How to Control Project Budgets When Converting Quotes

When you create a project from a quote, Kudurru Stone copies budget information in two places, not one. The project gets a Budget ($) figure taken from the quote's line item pricing, and each task you bring over gets its own budget taken from that task's hours and rate. Understanding which number is which, and when each one is written, is what keeps your budget-versus-actual reporting trustworthy.

The Two Budget Numbers

Number	Notes
Budget ($)	The project's overall budget. Set from the quote's line items. This is your sell price.
Task budget	A dollar budget on each individual project task. Set from that task's hours and rate. This is your labor plan.

Reports use them differently. Budget Remaining By Invoice and Budget Remaining By Time both measure against Budget ($). Task Budget Total on the Project Dashboard adds up the task budgets instead, and that is the figure that ties to the Task Revenue Report.

The two are not calculated from each other and are not kept in sync. They agree only when your quoted price happens to equal your quoted labor, which for most firms it does not, because the sell price includes markup, expenses, and profit. A gap between them is normal. A gap you did not expect is the thing to investigate.

Where Each Number Comes From

Source	Notes
Quote line items	Qty multiplied by Unit Price, added across every line on the quote. This becomes Budget ($).
Quote task hours and rate	Budget Hours multiplied by Budget Rate on each quote task. This becomes that project task's budget.
Quote discount	Not applied. Budget ($) is the pre-discount line total.
Tax	Not included in Budget ($).

If your quotes regularly carry a discount, expect Budget ($) to come in higher than what you actually billed. Adjust it after conversion, or use the Quote Total field on the Project Dashboard, which does account for the discount, as your comparison figure.

The One Moment Budget ($) Is Set

This is the most important thing to know. Budget ($) is populated only when a quote is selected in the Associated Quote dropdown on the New Project form, at the time the project is created.

Linking a quote to a project any other way does not set Budget ($):

Attaching a quote from an existing project, using Associate Quote
Linking a project from an existing quote, using Associate Project

Both of those create the relationship between the records, and Associate Project can still push quote tasks into the project with their task budgets intact. Neither one touches the project's Budget ($) field. If you build the project first and connect the quote afterward, Budget ($) stays whatever it was, usually empty, and you will need to enter it by hand.

The practical rule: if the work came from a quote, create the project from the New Project form with that quote selected. Attach quotes afterward only for change orders and additional work.

Choosing Which Tasks Carry Their Budget

Once you select a quote on the New Project form, Kudurru Stone lists that quote's tasks with a checkbox beside each one. Every task is checked by default.

Unchecking a task does two things: the task is not created on the project, and its budget is not included in the project's task budget total. So this checkbox list is your control over the task-level budget. If you routinely uncheck tasks that were quoted but are not being performed, your Task Budget Total will correctly reflect the reduced scope, while Budget ($) will still show the full quoted price. That is expected, but it is worth knowing which of the two moved.

Task budget is carried as hours multiplied by rate. If a quote task was built from several resource lines with different rates, verify the resulting task budget after conversion rather than assuming it matched the quote exactly.

What Does Not Carry Over

Item	Notes
Later quote edits	Budget is copied once, at conversion. Changing the quote afterward does not update the project.
Additional quotes	Linking a second quote to the same project does not add to Budget ($).
Discounts and tax	Excluded from Budget ($), as described above.
Quote status	Converting does not by itself change the quote's status. Update it so your quote pipeline stays accurate.

The consequence for change orders is worth stating directly. When you quote additional work and link that quote to the existing project, the project's Budget ($) does not grow. Someone has to raise it manually, or every budget-remaining report on that project will understate what you have to spend.

Correcting a Budget After Conversion

Budget ($) is an editable field on the project. Open the project and edit Budget ($) directly, or edit it from the Project Dashboard quick view if your view includes that column.

Editing this field is restricted. Users in the Admin, Bookkeeper, or Manager role can change it; other users see the value but cannot edit it. If the field appears read-only for someone who needs to maintain it, that is a role question, not a settings question.

Task budgets are corrected on the individual project task, the same way you would edit any task budget.

Tips

Create the project from the New Project form with the quote selected. It is the only path that fills in Budget ($) for you.
After converting, compare Budget ($) against the quote total. If the quote carried a discount, the two will differ by that amount and you should correct it.
Add both Budget and Task Budget Total to your Project Dashboard view. Seeing them side by side makes an unexpected gap obvious early, rather than at invoicing.
Uncheck quoted tasks you are not performing during conversion, instead of deleting them from the project afterward. The budget math comes out cleaner.
When you link a change order quote, update Budget ($) in the same sitting. Nothing in Kudurru Stone will do it for you or remind you.
Use Task Budget Total, not Budget, when reconciling against the Task Revenue Report. Those two are designed to agree.