Resources and cost

A task with a supplier and a cost stops being just a bar on a chart. It becomes the thing that drives call-ups and cash flow.

Assigning a supplier

Supplier and Contact say who is doing the work.

This is what makes call-up sheets and bookings work — both are built from the supplier on the task. A task with no supplier cannot be called up, because there is nobody to call.

Costing a task

Select Cost Method chooses where the task’s cost comes from:

Method	Cost comes from	Use when
Manual	A figure you type	No order exists yet
From an order	The linked purchase order	The work is ordered

Link to Order ties the task to its purchase order.

Prefer the order

A task costed from its order is right by construction, and stays right when the order is revised. A manually costed task is a number someone typed once, and it goes stale silently.

Use manual costs while planning, before orders exist, then link the orders as they are raised.

Linking orders makes the cash flow real

Cash flow built from manual estimates is a guess. Cash flow built from linked orders is what you have actually committed, timed to when it is due. The second is worth looking at; the first is worth roughly what you put into it.

Cost centers

Cost Center ties the task back to the estimate — the same trade breakdown the BOQ uses. See Cost Centers.

With it set, the schedule and the estimate speak the same language, so you can ask what a trade was allowed, what it was committed at, and when it is scheduled, and get answers that line up.

Payment terms

Payment Method and Payment Extra days describe when the money actually leaves.

This matters for cash flow. Work done in week 6 on 30-day terms is paid in week 10, and the difference between those two dates is precisely the gap a builder has to fund. Set the terms and the cash flow view times the outflow properly.

Worked example

The slab pour task, fully set up:

Field	Value
Name	Slab pour — 18.6 m³ N32
Duration	1 day
Predecessor	Formwork and reo
Cost Center	310 Slab
Supplier	Barwon Concrete
Contact	Jim Whelan
Cost Method	From order
Link to Order	PO 2026-041-03 — $5,099.92
Call up (weeks)	1
Payment Method	30 days

That one task now drives four things:

• the Gantt knows when it happens and what follows it
• the call-up sheet tells Jim a week ahead
• bookings tracks whether he confirmed
• cash flow shows $5,099.92 leaving 30 days after the pour

None of which needed anything typed twice.

Tasks with no cost

Plenty of tasks legitimately have none — inspections, client walkthroughs, cure periods, waiting on a delivery.

Leave the cost blank. They still matter for the programme, which is what they are there for.

Keeping cost and schedule aligned

Two habits:

• When you raise an order, link it to its task.
• When a variation is approved, add the work to the schedule and link the new order.

Skip the second and the schedule drifts from the job as variations accumulate — which is exactly when you most need it to be right.