For self-builders
Most Irish self-builds start with a costing drawn up for the mortgage: a lender’s template, a QS’s figures or the owner’s own spreadsheet. Once the first stage is drawn down, the real spending begins, with a groundworker, a blocklayer, a roofer, an electrician, a plumber and a builders’ providers account all sending invoices, often to someone who is also on site every evening. A self-build budget tracker has to answer three questions at any moment: what have I agreed to pay, what has been invoiced, and where will the house finish against the budget? This page shows how a self-builder can keep those answers in Fidrel.
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A costing prepared for the bank is rarely opened again once the loan is approved. Prices agreed later with the trades never make it back into the spreadsheet, so the figure the household relies on drifts further from reality with every week on site.
Managing the trades yourself saves a main contractor’s margin but multiplies the paperwork: separate invoices from each trade, dockets and statements from the builders’ providers, plant hire, skips and scaffolding. Receipts end up in the van, in emails and in photos on a phone.
If you cannot reclaim the VAT you pay, a budget kept without VAT understates what the house will cost you, and comparing one quote that includes VAT with another that does not makes the gap worse.
Fidrel forecasts each estimate line on its own. Until you say what is still to come, a line’s forecast at completion is the highest of three figures: its current budget, what is committed under active contracts and what has been invoiced. Once you enter a remaining forecast for the line, the forecast becomes what has been invoiced plus that remainder. The variance is the forecast minus the current budget. Say the roof was budgeted at €24,000 excluding VAT and the roofer’s accepted quote is €26,500: as soon as that contract is active, the line forecasts €26,500 and shows a variance of €2,500, before a single invoice has come in. That early warning is the reason to record agreed prices at all.
Cost tracking
On the Permissions tab of project costs, a project administrator can tick VAT counts as a cost (cannot be reclaimed). Amounts are still stored without VAT, but the pages then show the budget, the actual cost and the forecast including VAT. Invoices carry the VAT printed on them; the budget, the committed amounts and any forecast you enter take one rate, set under VAT rate for budget, committed and forecast, which falls back to the standard rate when left empty. Forms still take amounts excluding VAT, so enter quotes net and let the pages add the tax. Whether you can reclaim any of it is a question for your accountant or Revenue, not for Fidrel.
Step 1
Enter your costing as an estimate in Fidrel, one line per trade or element, or bring it in from an Excel or CSV file with Import estimate. Approve it as the baseline estimate and it becomes the original budget, locked, with later changes made as variations or budget adjustments.
Step 2
When a trade’s quote is accepted, enter it under Contracts & orders against the estimate lines it covers and set it to Active. Its amount then counts as committed, so the tracker knows about the bill before any invoice arrives.
Step 3
Upload PDFs, photos or scans of invoices. Fidrel reads the supplier, number, dates and amounts as a suggestion; you check them against the original, allocate the invoice to estimate lines and approve it.
Step 4
Cost tracking shows every estimate line with its current budget, committed and invoiced amounts, the forecast at completion and the variance, so an overrun on the roof shows while there is still time to save on the kitchen.
Lenders release a self-build mortgage in stages, and many self-builders think about money the same way. In Fidrel, stages divide estimates and cost reporting, and you choose what they are called, so they can carry the names your lender uses, from foundations through to completion. Following costs stage by stage then shows whether each drawdown is covering the work it is meant to pay for, or whether the next one is already spoken for. The stage certificates and drawdown requests themselves stay with your engineer or architect and your lender.
An e-invoice is read exactly; a PDF is read from its text, and a photo or scan with text recognition, which Fidrel asks you to check carefully. Where nothing can be read, Fill in myself lets you type the details from the paper. Before you continue, Fidrel checks that net plus VAT equals the invoice total and warns when the invoice number already exists for that supplier. An invoice covering two trades can be split across estimate lines, and a cost nobody planned for can get a new code at the end of the estimate, starting at zero, to be allocated to. Once approved, an invoice’s details are locked and a mistake is put right with a credit note. Invoices can even be checked before the budget is approved; they wait to be allocated until it is.
Against each invoice you can record what you paid and on which date, which feeds the paid figure in cost tracking. Fidrel records a payment already made, and no money moves through it. That record answers the questions that come up at every stage of a self-build, from the merchant who says an invoice is still open to the lender who wants to see what the last drawdown went on. Keep the receipts themselves with the invoices, so the figure and the paper sit together.
Cost tracking and supplier invoices are shown only to people an administrator has given finance permissions in the project, and those permissions also need access to the project estimate. A partner can follow every figure while the engineer or the architect who shares the drawings in the same project sees none of them. On the Irish site Fidrel is sold to private individuals as well as to businesses, and an individual pays by card.
Fidrel does not prepare the lender’s costing, stage certificates or drawdown requests, and it has no link to your bank or mortgage provider. Recording a payment moves no money: Fidrel makes no bank transfer. Fidrel gives no tax advice and handles no grant or tax relief claims. Fidrel runs no payroll for anyone you employ directly on the build. Every invoice reading is a suggestion that you check; approved amounts never change by themselves.
Your trial applies to your first own project and starts when that project is created. No card required. Afterwards, choose card or invoice to continue.
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Anything else on your mind? We are happy to help.
Talk to usYes. You can upload and check invoices before any budget is approved; they wait to be allocated to an estimate line until the baseline is in place, and nothing is lost in the meantime.
Split the cost across the estimate lines it belongs to. The amount still to allocate is shown as you go, so the whole invoice is placed before you approve it.
Yes. Photos and scans are read with text recognition, and Fidrel asks you to check those values carefully. HEIC images are refused, so save them as JPEG or PDF first.
Yes, if an administrator ticks VAT counts as a cost on the Permissions tab. Budget, costs and forecast are then shown including VAT, while the forms keep taking amounts without it.
No. The template served the mortgage application. Fidrel takes that costing as its starting budget and then follows what you agree, are invoiced and pay against it until the house is finished.
Only if you give them finance permissions. Being a member of the project, with access to the drawings or documents, does not open the costs to anyone.
