What is the Cost Overall Page?
Essential guide to the Cost Overall page for construction project managers
The Cost Overall page gives you a single view of your project finances. It shows budgets, contracts, variations, forecasts, and payments together. Use it to monitor financial health and make cost management decisions throughout your project lifecycle.
Key Features
Cost Overview Tile
The Cost Overview tile shows your Forecast Final Cost (FFC) — the total expected project cost. It also shows the Budget amount and a Budget Status badge that reads Under Budget or Over Budget. The Variance amount shows the dollar difference between your budget and FFC.
A colour-coded bar below the tile gives a visual breakdown of payment status: Paid (processed), Approved (approved but not yet processed), Submitted (awaiting approval), and Remaining (unpaid).
Cost KPI Cards
Four metric cards show key financial indicators:
- Total Paid — Total amount paid to date, shown as a dollar value and percentage of budget
- Variations — Total of all approved and in-principle variations, shown as a dollar value and percentage of the original contract value
- Committed — Total committed cost (Approved Contracts + Approved and In-Principle Variations), shown as a dollar value and percentage of FFC
- Remaining — FFC minus Paid and Approved payments, shown as a dollar value and percentage of FFC
Hover over any KPI card label to see a tooltip with the exact definition of each metric.
Budget Breakdown Chart
A donut chart titled "Budget Amounts in Each Budget Line" shows your total budget broken down by category. Each category is colour-coded and displays its allocated dollar amount.
Chart Settings
Each chart tile has a Settings (gear icon) button that opens a side panel. Use this to customise the display. The available settings differ by tile.
Overall Table
The main table shows all budget items and their financial data. Columns include Title, Original Budget, Adjustments, Budget, Original Contract, Variations, Current Contract, and Uncommitted. Click the expand arrow beside any budget to show its sub budgets and line items.
Hover over any column header to see a tooltip that explains that metric.
Toolbar Controls
The toolbar at the top of the page gives you access to these actions:
- + Add — Create a new Budget, Contract, Forecast, Variation, or Payment.
- Create Report — Generate financial reports that can be customised, filtered, and downloaded as professional PDFs.
- Export — Download your financial data. Choose Current View for visible data only, or All Data for the complete financial summary.
- Charts — Toggle the financial summary charts on or off. The button label changes to Hide Charts when charts are visible.
- Reset — Restore the default table layout, column arrangement, and filters.
- Expand All — Expand or collapse all rows at once.
- Columns — Show, hide, or reorder table columns.
- Settings (gear icon) — Access additional page-level settings.
- Filter — Narrow table results by any visible table column.
Budget Tag is not filterable on the Overall page or in dashboard table tiles. See How to Create a Budget and Sub-Budget or How to Add and Configure Big Number Tiles for tag filtering options.
Customise Your View
Hover over any column heading to access the Action button with additional options: sort data, hide or show columns, pin columns left or right, and move columns by dragging.
When to Use the Cost Overall Page
Use the Cost Overall page when you need to:
- Monitor complete project financial health at a glance
- Review budget performance against actual spending
- Track contract commitments and variations impact
- Check payment progress and cash flow status
- Review budget allocation across project categories
- Generate financial reports for stakeholders
- Export financial data for external analysis
Getting Started
- Go to your project and click Cost in the side navigation bar.
- The page opens to the Overall view by default.
- Review the Cost Overview tile, KPI cards, and Budget Breakdown chart to see your current financial status.
- Click Charts to show or hide the visual summary section.
- Click the expand arrow on any budget row to see its line items.
Pin frequently used columns to keep critical information visible while you scroll. Click Columns in the toolbar to customise your table view.
Common Questions
Q: What is the difference between the Overall page and the Budgets page?
The Overall page shows a consolidated financial summary across all budgets, contracts, variations, and payments. The Budgets page focuses on budget line items and their statuses. Use Overall for a high-level snapshot and Budgets for detailed budget management
Q: Can I view this data in a Dashboard report?
Yes. Click Create Report from the toolbar to generate a dashboard report. You can share or print the report.
Q: Why is Total Paid showing $0?
Total Paid sums only payments with Paid status. If all your payments are still set to Draft, Submitted, or Approved, Total Paid will show $0. Open each payment via Action > Edit Payment and change the Payment Status to Paid. Closing off months in Cash Flow does not affect the Total Paid figure on Cost Overall — these are separate views.
Need Help?
Contact Mastt Support for additional assistance with the Cost module.