# Track your budget and manage change orders

> Set a renovation project's budget, log payments against it, and create, submit, and approve change orders when scope or cost changes.

Every renovation project has its own **Budget** and **Change Orders** tabs.
The Budget tab is where you set what you expect to spend and log what you've
actually paid. The Change Orders tab is where you document a change to that
plan, mid-project, and route it for approval before it becomes part of the
budget. This walks through both.

You'll need a renovation project already set up before either tab has
anything to work with.

## Open a project's Budget and Change Orders tabs

![The Project Budget card in Simple mode, showing total budget, amount paid, amount owed, and the Log Payment button](https://docs.reinvestorhub.ai/images/run-a-renovation-project/budget-simple-mode.png)

![The Log Payment dialog, for recording a payment against the budget](https://docs.reinvestorhub.ai/images/run-a-renovation-project/log-payment-modal.png)

1. Open the renovation project from your Projects list.
2. Along the top, you'll see **Overview**, **Team**, **Timeline**, **Budget**,
   **Change Orders**, and **Documents** tabs.

## Set your budget

The **Budget** tab has two modes, switched with a pill control in the top
right: **Simple** and **Detailed**. A new project starts in Detailed mode.
Switching modes doesn't delete anything you've entered in the other one.

### Simple mode

Use Simple mode if you just want one number to track against.

1. On the **Budget** tab, switch to **Simple**.
2. Enter a dollar amount in **Total Project Budget**.

That figure becomes your **Total Estimated Budget**, shown at the top of the
tab and in three summary cards: **Total Budget**, **Amount Paid**, and
**Remaining**, along with a payment progress bar.

To record money you've actually spent:

1. Click **Log Payment**. This is disabled until you've set a total budget
   above zero.
2. Enter the **Amount**, the date paid, a payment method (**Check**, **ACH/Bank
   Transfer**, **Credit Card**, **Cash**, or **Other**), who it was paid to,
   and what it was for.
3. Save the payment.

> **What you should see:** the payment appears in a **Payment History** table
> above the summary cards, and **Amount Paid** and **Amount Owed** update
> immediately. Click any row in the payment history to edit or delete that
> payment.

### Detailed mode

Use Detailed mode to break the budget into phases and line items instead of
one lump sum.

1. On the **Budget** tab, switch to **Detailed**.
2. If you haven't added any phases yet, click **Add Suggested Phases** for a
   standard renovation sequence (Planning & Permits, Demo & Foundation,
   Framing & Rough-Ins, Drywall & Paint, Finishes, Closeout), or **Add Phase
   Manually** to name your own.
3. Inside a phase, click **Add Line Item to [phase]**. Give it a
   **Category/Description** (for example, "Kitchen cabinets"), optionally
   assign a contractor, and enter **Labor** and **Materials** costs. The line
   item's **Total** adds the two automatically.
4. To log money paid against a specific line item, click **Log Payment** on
   that item and fill in the same fields as in Simple mode.

Line items don't have to belong to a phase. Use the **Unassigned Items**
section at the bottom for anything you haven't sorted yet.

At the top of the tab, three cards track **Estimated Budget** (the sum of
every line item's Total), **Amount Paid**, and **Remaining**, with the
percentage of budget spent shown under each.

> **Warning:** Removing a line item deletes its cost estimate and any payment history
> logged against it, and updates the project's total budget. This can't be
> undone once the project is saved.

## What a change order is

A change order documents a change to the project after work has started: an
unexpected repair, a material swap, added scope, a code requirement, and so
on. Instead of quietly editing a budget line item, a change order records
what changed, why, its cost, and any effect on the schedule, and puts it
through approval before it counts. Each one keeps its own audit trail of who
created it, who acted on it, and when.

Change orders are available on both the Silver and Gold plans.

## Create a change order

1. Open a project and go to its **Change Orders** tab.
2. Click **Create Change Order** (or **Create First Change Order** if this is
   the project's first one).
3. Fill in the **Change Order Title** and a **Description** of at least 10
   characters.
4. Optionally choose a **Category** (Unforeseen Conditions, Design Change,
   Scope Addition, Material Upgrade/Downgrade, Code/Permit Requirement,
   Weather/External Delay, Contractor Error/Correction, or Other) and a
   **Related Project Phase**, if the project has phases set up on its
   Timeline tab.
5. Under **Financial Impact**, enter the **Requested Amount**. A preview
   shows your project's current budget, what's been spent, this change
   order's amount, and the resulting adjusted budget.
6. Under **Timeline Impact**, choose **No Impact**, **Minor (1-3 days)**,
   **Moderate (4-7 days)**, or **Significant (8+ days)**. Choosing anything
   but No Impact adds a **Days Added to Schedule** field.
7. Under **Contractor/Vendor Information**, assign an existing project
   contractor, or choose **Other/New Vendor** and enter their company,
   contact, phone, and email. This is required.
8. Optionally add a **Quote/Bid Reference Number**, attach supporting
   documents, and add **Internal Notes** for anyone reviewing the request.
9. Click **Submit for Approval**.

> **What you should see:** the change order appears in the Change Orders list
> with a **Pending** status, and the **Change Order Summary** cards at the top
> of the tab (**Total Change Orders**, **Pending Approval**, **Approved**,
> **Budget Impact**) update to include it.

![A pending change order listed with its number, title, amount, and Approve action](https://docs.reinvestorhub.ai/images/run-a-renovation-project/change-orders-summary.png)

## Approve or reject a change order

Approving or rejecting a change order is an **Admin** capability. Creating
one and submitting it for approval is something an **Admin** or a **Power
User** can both do. See [Roles explained](https://docs.reinvestorhub.ai/reference/team-and-roles/roles-explained/)
for the full breakdown of what each role can do. This is enforced by the app,
not just by what is shown on screen: a Power User or User cannot approve or
reject a change order, or change the amount or schedule of one that is
already approved.

That submit/approve split only means something once more than one person is
in your organization, which is a Gold-plan capability. On Silver, your
organization is a single user, and that person is the Admin, so the same
person who creates a change order is also the one who approves it. Nothing
about the flow below requires a second person; it's just how the roles are
set up once you add one.

To act on a pending change order:

1. On the **Change Orders** tab, open the change order (click its row, or
   use the **View** option from its **Actions** menu).
2. To approve it, click **Approve Change Order**. A confirmation shows the
   budget amount about to be added and, if the change order carries a
   timeline impact, how many days it will add to your schedule. Confirm to
   apply it.
3. To reject it, click **Reject**, enter a reason of at least 10 characters,
   and confirm.

> **What you should see:** the change order's status updates to **Approved** or
> **Rejected**, and its details record who approved or rejected it and when.
> The Change Order Summary cards update to reflect the new totals.

> **Note:** A rejected change order still records the reason you gave, visible from
> its details, so anyone reviewing it later can see why it didn't move
> forward.

## How an approved change order affects your budget

Approving a change order adds its amount to the project's total budget automatically, in both **Simple** and **Detailed** mode. You don't edit your budget or add a line item for it.

Your own figure stays as you entered it. Once a project has an approved change order, the top of the **Budget** tab labels your figure **Base Budget**, shows the approved amount on its own line ("+ $6,500 approved change orders"), and shows the **Total Budget** underneath. The total is what the rest of Re:InvestorHub uses, including the project's budget card and **Remaining**. See [How your project budget is calculated](https://docs.reinvestorhub.ai/how-it-works/project-budget/).

If the change order carried a timeline impact with days added, approving it
also pushes your project's target completion date back by that many days
(as long as the project already has one set).

## Track a change order's history

Every change order keeps an audit log of what happened to it: when it was
created, each status change, edits, and any files attached or removed, each
with who did it and when. Open a change order and scroll to its **Audit
Log** to see the full history. Files attached to a change order are listed
under **Attached Files**, where you can view or download them.

To edit or delete a change order, use its **Actions** menu on the Change
Orders tab. Deleting a change order can't be undone.