A budget represents a summary of the hard costs detailed in a takeoff, and it provides the basis for all budgeted versus actual cost, hour, or unit comparisons. In addition, you can use the budget as the basis for a proposal that you provide to a client.

You use the the Export budget to job cost wizard, available on the Advanced tab, to create a budget using information from an estimate created in Sage Estimating (SQL).

During the export process, the wizard has access to information in Sage 100 Contractor information.

Note: There is a one-to-one relationship between Sage 100 Contractor jobs and budgets. If a budget already exists for the selected Sage 100 Contractor job, a message appears telling you that a budget already exists for the job. You can overwrite the existing budget or cancel the budget creation.

Before you begin

In the Manage Estimates window, select the estimate to use as the basis for the budget, and then:

• Specify the Job cost system name as Sage 100 Contractor.
• Specify the Sage 100 Contractor company and job.

Note: If you try to create a budget for a non-existent Sage 100 Contractor job, you receive an Export Error message showing the invalid job number. For information about invalid job numbers and how to validate them, see Validate Job Number, Cost Codes, and Cost Types Overview.

To export a budget:

1. On the ribbon, click Advanced > Budget.

In classic view, click Advanced > Export Job Cost Budget.

2. On the Introduction tab, read the information and instructions carefully.
3. To proceed to Step 1 of budget creation, click [Next].

Export budget to job cost wizard: Step 1

Before you export Estimating data, you must identify the SQL Server instance where your Sage 100 Contractor database is located. You must also enter your user name and password for the Sage 100 Contractor company. You can also enter a transaction date and select or create a job number.

To export a budget:

1. In the SQL Server instance box, type or select the name of the server that hosts your Sage 100 Contractor database.
2. In the User Name box, type your user name for the Sage 100 Contractor company.

Important! If Integrated Security (Windows authentication) is turned on for your user name in Sage 100 Contractor, enter the domain name and your user name in the form Domain\user.

3. In the Password box, type the user's password.

Note: If Integrated Security is turned on for the user, you do not enter a password.

4. In the Transaction date box, accept the displayed date, or select a different date.
5. In the Sage 100 Contractor job number box, accept the displayed job number or select a different job number from the list.

To create a new job in Sage 100 Contractor, click the [Create New] button in the job list window.

6. Click [Next].

Export budget to job cost wizard: Step 2

In this step, you can choose to round the quantities on the generated budget. You can also choose to allocate overhead and profit addons into the budget values.

To export a budget – Step 2:

1. (Optional) Select options for rounding and markup options by selecting either or both of the following check boxes, as needed:

• Round accumulated item quantities
• Allocate addons

2. Click [Next]

Export budget to job cost wizard: Step 3

In this step, you can include a phase for the budget in Sage 100 Contractor. To include a phase, you must specify the sort level in the estimate that corresponds to the phase in Sage 100 Contractor.

To export a budget – Step 3:

1. (Optional) Select the Include an estimate sort level to be used as a Sage 100 Contractor Phase check box, as needed.

If you select the check box, a list box containing all estimate sort levels becomes available.

2. If you selected the check box, select a sort level from the list box.
3. Click [Next].

Export budget to job cost wizard: Step 4

In this final step, you can choose to save an audit report. If you choose to save the report, you are prompted for the name and location for the file.

When you click [Finish] to complete the budget export process, the program validates the job cost data from the estimate before exporting it to Sage 100 Contractor.

To export a budget – Step 4

1. In the Report destination options, select File or None.
2. Click [ Finish].

If there are problems with the interface, such as with invalid cost codes or categories, the program displays a detailed list of errors. You can export this list to a file, which you can use later to make corrections.

3. If you selected File as the report destination, enter the destination and file name, and then click [Save].

[BCB:164:Chat Estimating US:ECB] 

Getting Started: Setting up Sage Estimating to interface with Sage 100 Contractor (SQL)