Short answer
A project goes over budget for three reasons: the estimate was wrong, purchasing was uncontrolled or nobody saw the deviation in time. To avoid it you need an accurate estimate from the start — with OneEstimate — and actual-vs-budget control during execution — with OneMake. Serux, the AI agent that prepares the analyses and alerts for you, operates in both.
The 5 most common causes of overruns
- Incomplete or manual takeoffs that leave items out.
- Outdated unit prices against material inflation.
- Off-budget purchasing: orders nobody checks against the cost item.
- Material waste and losses in the warehouse and on site.
- Late information: management learns about the problem after month-end.
The 5-step method
- Estimate from the source. Take off from the PDF drawing or BIM model and use an up-to-date unit-price database. OneEstimate includes more than 10,700 unit prices.
- Turn the estimate into a baseline. Once you win the job, that estimate becomes the control budget in OneMake.
- Tie every purchase to a cost item. In OneMake each purchase order draws down the budget; when an item runs out, you see it immediately.
- Control warehouse and consumption. Logging inflows and outflows cuts losses; companies on OneMake report on average 30% less material waste.
- Review actual vs. budget weekly. Not monthly. With Serux you just ask "show me cost items more than 5% over budget across all my projects" and get the report.
Which indicators to watch
- Actual vs. budget by cost item and by project.
- Physical progress % vs. cost spent %.
- Commitments (issued but not yet invoiced orders) that are not in accounting yet.
- Forecast cost at completion.
If cost spent grows faster than physical progress, the project is heading for an overrun even if it "doesn't show" yet.
Expected result
Companies controlling their projects with OneMake report on average 18% higher project profitability. The difference is not working harder, but seeing deviations while they can still be corrected.
Frequently asked questions
Can I keep using Excel?
You can, but Excel does not link purchasing, warehouse and progress in real time — that is where most late-detected deviations come from.
What if the project is already over budget?
Forecast cost at completion, identify the responsible items and renegotiate or reschedule as early as possible. Serux can prepare that analysis inside OneMake.
Where do I start?
If the problem is the initial estimate, start with OneEstimate. If it is control during execution, start with OneMake. Compare both on the platforms page.