How Do You Track a Budget Against Commitments?

Committed cost is what you have agreed in writing to spend, and on a commercial job it moves long before actual cost: a $600,000 steel subcontract is signed months before the first dollar is billed against its cost code. Tracking it shows an overrun when the contract is signed instead of when the last pay app arrives. This post covers the commitment side; forecasting cost to complete adds actual cost and the work still to come.

1. Start from the budget the job was won with: one line per cost code, from the estimate you carried. See how to set up cost codes.
2. Add owner-approved change orders to each line's budget as they are executed, so you compare against the revised budget, not the original.
3. When a subcontract or PO is executed, spread its value onto the cost codes in its schedule of values. A contract that covers two codes adds to both.
4. Add each approved change order on that contract to its cost code as soon as it is approved.
5. For every bought-out line, revised budget minus committed is the buyout variance: positive is savings, negative an overrun.
6. For every line with nothing signed, keep the full revised budget as the expected cost until it is bought out.
7. List pending change order requests next to their line as exposure, apart from committed cost.
8. Review the sheet every time a contract is signed or a change is approved, and at each monthly cost review.

This is the same comparison federal cost guidance makes at the program level: the difference between the estimate at completion and the budget at completion "is the variance at completion, which represents either a final cost overrun or an underrun" (GAO-20-195G). Per cost code, committed cost is the first solid piece of that estimate. Keeping codes in CSI MasterFormat, which CSI describes as "organizing specifications into work results that contractors can price, procure, and build" (CSI), means the estimate, subcontracts and pay apps all land on the same lines.

The job is fictional: "Juniper Street Medical Office". Four months after award, three trades are signed and two are not. Plumbing has an owner-approved change of $15,000 and a $9,750 approved change order on the plumbing subcontract.

The revised budget adds up as $412,000 + $655,000 + $288,000 + $340,000 + $512,000 = $2,207,000, and committed cost as $398,500 + $671,200 + $331,750 = $1,401,450, which is 63.5% of the budget. Expected final cost takes committed cost on the three signed lines and the budget on the two open ones: $398,500 + $671,200 + $288,000 + $331,750 + $512,000 = $2,201,450, or $5,550 under the $2,207,000 budget (+$13,500 − $16,200 + $8,250).

Two numbers stay out of the committed column on purpose. The drywall award of $279,400 would add $8,600 of savings, but it is not signed, so it is noted, not counted. The steel sub has a pending $4,800 change order request; counted as exposure, the job is $750 under ($5,550 − $4,800), and the steel line is the one to manage.

• Comparing commitments against the original budget, so owner-approved changes look like savings.
• Counting an award or a contract out for signature as committed.
• Booking a whole subcontract to one cost code when its schedule of values covers several.
• Leaving approved subcontract change orders off the committed column until they are billed.
• Reporting buyout savings on signed lines while unbought lines carry plugs that were never tested by bids.

Buyout itself, from scope review to signed subcontract, is covered in how to buy out a construction job; the numbers each line starts from come from the estimate built from sub bids. For the whole GC path through a job, see the general contractor's guide.

Conflo's Budget lists lines by CSI cost code, grouped by division, with original, approved changes, revised, committed, actual, cost to complete, projected and over/under columns. Committed cost comes from Commitments: once a subcontract or purchase order is executed, its schedule of values counts against the matching cost codes, along with approved change orders on that contract, which count on its first schedule-of-values line's code. Drafts and contracts still out for signature do not count. Executed owner change orders move into the budget's approved changes by cost code.

The summary strip shows the percent bought out, and a Not bought out tab lists codes with no executed commitment (Division 01 is left out, as it is usually self-performed). A code committed with no budget line still shows, marked as committed but not in the budget. Projected cost on each line is the highest of the revised budget, committed and actual cost, so an overrun like the steel line shows as soon as the contract is signed, while savings on a line stay inside its budget until you change it. The budget is visible only to the general contractor.

A budget tracked against commitments tells you at signing, not at closeout, whether a trade fits. Compare the revised budget with executed contracts and their approved changes, keep unsigned lines at budget, and list pending changes as exposure.

Do it every time something is signed. The sheet then shows where the job is likely to land while you can still act.

See how the budget works in Conflo

1. GAO-20-195G, Cost Estimating and Assessment Guide (March 2020) — U.S. Government Accountability Office. Read October 22, 2026.
2. Standards overview (MasterFormat and UniFormat) — Construction Specifications Institute. Read October 22, 2026.