The total hides the line
A project can sit inside its budget while one trade is far over and another is far under. A single total cannot tell you which conversation to have.
For the project manager
Cost tracking for project managers
A project manager does not need every invoice; they need to know on Monday which line is heading over the budget and why. This page walks through a weekly cost routine in Fidrel: where each figure comes from, what turns a line into a warning, and what you do about it.
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Why a cost report is hard to trust
The figures have no source
A number in a report you cannot open is a number you cannot defend at the owner meeting. You need to get from the figure to the invoice behind it.
The forecast is a guess nobody owns
If nobody is responsible for the remaining cost per line, the estimate at completion is whatever the last person typed, or nothing at all.
Where the figures come from
Original budget is the approved baseline estimate, locked. Approved budget changes are approved change orders, revisions and other adjustments, and the current budget is the original plus those. Committed is active and closed contracts plus recorded orders, each contract once. Invoiced is checked vendor invoices that have not been rejected, and actual cost is the approved part of that. Estimate at completion is invoiced plus the remaining forecast, and when nobody has entered a remaining forecast it falls back to the highest of the current budget, the commitments and the invoiced amount.
Cost tracking
What turns a line into a warning
Financial alerts are thresholds you set: Forecast exceeds budget, High budget consumption, Commitments exceed budget, Forecast has increased, Costs are ahead of production and Invoice is not fully allocated. The last of the cost alerts compares spend with progress, which works for budget items linked to schedule activities. Pending change orders are counted in the economy overview, so you see money that is asked for but not yet in the budget.
A weekly routine, in order
Step 1
Open Project costs and read the top
The Overview shows cards for budget, costs and forecast, a bridge from the Original budget through change orders and revisions to Estimate at completion, and the Cost curve. Budget variance is the estimate at completion minus the current budget, and a positive figure means over budget.
Step 2
Clear what is waiting in To handle
The queue counts invoices to check, to code and to approve, and the overdue ones. An invoice that is not coded to a line sits under Unallocated, still counted in the forecast, so code it before you read the lines.
Step 3
Go line by line and open the figure
Filter to the line items that are over budget. Each figure opens the items behind it, and from an item you can reach the invoices coded to it and every adjustment that was made. Each line also shows percent consumed.
Step 4
Update the forecast and decide
Where the remaining cost has changed, a person with the forecast permission updates the Remaining forecast on the line. Then export the report to XLSX or CSV for the owner meeting, or open the change order that should carry the overrun.
What a project manager sees and cannot do
Cost tracking and vendor invoices are shown only to people an administrator has given finance permissions, one by one: overview, mapping, approving, budget and forecast are separate. Without them you see a closed page that explains it. Fidrel does not approve payment or move money; a recorded payment only records one already made. It also runs no cash application against the owner, so owner billing stays in your own system.
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For the project manager
Frequently asked questions
Anything else on your mind? We are happy to help.
Talk to usYes. A filter brings up the line items that are over budget, and the filtered lines open the same detail as the rest.
Yes. Every figure in the overview opens the items behind it, and from an item you reach the invoices coded to it and every adjustment that has been made.
Yes. Financial alerts appear in Fidrel when, for example, the forecast exceeds the budget or consumption runs high, and you set the thresholds yourself.
Yes. The period view shows planned, forecast, invoiced and paid by month, quarter or year, and cost tracking exports to XLSX and CSV.
The estimate follows the sharing under Access & privacy, while cost tracking and vendor invoices are given person by person on the Permissions tab.