Reading your budget status
The Budget page is dense on purpose — every euro on the project is in there. But you do not have to read it line by line. Four columns and a colour scheme do most of the work; once you know what each one represents, the page tells you in seconds whether anything needs your attention.
01Two views, one toggle
The Budget page has two views, and the toggle at the top switches between them:
- Overview shows only what is known while you are still designing: the amount you had in mind, the quotes you received (grouped per trade, with the chosen quote highlighted), and the invoices to date. No empty line structure, no noise about work that has not started.
- Full budget is the complete page described below, with every budget line and the four columns.
While your project has no imported bill of quantities, you start on the overview. The moment a bill-of-quantities import completes, everyone on the project lands on the full budget. Your choice is personal: flip the toggle and Hemma remembers it for you, without changing what your partner sees.
02The four columns
Every budget line shows four numbers:
- Estimated — what someone expected this to cost. Usually from your architect's first cost estimate, or the figure you typed when you set up the line.
- Budgeted — what you have decided to spend. The reference point everything else is measured against.
- Quoted — sum of every linked quote line item. As soon as a contractor sends a quote and you link it (see linking an invoice or quote to a budget line), this column moves.
- Invoiced — sum of every linked invoice line item. The actual euros spent so far.
For category rows, the four columns roll up from their children — invoiced on Roof is the sum of every linked invoice anywhere under Roof.
03The signal colour on the Budgeted column
Per line, Hemma colours the Budgeted figure based on how close the Invoiced is to it:
- Green ✓ — under 95% of budgeted. On track. Nothing to think about.
- Amber ⚠ — between 95% and 100%. Getting tight. Worth a glance before signing off on more work on this line.
- Red ⚠ (bold) — at or over 100%. You have invoiced more than you budgeted. Either revise the budget or the line is genuinely over.
The percentage shows next to the colour for clarity (✓ 73%, ⚠ 98%, ⚠ 112%). See what the signal colours mean for how this scale is used everywhere else in Hemma.
The colour is on Budgeted, not on Invoiced. The reason: the budget is the goal; "are we on it?" is the question.
04The project-level state on the dashboard
The dashboard widget for the budget collapses everything into one of four states:
- Healthy — totals are well within budget.
- Warning — within 2.5% or €2,500 of total budget.
- Critical — within 1% or €1,000.
- Over — total invoiced exceeds total budgeted.
Same idea as the per-line colour, but for the whole project. The state is whichever is more urgent — so a project that is over even by €5 reads Over, even if 80% of lines are green.
The dashboard also lists documents needing attention — invoices that are overdue, due in the next few days, still in Needs review, or not yet linked. That list is what you act on; the state is the headline.
05Empty cells
A blank cell is not a zero. It means "we have not entered a number for this." A line with no Budgeted value cannot have a status colour, because there is nothing to measure against — Hemma shows it grey and skips the percentage. Filling in Budgeted (even a rough number) is what activates the signal.
06Common questions
Why does Quoted have no signal colour? Because quoted is forward-looking — it is not money spent. Hemma uses it to flag scope gaps and warn you in comparing quotes side by side, but it does not drive the budget signal. Only Invoiced does.
A line shows red, but I planned to go over. That is fine. Update the Budgeted number to your new plan and the line goes green again. The budget is what you decide it is.
The percentage is more than 100% but less than the over total. Rounding. Hemma rounds the percentage to whole numbers; the underlying comparison uses the raw amounts.
A category line is green but a child is red. The category roll-up averages out the children. Read the children directly when you suspect something is hidden in the average.
Where do I see the cumulative across the whole budget? The dashboard. The Budget page itself shows totals on each row, including the root rows.
07What if it goes wrong
- A number looks wrong: see my budget total looks wrong.
- Documents in Needs review are not counted — see a document is stuck in "Needs review".
- A linked invoice is not appearing in Invoiced: see linking an invoice or quote to a budget line.