Understanding Budget Line Items

What line items are, standard categories, and how to add custom categories.

A **line item** is one row of your budget: one thing you expect to pay for. This guide covers the whole life of a single line. For the amounts shown in the columns, see [Understanding Your Budget Amounts](/help/budget/actual-vs-budget).

Add a line

1. Select **+** in the budget toolbar, then **Add Line Item**.
2. Choose **Custom Item**, or pick a suggested item to fill in the description and cost code.
3. Fill in **Description**, **Adding to**, **Qty**, **Unit** and **$/Unit**.
4. Select **Add Item**.

Quantity times unit price becomes the line's **Original** budget.

Edit a line

Two ways:

  • **In the table** — type directly into an editable cell. A bar appears at the bottom of the page; select **Save Changes** to commit, or discard. Nothing is saved until you do.
  • **In the form** — open the line's three-dot menu and choose **Edit Item**, change what you need, then **Save**.

The form is where the less-used fields live: **Agreed Cost**, **Expected Final Cost**, **Status**, notes and tax settings.

Record what you spend

Open the line's three-dot menu and choose **Log Expense**. Enter the vendor, amount, date and payment status, attach the receipt or invoice if you have it, and save. The expense is added to the line's **Actual Cost** whether or not it has been paid.

Assign vendors

Use **Assign Vendors** in the line's menu to connect one or more vendors from your directory to that line. This is what tells OwnerDraw a vendor is actually working on this project, so their insurance and waiver status counts toward this project's checks. Vendors merely sitting in your directory do not.

Organise the table

  • **Add Category** and **Add Group** create your own headings.
  • **View** sets the grouping (category, cost code, group or none) and turns optional columns on — **Cost Type**, **Agreed Cost**, **Remaining Commitment** and **Expected Final Cost**. Agreed Cost and Expected Final Cost are hidden until you turn them on.
  • **Expand** / **Collapse** open and close all groups.
  • The search box filters by code, description or note.

Grouping, columns and search only change what you see. They never change an amount.

Move money between lines

**Transfer Funds** moves Revised Budget from one line to another and records one history entry. The same amount leaves the source and enters the destination, so the project total stays unchanged.

Original Budget remains based on quantity, unit price, worksheet detail, and tax. Revised Budget is **Original Budget + Approved Changes + Net Transfers**. Transfers do not change approved change orders, Agreed Cost, Actual Cost, vendor payments, or recorded expenses.

**Available to transfer** is the greater of zero or **Revised Budget − Actual Cost − Remaining Commitment**. It is budget remaining after recorded costs and unused commitments. Future work that has not been entered may still need this budget.

Change the agreed amount

Enter **Agreed Cost** on the line and set **Status** to **Committed** once you have an accepted bid, signed contract or confirmed purchase price. From then on the line shows a **Remaining Commitment** — the unused part of that agreement.

If the *budget* needs to change rather than the agreement, use a change order instead. See [Change Orders in Your Budget](/help/budget/change-orders).

Close out a finished line

When the work is done and every cost is recorded, open the line's three-dot menu and choose **Close Out Line Item**. The dialog shows the Agreed Cost, the recorded Actual Cost, the Remaining Commitment being released, and the difference against your revised budget. Tick the confirmation, add a note if useful, and confirm.

After closeout:

  • Remaining Commitment becomes $0 and the status reads **Closed — Fully Settled**.
  • Who closed it, when, and your note are recorded.
  • The Agreed Cost, budget, expenses and history are all preserved.

Closing a line does **not** pay a bill, create an expense, mark anything as paid, or change your budget. It only states that nothing further is owed on that agreement.

If bills on the line are still unpaid or sitting in a draw request, OwnerDraw blocks a fully settled closeout until they are resolved. The retainage confirmation in the dialog is your statement that retainage has been dealt with; it is not evidence that retainage was actually withheld on that line.

Recording a final payment does not close a line by itself — work being complete is not the same as being fully settled.

Reopen a line

Open the closed line's menu, choose **Reopen Line Item** and confirm. The line returns to Committed and its Remaining Commitment is recalculated from the Agreed Cost and recorded costs.

Common questions

**Why can't I edit some fields?** Group and category rows are totals of the lines beneath them. Edit the individual lines instead.

**Can I delete a line?** Yes, from the line's menu — but a line with recorded expenses should be kept so your history stays intact.

**A line came in under its agreed amount. Why does it still show a Remaining Commitment?** Because the agreement is still open. Close the line out to release it.

For professional builders

Lines carry cost type (labour/material) alongside the NAHB code, so labour and material can be reported separately for lender draws. Closeout is a record-keeping event only — it never posts a transaction.

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**Verification note:** Field names, menu items, the closeout and reopen dialogs and their wording were confirmed by inspecting the current app code and opening the dialogs on the Budget page. A closeout and reopen were not completed against a live project line during this documentation pass.