How do I use the Budget Help when creating a ProPay? 🧮

The Budget Help feature in Protiv makes it easy to calculate your ProPay budget. You can use your job's estimated hours, labor cost, or contract price to get a quick and accurate budget.

What is a ProPay budget? 💼💰

The labor budget of a job is provided to workers as the incentive. The budget can either be a fixed number of hours or a fixed dollar amount. The budget serves as the target for the workers, and if they complete the job under budget, they earn a bonus.

How is the ProPay budget calculated? 🧮

Protiv offers a handy "Budget Help" calculator to assist you in determining the appropriate budget for your ProPays. You have three options for calculating the budget:

Hours: The budget is calculated by dividing the total labor budget by the average wage. The average wage can be either the average of the selected workers on the ProPay or the company average.

- Formula: Hours = Labor Budget / Average Wage

EXAMPLE: You estimate a painting job will take 40 hours to complete, so you enter 40 as the Labor Budget.

Protiv uses the average hourly wage of the workers currently assigned to the ProPay. So, if you've assigned two workers to the job, one earning $20/hour and the other earning $30/hour, Protiv will calculate the average wage as $25/hour.

Protiv will automatically calculate the Budget Amount based on your inputs.

Using the above examples, Protiv would calculate the Budget Amount as 40 hours x $25/hour = $1000.

Click "Add Budget" to apply the calculated budget to your ProPay.

Labor Costs: The budget is calculated by subtracting the labor burden from the total labor cost. The labor burden includes additional costs like worker's compensation, payroll taxes, and benefits.

- Formula: Labor Cost - Burden = Budget Amount

EXAMPLE: If you expect the total labor cost to be $1200, including burden, enter 1200 as the Labor Cost.

Enter the Burden % (the percentage of the labor cost that represents additional expenses like taxes and benefits).

If your burden is 20% of the labor cost, enter 20 as the Burden %. Protiv will automatically subtract the Burden from the Labor Cost to calculate the Budget Amount.

Using the above examples, Protiv would calculate the Burden as $1200 x 20% = $240 and the Budget Amount as $1200 - $240 = $960.

Click "Add Budget" to apply the calculated budget to your ProPay.

Contract Price: The budget is calculated as a percentage of the total contract price (revenue) for the job.

- Formula: Job Revenue x Budget Amount % = Budget Amount

EXAMPLE: If the contract price for the job is $5000, enter 5000 as the Contract Price (the total amount you'll be paid for the job).

Enter the desired Budget Amount % (the percentage of the contract price you want to allocate to labor).

If you want to allocate 40% of the contract price to labor costs, enter 40 as the Budget Amount %. Protiv will automatically calculate the Budget Amount based on your inputs.

Using the above examples, Protiv would calculate the Budget Amount as $5000 x 40% = $2000.

Click "Add Budget" to apply the calculated budget to your ProPay.

Using Budget Help with Milestones 🛣️

If your project has milestones, you can break down your budget per milestone using the same budget help calculations. Simply add the milestone name and the relevant data.

🛎️ Remember...

The "Budget Help" calculator is a tool to assist you. You can always adjust the calculated budget based on your specific knowledge and experience with the job.