Sage records what you have spent but has no budget per job to measure it against, so the budget lives in a spreadsheet that is always out of date. Planyard holds the budget, commitments and forecast for each project and posts approved costs to Sage already coded.
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Contractors trust Sage for invoices, VAT and CIS, but it cannot show how a live job is tracking against the price you won it at. So the budget sits in Excel and gets compared with Sage when someone has time.
Sage tracks nominal codes, not packages
Updated after the invoices arrive
The QS sheet and Sage report differ
Too late to change the order
"Planyard takes your project budget and puts it very clearly on screen, allowing you to account for all your costs, invoices, and receipts as you process them before they even reach the accounting department. This gives you a live, real-time picture of exactly where your project budget stands at any given point."
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Rebuilding the estimate as a budget takes a day and loses the detail you priced. Import the estimate or an existing spreadsheet with your own headings, cost codes and line items.
Each line maps to a Sage nominal code once, and the integration posts every approved cost with the right code.
Sage Accounting integrationHeadings and cost codes as they are
Detail stays in Planyard
Variations move the revised figure
Start the next job from the last one
"Now, I can just go into my material budget and see exactly how much we've ordered across every purchase order in one single view."
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Ordering blind means finding out a package is over once the invoices arrive. Purchase orders and subcontracts count against the budget the day they are raised, and each line shows budget, committed, invoiced and remaining.
Purchase ordersNot from the day the bill is entered
What is left to spend on each package
Lines trending over budget are flagged
Budget, forecast and margin together
"I can check the status of our budget whenever I need to, whether I'm out on-site using my phone or sitting at home on the laptop in the evening."
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| The question you are asking | Sage Accounting alone | With Planyard |
|---|---|---|
| What is the budget for each job and cost code? | Not available |
Imported from the estimate |
| How much is committed against each line? | Only once the bill is entered |
Counted when the order is raised |
| What have variations done to the budget? | Tracked in a spreadsheet |
The revised budget updates on approval |
| What margin will this job make? | Worked out by hand at month end |
Live with every approval |
Updating a budget by hand from Sage reports means it is always behind the invoices. When the project team approves an invoice against a budget line, the budget updates and Planyard creates the bill in Sage with the supplier, nominal code, VAT and PDF.
Sage job costingThe actual updates on approval
Accounts do not re-code bills
Attached in Sage
Set up once
"While spreadsheets are good for the tasks they were designed for, you are always open to human error. They serve a purpose, but for project management, they aren't ideal. You might forget to add a row, fail to adjust a formula, or make some other hidden mistake that stays buried in the data."
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Import it on the free trial, map it to your nominal codes once and watch it move as costs are approved.
We've got your questions covered. If you can't find the answer below, then feel free to contact us via the chat.
No. Sage Accounting has no budget per project or cost code, so contractors keep budgets in a spreadsheet or in Planyard.
Yes. Import the estimate or an Excel budget with your own headings, cost codes and line items, and the structure comes across as it is.
No. Budget in the trades and cost codes you priced in, then point each line at a nominal code once. Many lines can share one code.
Approved variations move the revised budget, while the original budget stays visible, so you can always see what the job was won at.
Yes. Enter the costs to date for each live project, and new costs flow through Planyard from then on.
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