C: Recording Project Costs

Work on the Lakeview clinic starts in July. Cedar Ridge Training buys lumber under a purchase order, hires three subcontractors, and pays a site services company month by month. In this exercise you:

1. add the five vendors;
2. issue the purchase order and the three subcontracts as commitments;
3. enter July's four bills, matched to the commitments, with retainage held on the subcontracts;
4. pay three of the bills on August 10.

After each step you can see the cost arrive on the job and in the books.

Before You Begin

• Exercise B is done: J-101 is active with an approved budget.
• You need Edit access to Vendors & Bills and Jobs & Costing.

Step 1: Add the Vendors

Go to Vendors & Bills → Vendors, click New Vendor, and create each vendor with Payment Terms Net 30:

Name	Code	Role on the Project
High Desert Concrete	HDC	Concrete subcontractor
Pine Valley Lumber	PVL	Lumber supplier
Brightway Electric	BWE	Electrical subcontractor
Summit Drywall	SDW	Drywall subcontractor
Cascade Site Services	CSS	Fencing, toilets and dumpsters, billed monthly

Figure 9-25 The first vendor, ready to save.

1. Name: as it appears on the vendor's invoices.
2. Primary Email: where you reach the vendor's accounts department.
3. Payment Terms: kept on the vendor's record.
4. Save creates the vendor.

See Managing Vendors.

Step 2: Issue the Commitments

A commitment is a subcontract or purchase order: an amount you have agreed to pay a vendor for part of the job. Entering it before the bills arrive shows the job's committed cost, and lets Structally check each bill against what was agreed.

1. Go to Jobs & Costing → Commitments and click New Commitment.
2. Choose the Kind, the Retainage percentage, the Job and the Vendor, set Date to 07/06/2026 and type a Title.
3. Enter the line: Cost Code, Cost Type, Description and Amount.
4. Click Save Commitment.

Kind	Vendor	Title	Cost Code · Type	Amount	Retainage
Subcontract	High Desert Concrete	Foundations and slab	03-300 · SUB	60,000.00	10%
Purchase Order	Pine Valley Lumber	Framing lumber package	06-100 · MAT	48,000.00	0%
Subcontract	Brightway Electric	Electrical rough-in and finish	26-100 · SUB	132,000.00	10%
Subcontract	Summit Drywall	Drywall hang, tape and finish	09-100 · SUB	96,000.00	10%

Figure 9-26 The electrical subcontract before it is saved.

1. Kind: Subcontract or Purchase Order.
2. Retainage: the share of each bill held back until the work is accepted. It starts with the company default for the kind (10% for subcontracts, 0% for purchase orders).
3. Job: the job the commitment is for.
4. Vendor: the subcontractor or supplier.
5. Cost Code and Cost Type of the line.
6. Amount of the line.
7. Save Commitment saves it as a draft.

Structally numbers them as it saves: purchase orders PO-2026-000001, and subcontracts SC-2026-000001 (concrete), SC-2026-000002 (electrical) and SC-2026-000003 (drywall).

A saved commitment is a Draft. Before bills can be matched to it, approve it and then issue it. On each commitment page:

1. Click Approve and confirm.
2. Click Issue and confirm. Issuing sends the commitment to the vendor in effect and freezes its lines; later changes go through amendments.

Figure 9-27 Issuing a commitment freezes its lines.

Once issued, the four commitments count as Open Commitments on the J-101 budget page: together they commit $336,000.00 of the $360,000.00 budget before any cost has been billed.

See Commitments.

Step 3: Enter July's Bills

At the end of July the vendors' invoices arrive. Enter each as a bill (see Entering a Bill for the full form):

Vendor	Date	Reference	Matched To	Amount	Retainage	Amount Due
Pine Valley Lumber	07/24/2026	PVL-88412	PO-2026-000001	16,000.00	0.00	16,000.00
High Desert Concrete	07/31/2026	HDC-2207	SC-2026-000001	45,000.00	4,500.00	40,500.00
Brightway Electric	07/31/2026	BE-1031	SC-2026-000002	33,000.00	3,300.00	29,700.00
Cascade Site Services	07/31/2026	CSS-0712	none	6,000.00	0.00	6,000.00
Total				100,000.00	7,800.00	92,200.00

For a vendor with an issued commitment, choosing the vendor turns on Job Costing and Commitments. Then:

1. Choose the line's Account: 5030 — Subcontractors for the subcontracts, 5040 — Materials for the lumber. Matching a commitment does not choose the account for you.
2. In Commitment, choose the commitment line. Structally fills the job, cost code, cost type and the retainage percentage.
3. Replace the proposed amount with the invoice amount and click Post Bill.

Figure 9-28 Brightway Electric's July bill, matched to its subcontract.

The Summary shows what happens to the $33,000.00: all of it is job cost, $3,300.00 is retainage held, and $29,700.00 is due now.

Cascade Site Services works without a commitment. Tick Job Costing, and code the line to 5090 — Other Job Costs, job J-101, cost code 01-100 and cost type OTH:

Figure 9-29 A job-coded bill without a commitment.

Structally numbers the bills as they post: BILL-2026-000001 (Cascade), BILL-2026-000002 (Pine Valley), BILL-2026-000003 (High Desert) and BILL-2026-000004 (Brightway).

The July Bills in the Books

Account	Debit	Credit
5040 Materials (J-101 · 06-100 · MAT)	16,000.00
5030 Subcontractors (J-101 · 03-300 · SUB)	45,000.00
5030 Subcontractors (J-101 · 26-100 · SUB)	33,000.00
5090 Other Job Costs (J-101 · 01-100 · OTH)	6,000.00
2010 Accounts Payable		92,200.00
2020 Retainage Payable		7,800.00
Total	100,000.00	100,000.00

Four entries, one per bill, shown here combined. The whole $100,000.00 is job cost in July; $7,800.00 of it will be paid only when the retainage is released (Exercise H).

Entered a bill twice?

In this exercise the Cascade bill was posted twice by mistake, as BILL-2026-000001 and BILL-2026-000005. Exercise G shows how the duplicate was voided.

Step 4: Pay the First Bills

On August 10, Cedar Ridge Training pays three bills by check from Operating Checking:

Check	Vendor	Bill	Paid
1001	Pine Valley Lumber	BILL-2026-000002	16,000.00
1002	Cascade Site Services	BILL-2026-000001	6,000.00
1003	High Desert Concrete	BILL-2026-000003	40,500.00

For each payment:

1. Go to Vendors & Bills → Payments and click Pay Bills.
2. Choose the Vendor and click Load Open Items.
3. Enter the Date (08/10/2026), Funds Account (1010 - Operating Checking), Amount, Method (Check) and Reference (the check number).
4. In Allocate, enter the amount for each bill you are paying.
5. Click Pay Bills.

Figure 9-30 Paying High Desert Concrete's July bill, less retainage.

1. Funds Account: the bank account the check is drawn on.
2. Amount of the check.
3. Reference: the check number.
4. Allocate: how much of the payment settles this bill. The list shows the bill's Total, Retainage Held and Balance; you pay the balance, not the retainage.
5. Pay Bills posts the payment.

The Payments in the Books

Account	Debit	Credit
2010 Accounts Payable	62,500.00
1010 Operating Checking		62,500.00

Three entries (PAY-2026-000001 to PAY-2026-000003), combined here. Paying a bill never touches job cost again: the cost was recorded when the bill posted.

See Paying Bills.

Where the Costs Show

Place	What You See After July
J-101 Budget	Actual to Date 100,000.00 by cost code; Open Commitments reduced by what was billed
Each commitment	Billed to Date and Remaining, for example SC-2026-000002 billed 33,000.00, remaining 99,000.00
Vendors & Bills → Bills	The Brightway bill Open with 29,700.00 unpaid; the others Paid after August 10
Reports → AP Aging	What is still owed, by vendor and age

Next: D: Billing the Customer.