Using Budget Fields & Budget Reports
In this session, you’ll learn how to use budget fields and budget reports in Studio Designer to plan projects more effectively, track spending in real time, and maintain better financial control from start to finish.
Budgets are one of the most underutilized features in Studio Designer, yet they play a critical role in setting expectations, managing client spend, and keeping projects aligned financially. Without a clear budgeting system, it’s easy for costs to drift and for teams to lose visibility into where a project stands.
Julia, founder of New Age Financial Consulting, breaks down how to use budgeting tools in a practical, scalable way for interior design firms and showrooms.
Why Budgets Matter
Budgets act as your financial roadmap for a project.
While not every firm uses them consistently, those that do gain a clear advantage in tracking projected versus actual spend. Studio Designer allows you to assign low and high budget values to each item, giving you flexibility in how you plan and present estimates.
However, it’s important to note that budgets do not include sales tax, so firms often export data to Excel to apply those calculations externally when needed.
Budgeting by Room vs. Item
One of the first decisions is how to structure your budget.
Julia explains that budgeting by room is often the simplest and most efficient approach. It allows you to group costs logically and align them with how projects are presented to clients.
Budgeting by item, on the other hand, offers more detail but requires a stricter workflow. This approach typically involves creating placeholder items with vendors labeled as “TBD” and updating them as real costs come in.
Whichever method you choose, consistency is key.
Setting Up Budgets Correctly
Each item in Studio Designer includes two budget fields: low and high.
These values represent purchase costs before markup and tax, meaning firms need to carefully decide how they present and track these numbers internally and with clients.
Julia also recommends creating a dedicated “budget” sales code or using placeholder vendors to clearly separate budget items from actual orders. This helps avoid confusion in reporting and ensures cleaner workflows.
The Importance of Custom Room Lists
A major best practice is using custom room lists for each project.
Instead of relying on generic room templates, firms should create room lists that match architectural plans and client presentations. This keeps reports organized and ensures that budget tracking aligns with how projects are actually structured.
Without this consistency, reports can quickly become cluttered and harder to interpret.
Turning Budgets into Project Management Tools
Budgets aren’t just about numbers—they can support your entire workflow.
By adding structure to budget items and organizing them clearly within each room, teams can track progress more effectively. Many firms also place budget line items at the top of each room for visibility and easier reporting.
Julia also highlights the importance of setting expectations with clients. For example, presenting low and high budget ranges can sometimes create confusion if clients fixate on the lower number, so firms need to align this approach with their contracts and communication style.
Understanding Budget Reports
Studio Designer offers a range of preset budget reports that can be customized to fit your needs.
Most reports default to showing the low budget value and include key metrics like total budget, actual spend, and remaining balance. These reports allow you to quickly assess whether a project is staying within its financial plan.
Additional fields, such as “other costs,” are often used to track expenses like freight, installation, or miscellaneous fees.
Managing Other Costs Within Budgets
Other costs—especially freight—play a significant role in overall project spend.
Julia explains that many firms estimate these costs as a percentage of the total budget, such as allocating 20% for freight. Others may use flat fees or detailed itemized tracking.
Accurately accounting for these costs not only improves budgeting accuracy but also helps firms evaluate profitability and refine contract terms.
Improving Efficiency with Better Workflows
Strong workflows make budgeting much easier to manage.
Julia suggests creating sample or “test” budget projects that can be duplicated for new clients, saving time and ensuring consistency. She also emphasizes the importance of assigning proposal numbers and structuring items correctly so budget reports reflect only relevant, client-approved data.
Items that fall outside the budget can be moved into separate categories or rooms, helping teams maintain clarity.
Customizing Reports for Different Audiences
One of Studio Designer’s strengths is its flexible reporting.
Firms can customize budget reports for internal use or client presentations by adding or removing fields. For example, purchase costs and vendor details can be hidden in client-facing reports, while images and cleaner layouts can be added for better presentation.
This allows you to tailor reports depending on who needs to see them and what decisions they need to make.
Managing Time Billing Within Budgets
Budgets aren’t limited to products—they can also include time billing.
Julia recommends creating a dedicated room or category for time billing so design hours can be tracked separately from FF&E. This allows firms to compare budgeted hours against actual billed time, providing better insight into service-based profitability.
Time billing can also be filtered in reports, giving flexibility in how data is analyzed.
Advanced Reporting and Flexibility
Studio Designer also supports more advanced reporting options, such as high-low budget comparisons and simplified views that hide detailed components.
These features allow firms to present budgets at different levels of detail, depending on whether the audience is internal or client-facing.
As projects evolve, budget reports update automatically as real costs and vendors are assigned, making them a dynamic tool for tracking progress.
Key Takeaways
Budgets are more than just estimates—they are a powerful tool for planning, tracking, and managing your projects.
When used effectively, they allow you to:
Plan projects with greater financial clarity
Track actual spend against projected budgets
Organize projects by room or item for better visibility
Manage additional costs like freight more accurately
Customize reports for both internal teams and clients
With the right structure and workflow in place, budgeting in Studio Designer becomes a central part of running a more organized, transparent, and financially controlled design business.
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Julia walks through how interior design firms and showrooms can better use budget fields and budget reports in Studio Designer to bring more structure and clarity to their projects. Drawing from her experience at New Age Financial Consulting, she focuses on how budgeting—while often overlooked—can become a powerful tool for both financial planning and day-to-day project management.
She begins by pointing out that while many firms are technically using budgets, the level of usage varies significantly. Some use them consistently across projects, while others barely touch them. The goal of this session is to close that gap—showing not just how budgets work, but how to use them in a way that actually supports real workflows.
To make things practical, Julia walks through a sample project, explaining how budgets are set up directly within the item screen. Each item includes two fields: a low budget and a high budget. These are meant to give flexibility when planning, especially in early stages when exact pricing isn’t finalized. However, she makes an important note—these budget figures do not include sales tax. Because of that, many firms end up exporting their budgets into Excel to layer in tax calculations when presenting to clients or finalizing numbers.
From there, the conversation shifts into how to structure budgets effectively. Julia explains that most firms find it easier to budget by room rather than by individual item. It’s more intuitive, easier to manage, and aligns better with how projects are typically presented to clients. That said, budgeting by item is still an option for firms that want a more detailed, granular approach—it just requires more discipline in how items are created and tracked.
She also highlights a simple but important workflow tip: using placeholder vendors like “TBD” or “budget” for budget items. This helps clearly separate estimated items from actual vendor orders in reports, reducing confusion as projects progress. Similarly, using a dedicated sales code for budget items can help keep things organized without interfering with invoicing or financial reporting.
Another area Julia emphasizes is room organization. Rather than relying on generic room lists, she strongly recommends creating custom room lists for each project. This allows the structure of the budget to match architectural plans and client presentations, making reports easier to read and far more meaningful. Without this level of consistency, it’s easy for reports to become cluttered or misaligned with how the project is actually being executed.
As the session continues, Julia explains how budgets can evolve from simple estimates into active project management tools. By organizing budget line items clearly—often placing them at the top of each room—teams can quickly reference the financial plan and compare it against real-time activity. She also touches on how firms present budgets to clients, noting that while low and high ranges can be helpful internally, they can sometimes create confusion if clients focus too heavily on the lower number. This is where clear communication and well-structured contracts become especially important.
When it comes to reporting, Julia walks through the different budget reports available in Studio Designer and how they can be customized. Most reports default to showing the low budget value, along with actual spend and the remaining balance. This gives teams a quick way to assess whether they’re staying on track financially.
She also explains how “other costs” fit into the picture. Expenses like freight, installation, and miscellaneous fees are often tracked separately, but they play a significant role in the overall budget. Many firms estimate these costs as a percentage of the total project—such as allocating 20% for freight—while others track them more precisely. Either way, including these costs in your budgeting process is essential for understanding true project profitability.
Efficiency is another major theme throughout the session. Julia recommends creating template or “test” budget projects that can be duplicated for new clients, saving time and ensuring consistency across the team. She also stresses the importance of maintaining clean workflows—assigning proposal numbers, organizing items correctly, and separating out-of-budget items into their own categories. These small process decisions have a big impact on how accurate and useful your reports will be.
The flexibility of Studio Designer’s reporting tools also comes into play. Julia explains how reports can be customized depending on the audience. For internal use, teams might include detailed cost and vendor information, while client-facing reports can be simplified—removing sensitive data and adding visuals or cleaner formatting. This adaptability makes it easier to communicate clearly without overwhelming clients or exposing unnecessary details.
Toward the end of the session, Julia touches on how time billing fits into the budgeting framework. Rather than mixing it in with product budgets, she suggests creating a dedicated room or category for time billing. This allows firms to track design hours separately, compare budgeted versus actual time, and gain better insight into service-based revenue.
Overall, the session reinforces a simple but important idea: budgets are only as useful as the systems and habits built around them. When set up thoughtfully and used consistently, they become far more than just estimates. They turn into a real-time guide for decision-making—helping teams stay aligned, manage client expectations, and maintain control over both the financial and operational sides of a project.
