Going over budget on a construction project is rarely caused by one big mistake. It is usually a series of small ones that nobody sees until the cash is gone:

• Materials: ordering without a requisition trail, over-ordering, or wastage nobody records.
• Subcontractor payments: paying against verbal agreements instead of certified progress.
• Site progress billing: invoicing the client late because the quantity surveyor's figures arrive late.
• Labour: casual and overtime hours that are not tied to a specific project or phase.
• Budget versus actual: only finding out you have overspent when the project is almost done.

A construction setup in Odoo is built to tackle exactly this: a Bill of Quantities per project, material requisitions approved before purchase, subcontractor payments linked to measured progress, and a live budget-versus-actual view per project or phase using analytic accounts. The point is to catch an overrun while it is still small enough to fix.

Question for the community: Where does money go missing most on your sites: materials, labour, or cash flow? If you run a construction or engineering business, tell us how you track budget today and where it breaks down.