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Building a budget during the lead phase allows you to forecast project profitability before a contract is signed. In Monograph, you can build these budgets using two primary modes: Top-Down or Bottom-Up.
Understanding the Top-Down and Bottom-Up Modes
Before you begin building, it helps to understand how these two methods differ so you can choose the right one for your project:
Top-Down (Fee-Driven): Think of this as working with a fixed bucket of money. You already know your total fee cap (e.g., a $100,000 fixed fee proposal), and you want to carve that total up into smaller pieces for your phases and team roles. Monograph will then tell you exactly how many hours you can afford to spend based on those dollar limits.
Bottom-Up Mindset (Hours-Driven): Think of this as building a quote from scratch based on labor. You don't know the final total yet; instead, you calculate exactly how many hours each team member needs to complete the work. Monograph multiplies those hours by your billable rates and rolls them up to tell you what the final project total should be.
Building the Budget
After a lead is created in Pipeline, click on it to open its Overview page. To build the lead’s budget, scroll to the Proposal section and click Add next to Budget to open the proposal budget builder.
A new page will appear, prompting a selection for how to start the project: using a template, using an existing project, or starting from scratch. Choose the preferred option and click Next to continue building the budget based on the selected method.
💡 Click on each toggle below to learn more about the budget generation methods.
Using a Template or Project
Using a Template or Project
If Use a Template or Use a Project are selected, to help you get moving quickly, Monograph defaults all budgets created from templates or existing projects to the Top-Down method. If you prefer to use the hour-driven approach instead, you can easily switch back at any time. Simply use the Budget Mode menu located in the top-left corner of the budget builder to toggle from Top-Down to Bottom-Up.
How the Data Carries Over
When pulling from a template or past project, Monograph will generate role and budget recommendations based on that historical data.
Handling Imbalances: Sometimes, older projects or templates might have "unbalanced" budgets (for example, if the sum of individual role budgets doesn't perfectly match the overall phase budget). Don't worry if the math looks slightly off initially—Monograph brings this data in as-is so you don't lose your historical reference points. The moment you begin editing the budget using either the Top-Down or Bottom-Up logic, the system's edit rules will automatically kick in and re-balance the numbers for you.
Copying Roles: If you choose to copy roles over from these sources:
In Top-Down Mode: Monograph will maintain the percentage allocations for those roles and automatically adjust the hours as necessary to keep your target phase budgets steady.
In Bottom-Up Mode: Monograph will maintain the exact hour counts and roll them up to create your new phase totals.
💡 To note: When Use a Project is selected, the six most recent projects in the same category as the lead will appear. If no projects match that category, the six most recent projects overall will be shown instead. To locate a different project, begin typing its name, and it will appear in the dropdown list.
Starting from Scratch
Starting from Scratch
If Start from scratch is selected, the system will explicitly prompt you to choose either Top-Down or Bottom-Up right from the beginning. Your choice determines how the system calculates totals and handles data entry moving forward.
If Top-Down Budget mode is selected:
Set up your budget (optional): You can enter a total Fixed Fee for the entire project. If you edit this total later, all phase dollar amounts and role hours will scale proportionally.
Define Phase Percentages: Break down a total project fee by assigning a percentage to each phase. Monograph calculates the dollar amount for you. You can add both Fixed Fee and Hourly phases to a Top-Down budget.
Fixed Fee Phases: You break down your total project fee by assigning a percentage to each of these phases. Monograph calculates the dollar amount for you.
Hourly Phases: These are tracked separately from your main fixed fee total. New hourly phases are initially created at $0, and changing their totals will not affect your Fixed Fee project total.
⚠️ Note: When filling out the Set up your budget form, the total phase percentage allocation must equal exactly 100%. If the phases do not total 100%, the system will prevent you from proceeding to the next step.
Once the Set up your budget form is filled out:
Allocate Roles by %: When you add roles to a phase using the Add role drop-down, the first role defaults to 100% of that phase's budget. As you add more roles, you can adjust the percentage split.
Automated Hour Calculation: Monograph automatically calculates the required hours based on the role’s billable rate to match the assigned fee.
Editing in Top-Down Mode: To change how a phase budget is split between team members, use the left-hand role allocation panel. Just like the phase setup, the sum of role percentages within any individual phase must always equal 100% to save your changes.
You can use the +Add phase button to add more phases as needed.
If Bottom-Up Budget mode is selected:
After selecting this option, use the +Add phase button to start adding phases and begin building the budget. You can build your bottom-up budget using both Fixed Fee and Hourly phases.
Fixed Fee Phases: The phase total is always the exact sum of the roles within it. The overall project Fixed Fee total is the sum of all Fixed Fee phases combined.
Hourly Phases: Just like Fixed Fee phases, these are built hour-by-hour at the role level.
Add roles: Use the Add role drop-down to start adding roles to the phase.
Input Hours: You manually enter the estimated hours for every role in every phase.
Automatic Totals: The system calculates the phase totals and the overall project budget based on the hours and billable rates entered.
⚠️ Note: In Bottom-Up mode, only hours at the role level are editable. You cannot manually type over a phase dollar amount, a phase percentage, or the overall project total—everything must "roll up" from your team's hours.
Explicit Allocation: You cannot manually enter a "lump sum" for a phase in this mode; the phase total is always the sum of its parts.
After saving the phase, repeat this process for any additional phases that need to be added. When additional phases are added, the option to copy roles from previous phases will appear.
💡 Tip: Adjust hours as needed until the budget aligns with your project scope.
Linking Phases
You can link phases together to create a dependent timeline. This ensures that if the schedule for one phase shifts, your subsequent phases move with it automatically.
How to Link Phases:
Hover your mouse over the phase you want to connect.
Click the Link icon next to the phase name.
Drag the link line to the phase you want to connect it to.
Once your phases are linked, Monograph handles budget changes differently depending on your workflow:
In Top-Down Mode: Changing a phase amount or the overall Project Fixed Fee scales the dollar values and role hours, but your phase links and project schedule remain intact. Deleting a linked Fixed Fee phase will break that specific link, reduce the total Project Fixed Fee, and automatically recalculate the percentages of your remaining phases.
In Bottom-Up Mode: Since totals roll up strictly from hours, adding or removing hours to a role within a linked phase will update its budget without impacting the date links established between your phases.
Adding Consultants
After adding the roles, rates, and estimated hours for each phase, scroll further down to add any phase and/or project consultants that will be used, along with their estimated budget and any markup (if applicable).
Adding an Expense Budget
After project and phase consultants are added, the next step is setting up the lead’s expense budget. Expenses can be budgeted either as one overall amount or as separate budgets by expense category.
To begin, click Add Budget and select a budgeting method:
One budget for all expenses - creates a single total expense budget.
Separate budgets for specific expense categories - creates individual budgets for each expense category.
After the applicable budgets are added, click Add. The expenses will automatically be incorporated into the overall proposal budget displayed at the top of the page.
💡 Need to add a new consultant? Learn more.
Construction Cost
If you know the estimated construction costs that will be required for the project, enter them into the Construction cost section under the budget proposal totals.
💡 Learn more about how construction costs are used in Monograph.
Finalized Proposal
After all of the proposed budget information has been added, the details will appear on the Lead's Overview page in the Proposal section. This will show the budgets for all phases and consultants, the roles and rates used, the totals for each type of fee type (and markup), and the overall proposed budget total.
Editing the Proposal
To edit the proposal, click on the Edit button in the Proposal > Budget section. This will reopen the proposal budget builder page.
Retaining Your Workflow: When you reopen the builder, it will remember the method you used to create it (Top-Down or Bottom-Up). You can continue editing in that mode or switch workflows using the menu in the top-left corner.
Editing in Top-Down Mode: If your budget is set to Top-Down, remember that changing a phase amount or the overall project fee will automatically redistribute hours to your roles based on their assigned percentages. The sum of your role percentages must equal 100% to save your edits.
Editing in Bottom-Up Mode: If your budget is set to Bottom-Up, you will only be able to edit hours at the role level. The phase and project totals will automatically recalculate based on your changes.
Once a lead has been marked as Closed - Won and is converted into an active project, the proposed budget can no longer be edited. Instead, any further adjustments to your staffing or fees must be made directly on the active project's Budget page.
💡 Explore the Pipeline and Leads FAQs to learn more.