Set up a cost budget vs. a revenue budget
Your cost budget is what you expect to spend. Your revenue budget is what you charge the client (or present to the bank). Here's how to set them up on a fixed price job:
Import or build your cost budget first.
Make sure there's no markup added at the bottom of the budget. With a revenue budget, markup is baked into the line items instead, and a leftover markup will cause errors.
Go to Settings, scroll to Revenue Budget, and turn it on. New columns appear (revenue budget, changes, revised budget) with cost and revenue totals at the top.
Add your markup to the revenue budget. You can type a flat dollar amount per line, or select lines, go to Actions > Calculate Revenue Budget, and apply a percentage across the board (e.g. 22.5%).
Tip: When the revenue budget is on, the cost budget column shows grayed out in Settings. That's a quick way to confirm which mode a job is in.
Know which budget your draws pull from
Once the revenue budget is on, draws pull from the revenue budget, not the cost budget. To create one: go to Draws > Create Draw > Set Draw Amount, then enter percent complete per line. The markup is already included, so there's nothing to add afterward. On later draws, you'll see "from previous draws" and the percent already complete for each line.
Why approved change orders can't be mass-deleted
Approved change orders are grayed out in the mass-delete view on purpose. To remove one, open it individually, delete it, and confirm. It's a safeguard against accidental deletion.
Find expenses missing a receipt image
Every card transaction automatically creates a draft receipt, so nothing gets missed and duplicates are merged. To chase down missing images:
Go to Expenses > Receipts and filter for receipts with no image.
Review who the assignee or cardholder is.
Ask the AI Assistant to remind them, for example: "Call all assignees for receipts with no images and remind them to upload their receipts."
Understand drafts vs. for approval
The draft folder holds every expense (with or without an image) until the assignee fills in the details and sends it forward. For approval is the final check before syncing to QuickBooks. If something isn't ready, you can reject it back. This keeps a clean two-step review.
Build a two-person approval workflow
If you need two sets of eyes on every receipt, don't split the work by folder. Instead, build one receipts workflow with multiple approval layers: the cardholder is assigned automatically, then the first reviewer must approve, then the second reviewer. This guarantees both looks happen and nobody can skip a step. You can also bypass a specific person's approval (for example, exclude a cardholder whose own receipts don't need checking).
See actual profit on a job (use the WIP report)
If you're manually subtracting costs from your revenue budget to find profit, use the WIP report instead. It shows revenue earned, earned gross profit, billed gross profit, and your originally predicted gross profit. You can customize the columns and pick your calculation method (percent complete or cost plus markup). There's also a recorded WIP webinar worth watching for a deeper walkthrough.
A note on client invoices
You don't need QuickBooks to produce a client-facing invoice. Export the draw presentation as a PDF from Adaptive and attach it to the QuickBooks invoice, which acts as the delivery and payment method. This is how most clients handle it today.
Questions or issues?
Email [email protected] or your account manager.