Budget Module

Feasibility Study and Planning

This functionality concerns the beginning of process connected with introduction of project or investment into budget. Flexible management of projects and budgets is possible due to manager board. It enables to have a collective look on all the active projects, which budgets are available in the system. On one screen there are the most important information on implementation stage, budget status, advance of processes as well as all other tasks and documents related to seperate budgets and budget lines.

Within Feasibility Study and Planning it is possible to manage basic budget and to create so-called collective budget. Each basic budget consists of main positions and detailed positions together with a division into budget lines and suitable budget codes. A user can freely detail the budget eg, by adding a number of main positions (lines) together with sub-positions. Module allows to manage costs, as well as mentioned – basic budgets. To each investment project there is a possibility to assign basic budget for each stage of investment. A solution enables also to create collective budgets, which can be devided into seperate basic budgets and chosen lines from basic budgets. Collective budget allows to collects all the information on implementation in one place in order to track and settle the project.

Acceptance of budget version in Feasibility Study enables to start the process of budget preparation for Planning. On this stage value of set lines in Feasiblity Study is zero, and users who are responsible for detailed budget preparation, do it based on offers and calculations collected from contractors.

When finishing Planning budget might be overwritten with Fealibility Study budget and put into Implementation or accepted as binding and put into Implementation.

Basic functionality:

• creating new projects aggregating budgets, tasks, documents, etc.(defined budget category, stage of investment, building, total area, useable floor area, tenant settlement, budget status etc.),
• operating basic budgets and collective budgets,
• operating the budget of general contractor, investor, tensnts, etc.,
• flexible machanisms of matching budgets or seperate budget lines,
• defining the role of general contractor (eg. on reinvoicing from subcontractors),
• integration with a budget of the same capital group company (eg. cost in one budget is an income in the other at the same time),
• management of budget versions depending on stage (changes in budget, checking differences, change of status),
• templates – a possibility to save a budget structure as a template to use for automatic calculation of costs in other budgets,
• copying budgets, linking them, addition, deduction, multiplying individual budget lines while calculating main budget:
  • manualy – „add the line” option
  • based on template – „ädd the line from template”- import of a stucture of budget line from a template together with default % of a sum planned for each budget line,
  • based on a different budget – „import from budget”:option – import of budget line from another budget together with the value;
  • from Excel file – import of structure and values – the calculation of the child is not taken into consideration,
  • automatic update of percentage of planned amount as well as line value based on total value of agreements, which were assigned to the line,
• automatic calculations of such parameters as percentage of planned amount, calculation of the financial gap,
• using budget versions for Feasibility Study and Planning,
• the process of transfer,
• the process of transmission and detailing of budget from Feasibility Study when Planning,
• Planning – detailing budget positions based on calculations and offers collected from contractors and suppliers of materials, service, etc.,
• Acceptance of Budget Plan – enables to analyse various versions of a plan and feasibility; process of final version acceptance to implementation,
• Feasibility Study Deviation – module enables to verify plan deviations in a clear and intuitive way,
• documents and tasks management – a possibility to match documents (eg. offers, price lists, etc.) with any budget position,
• costs and funding schedule – possibility to plan costs and funding sources during the project,
• milestones – defining milestones in relation to bank investment lending,
• implementation – in the moment when a budget is accepted after Planning, it is submitted for implementation , activating at the same time agreements and invoice assignment,
• management of permissions to projects, budgets, budget stages and budget lines.

Implementation and Settlement

After Planning, accepted budget is submitted into Implementation within a system. On this stage for each budget there is a possibility of tracking implementation progress for signign agreements and receiving invoices, control of deadlines resulted from agreements and schedules and documents register. Each budget line may be linked with an agreement and cost invoice as well as documentand task. Each document influences the calculation of both amount and percentage of a budget line, a budget or a whole project, enabling at the same time detailed analysis of budget implementation and cost control.

Together with Develogic Workflow, budgets can be automatically updated based on the processes of agreements and invoices verification and attribution; they are automatically linked with budget lines in Develogic Budget. Using Develogic Workflow for budget funding processes shortens the time of budget data updating, eliminate the need of manual data introduction, and limits the possibility of mistakes. Due to mobile solution for OCR and introduction of invoices, cost documents update budget in few minutes after apearing. In the case of exeeding agreement value, a manager or investor is informed.

Depending on authorisation, a user can analyse each detail, starting with collective budget, through partial budgets, general budget lines and finishing with seperate sub-lines.

Apart from cost budget, it is also possible to analise an income budget. Integrating the system of budgeting and settlements allows to control implementation process in the context of costs, which allows the company to compare planned budget with its actual implementation based on agreements and invoices. Additionally, the module enables monitoring of payments' dates and controlling the quality of invoices.

Settlement of a budget and a project takes place at the end of project implementation process when shifting from Implementation status into Settlement status. The budget, which is saved in Settlement status, can be neither edited nor updated. A controller is able to prepare a summary of a whole project or its parts, verify budget implementation in comparison with plan, signed agreements, invoices and settlements with investor and tenders. Due to standarisation, all the budgets may have the same cost structure, which simplifies their comparison and analysis of deviations at the level of each budget line, including the history of linked documents and tasks.

Basic functionality:

• implementation analysis and budget settlement according to:
  • Agreement vs Plan Implementation – implementation is calculated as a total value of signed agreements, a plan is calculated in a certain version of budget,
  • Invoices vs Plan Implementation – implementation is calculated as a total value of invoices, a plan is calculated in a certain version of budget,
    • investor's invoices – implementation includes invoices of investor – excluding ones of general contractor. General contractor invoices are taken into consideration after re-invoicing.
    • general contractor's invoices – implementation includes invoices of general contractor – excluding ones of an investor.
  • Invoices vs Agreements Implementation – implementation is calculated as a total value of invoices in relation to signed agreements – in this case there is also an option to include only investor or general contractor.
• Invoice Register with options for reinvoicing (with or without margin, cost correction, etc.),
• Agreement Register related to projects' budgets including deposits and charges,
• schedule according to plans and agreements – enables planning and control of costs and incomes,
• Schedule Display – presentation of real value for past months in the schedule, based on invoices of investor. For current and future months, the schedule presents planned values (based on agreements, which are parts of a given budget line),
• deviation management – the system enables shifting unrealised payments into another month,
• functionality of correction and shifting of money between budget lines,
• mechanism of linking documents with other companies' budget automatically (within capital group); eg. A cost invoice can be automatically posted as income invoice into another budget, with or without margin),
• linking budgets with agreements and invoices automatically, after workflow (verifying and attribution) with update,
• analysis of each budget line – each budget line can be displayed in order to analise all the invoices , agreements, documents, cases and tasks related to it,
• integration with accountant system – after integrating, it is possible to download information on payments in the context of agreements and invoices; possibility of payment acceptance using payment' certificates,
• plan deviation – possibility of analysing budget differences between current budget and the one planned during Planning.
• Tenders management – enables to assign tenders to properties, provides the list of tenders together with additional costs of adjusting properties to their expectations; information on tenders' payments downloaded directly from budget lines (eg. Open space).

Projects and tasks management

This functionality enables board-level management of all the projects for all SPVs and investments, starting with defining resources. It is possible due to matching tasks and building teams, linking them with budgets, possibility of managing project's documents and work control.

Thanks to such a solution, a project coordinator can monitor process development and agreement's conditions related to a chosen budget line on an ongoing basis.

Discussion Panel,as well as a possibility of sharing documents linked with budget lines, simplifies and systematise team work, providing a communication channel for all project team members.

Both project coordinator and construction manager can control budget implementation using any device equipped with internet browser. Additionally, the system informs on overspending, not meeting deadlines or delays in key tasks by means of e-mail or sms notifications.

Quick and easy access to current information by means of any device equipped with internet browser simplifies communication between cooperators (using discussion tool as well).

Basic functionality:

• scheduling tasks related to budget,
• resources – working teams, machines, devices, which are neccessery for tasks,
• building teams management – allows to assing chosen users (eg. building team) to a given task, which should be completed within defined time using available resources. Each task may be linked with a particular project, budget or seperate budget line,
• Discussion Panel – in the context of budget, a discussion panel takes form of a board with options to add files, links, pictures etc.,
• repository of project documents,
• control over implementation development based on planned tasks and using Grantt chart,
• generation of templates (payment certificates, protocols etc.),
• mobile solutions for building teams including implementation time-control.

Integration with workflow

Such documents as agreements and cost invoices can be introduced into a system by Develogic Workflow and document management Module. Consequently, an option of manual introduction and editing documents might be unavailable in a budget module. Each new document is matched automatically with suitable budget positions. Using workflow allows to shorten the time between receiving a cost document and connecting it with a budget. Thanks to Develogic Workflow, an invoice can be entered to the system by means of mobile device, directly from construction site. Next, the invoice is assigned to a proper investment and send to attribution process, after which it is connected with Develogic Budget budget line. By using this solution, it is possible to save time connected with budget updating, systemise and standarise the process as well as eliminate manual data introduction (Develogic Workflow Module is a superior tool, which supplies Develogiv Budget).

Basic functionality:

• automatic supply of budget with Workflow documents – invoices, agreements, information on payments, etc., are automatically introduced into Budget module after processing them in Workflow module,
• Access to information about budgets including Workflow module – after integrating both modules, Workflow user has an access to information on budget, budget categories, possibility to mark an invoice as a cost for reinvoicing, etc., at the level of document introduction and attribution,
• overspending alerts sent immedietely by e-mail and/or sms (eg. to project manager, budget controller),
• each document's history – due to previous processing of each document (verification, attribution, acceptance), Budget module users are also provided with full history of each agreement or invoice (who and when accepts it, history of comments and changes, linked documents, etc.),
• elimination of double introduction of the same documents related to budget (invoices, agreements, information on payments).

Reports and Indicators

Develogic Budget module has biult-in and automatically updated reports and statistics, which allows to control a project implementation in the context of both costs and incomes. Additionally, a platform provides monitoring reports. Access to each document is individually defined or considering defined groups (eg. Board). All reports are available online, using any device equipped with internet browser. When reporting and overspending alerts are defined, the system sends automatically reports and overviews in the form of eg. attachement, on particular e-mail adress (eg. to project manager alerting on overspending).

Basic functionality:

• analysis and settlement reports related to general contractor, investors, contractors,
• management and settlement with tenants,
• indicators of project implementation for funding institutions (banks),
• indicator analysis, such as IRR, ROE, NPV, Capex,
• analysis of collective and partial budgets,
• tasks reports and stage of implementation within a project,
• possibility to create statistics with templates required by banks.