Managing Allowances and Selections

Mark a Budget line as an allowance, add the items you must choose, compare product options, choose one per item, and read the totals honestly.

An allowance is money set aside in your budget for something you have not picked yet — plumbing fixtures, tile, appliances. **Selections** is where you do the picking.

The shape is always the same:

**Budget line marked "Allowance Item" → items to choose → product options for each item → one chosen product per item.**

So *Plumbing Fixtures — $5,000* is one allowance, and inside it you might have four items: Kitchen Faucet, Bathroom Faucets, Toilets, Shower Fixtures. Each item can hold several products you are comparing, and you choose one. *Shower Tile* might hold a single item. Same workflow either way.

Start here

1. Open **Budget**, edit (or add) the line you will shop for, and turn on **Allowance Item**. That is the whole setup.
2. Open **Selections**. The line is already there, with its **Allowance Budget** taken from that line's revised budget.
3. Open the allowance and select **Add Item** for each decision — *Kitchen Faucet*, *Toilets*. **Room / Location** is optional.
4. While creating the item you can enter the first product right away, and choose it in the same step.
5. For anything you are still comparing, use **Add Product Option** on the item, then **Choose** the one you want.

From a Budget line you can also open the line's three-dot menu and select **Manage Selections**, which jumps straight to that allowance.

You never create an allowance twice

Marking the Budget line is the only setup step. There is no separate "create allowance" form and nothing to link by hand. The allowance uses the Budget line's own identity and name, and its amount is that line's revised budget — the same figure the Budget page shows, including sales tax, approved change orders and budget transfers. Change the Budget line and the allowance amount follows. Each Budget line counts once.

If **Selections** is empty, that means no Budget line is marked yet. **Open Budget** and mark one.

Items and product options

An **item** is a decision: *Kitchen Faucet*.
A **product option** is a candidate for that decision: a specific faucet with **Product Name**, price, quantity, unit, link, vendor and notes.

Each item keeps its own chosen product. Choosing a faucet never disturbs your toilet choice, and choosing a different faucet only changes that one item.

Two ways to record a product:

**Add Product Option** — record it as one of the alternatives, without choosing it.
**Save & Choose** — record it and pick it in one step, for when you already know what you want.

**Compare Options** on an item shows the alternatives, where you can switch the chosen product, edit any option, or remove one. Items and options both have visible edit actions; nothing needs dragging.

Quantities and prices

Quantities can be decimal — **2.5** boxes is fine, and it is not rounded away.
A quantity must be greater than zero, and a price cannot be negative.
**Leave the price blank if you do not know it yet.** It stays visibly unknown instead of counting as $0, and the allowance says so.
The price you type is the price used. OwnerDraw adds nothing for tax, delivery or installation.

The allowance's **Scope** setting — **Materials Only**, **Materials + Install**, **Full Turnkey** — records what that allowance is meant to cover, so you can see whether labour is supposed to come out of it. It does not change any figure.

Reading the totals honestly

Each allowance shows:

**Allowance Budget** — the Budget line's revised budget
**Selected Total** — the chosen products that have a price, added up
**3 of 4 items chosen** — progress, taken from the items themselves
**not yet allocated** or **over allowance** — the difference

For example: *$1,450 selected · 3 of 4 items chosen · $3,550 not yet allocated — Shower Fixtures still needs a choice.*

Two things this deliberately does **not** say:

An item with no choice is not a $0 purchase. It is simply undecided.
Money not yet allocated is not savings. It is money still to be spent, until every item is chosen and priced.

If a chosen product has no price, the allowance and the page totals both flag it, so a partial figure is never mistaken for a complete one.

Go over the allowance and you get a notice with the exact amount over, plus **Review Choices** and **Open Budget**. Nothing in your budget moves on its own.

What choosing a product does — and does not do

Choosing marks that item **Selected**. That is all.

It does not order the product, pay anyone, notify a vendor, change your **Revised Budget** or **Agreed Cost**, create an expense or payment, or raise a change order. If a choice pushes you over the allowance and you want your budget to reflect that, you change the Budget line yourself — or raise a change order — and then record the actual bill in **Expenses** when it arrives.

Statuses

| Status | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| **Not chosen** | No product picked for this item yet |
| **Selected** | You picked one |
| **Approved** | Your own sign-off |
| **Purchased (recorded)** | Your note that it has been bought — not an order or a payment |
| **Installed (recorded)** | Your note that it is in — nothing about site work changes |

Change the chosen product on an item marked **Approved**, **Purchased** or **Installed** and you are told what that mark means and asked what should happen to it. Nothing is reset behind your back. Overall progress always comes from the items, so there is no separate status to keep in step by hand.

Removing things, and unmarking an allowance

Removing the **chosen** product option puts that item back to **Not chosen**, and progress drops honestly.
Removing an item removes its product options with it.
Turning **Allowance Item** off in Budget deletes nothing. The allowance stays on **Selections** with every item, option, note and status, under a notice saying the Budget line is no longer marked, with **Open Budget** so you can mark it again. Mark the line again and you carry straight on.

What do I do next?

| If you… | Do this |
| --- | --- |
| see nothing on Selections | **Open Budget** and turn on **Allowance Item** on the line you will shop for |
| know exactly what you want | **Add Item**, enter the product, use **Save & Choose** |
| are still shopping | **Add Product Option** for each candidate, then **Choose** later |
| do not know a price yet | leave the price blank — it stays unknown, not $0 |
| are over the allowance | **Review Choices** for something cheaper, or **Open Budget** to change the line yourself |
| have bought something | set the item to **Purchased (recorded)**, then record the bill in **Expenses** |
| want the allowance to match your choices | change the Budget line, or raise a change order — Selections never does it for you |

Common questions

**Why is my allowance amount different from what I typed in Budget?** It is the line's revised budget, so it includes sales tax, approved change orders and budget transfers on that line.

**Can two allowances share the same Budget line?** No. One Budget line is one allowance, counted once.

**Can I put one product against two items?** Record it on each item. Each item's chosen product is its own record.

**Does anyone else see my choices?** People with access to the project. A lender-role member and a client can view allowances but not change them.

**Why can't I edit anything?** Your role on this project has read-only allowance access, or the Budget line is no longer marked as an allowance.

Professional builder notes

Allowance amounts are read from the shared budget calculation at display time, so there is no reconciliation step between a selections sheet and the budget.
Selections carry no markup, tax, freight or labour burden. If your allowance is sold as installed, set **Scope** accordingly and keep the install carrier on its own Budget line.
**Purchased** and **Installed** are tracking states only. Committed cost still comes from Agreed Cost on the Budget line, and actual cost from expenses.

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