Keeping Track of Construction Costs

[Clark Childers]

I am currently rehabbing a 11 unit apartment building in West Texas. I'm the contractor and I'm hiring all my subcontractors. I also provide all of the materials. I've been saving receipts, but things are moving so fast, it's hard to keep track of my expenses. I'd like to find some software that will allow me to enter my expenses and then sort out how much I've spent per unit, per contractor, per category, etc,. etc. It's very important I don't let this get out of hand, but unless I can keep track how my money is being spent, I'm afraid that could very easily happen. Does anyone know of a good program or even a good excel template that would do this for me? Thank you Bigger Pockets!

[Michael McCartney]

I use a spreadsheet. I am rehabbing something now and using a spread sheet, but I am not separating out the units (its only a duplex).

You could set it up that a unit is on each tab and you enter in all the materials and labor costs for each unit. On the first tab you can have a totals page that calculate all the different totals from the 11 other tabs.

I take 5 min each day and update the spread sheet and it does not get out of hand. I look at my credit card and see what was spent and remember how much I paid out for labor, I record that on the spreadsheet. I have everything on 1 page but in different sections (plumbing, electrical, tile, etc). I know exactly how much everything is costing down to the penny.