken daily and stored historically, so Tom can see whether the 90-day bucket is growing (a trend problem) or whether a specific invoice has been stuck (a one-off issue). All amounts are shown in their original currency — USD aging and CAD aging are displayed as separate panels.
Multi-Currency Design
BuildOS serves GC firms that operate in both the United States and Canada. All financial values are stored and displayed in their original currency — no automatic conversion is ever performed. This means:
- A project contracted in CAD shows its budget, invoices, and AR in CAD
- The corporate dashboard shows two panels — one for USD totals, one for CAD totals — never combined into a single converted number
- Invoice approvals require the currency to match the associated budget phase currency
- Reports for lenders or tax purposes can be pulled in a single currency without conversion noise
G702 / G703 Draw Requests Post-MVP
G702 and G703 are the American Institute of Architects standard forms for construction draw requests — the documents GCs submit to lenders or owners to request payment at project milestones. BuildOS will auto-populate these forms using data already in the system:
- G703 Schedule of Values — pulled from the WBS phase budget (estimated, committed, actual per phase)
- Percent complete — pulled directly from the CPM schedule progress
- Previously certified amounts — tracked from prior draw requests
- Current period work — calculated automatically from the delta since the last draw
This eliminates the manual process of assembling a draw request from multiple spreadsheets — estimated to save 2–4 hours per project per draw cycle. Available in Phase 2 (post-MVP milestone M8).
Who Can See Financials
Financial data is restricted to owner and admin roles by default. Superintendents can see project-level financial summaries but not invoice details or corporate-level AR. Field workers have no financial visibility. For the full permissions breakdown, see Roles & Permissions.