Understanding the Financial Flow in Structur – From Lead to Completed Project
Overview
One of the most powerful things about Structur is that your financial documents are not isolated. Every number you enter at the beginning of a job flows forward automatically, building on itself from your first estimate all the way through your final invoice. Once you understand how these pieces connect, managing project finances becomes a lot less stressful.
Most contractors are used to jumping between spreadsheets, accounting software, and paper documents to piece together a picture of where a job stands financially. Structur is designed to eliminate that. Your estimate becomes your proposal. Your proposal becomes your budget. Your budget tracks everything that happens after that — subcontracts, expenses, change orders, and invoices — all in one place.
This article walks you through the complete financial lifecycle of a project in Structur, from the moment a new lead comes in to the final invoice going out. If you are new to the platform, reading this first will help everything else make a lot more sense.
Understanding the Financial Flow
What It Does
The Structur financial flow allows you and your team to:
Build an estimate using cost codes and line items that become the financial foundation of the entire project
Generate a professional proposal directly from the estimate with full control over what the client sees
Auto-create a budget the moment a proposal is approved, eliminating duplicate data entry
Track all costs in real time including subcontracts, bills, expenses, and labor hours against your original estimate
Manage change orders for both clients and subcontractors with automatic budget updates
Send competitive bids to multiple subcontractors and convert the winning bid directly into a subcontract
Invoice your clients using Simple Invoices, Pay Applications, or Cost Plus Invoices depending on your contract type
Sync everything to QuickBooks Online automatically on the Pro plan with no double entry
When to Use It
Understanding the financial flow is most valuable when you want to:
Get a new project set up correctly from day one without having to redo work later
Understand why your budget looks different from your estimate
Figure out which document to create and when
Catch budget overruns before they become serious problems
Keep your accounting software in sync without manual data entry
Step-by-Step: The Complete Financial Lifecycle
1. Create Your Estimate
Every project starts with a Lead in Structur. Once you have a lead, the first financial document you create is an Estimate.
Open your lead and click Estimates in the module top bar
Click New Estimate and give it a title
Add Groups to organize your work, for example Demolition, Framing, Electrical
Inside each group, add Cost Codes for each line item
Set the quantity, unit, and unit cost for each line item
Set your Internal Markup, Overhead, and Profit percentages in the estimate settings gear
Save the estimate
Note: You can save any estimate as a template and reuse it on future jobs. If you do the same type of work repeatedly, building templates will save you significant time.
2. Send Your Proposal
Once the estimate is ready, Structur generates a Proposal directly from it.
Click View Proposal from inside the estimate, or click Proposals in the module top bar
Set up your proposal sections in Settings — About Our Company, CEO Statement, Terms and Conditions, and more. These save as your default and load automatically on every future proposal.
Use the visibility toggles to control what the client sees. You can hide unit costs, quantities, or individual line items. You can also distribute your overhead and profit so the client only sees the final total.
Click Send to email the proposal to your client with a link to review and e-sign
Your client approves the proposal electronically, or you can click Approve Manually if you got a verbal or paper agreement
Note: Once a proposal is approved it is locked. Any changes to scope after approval require a Change Order. If you need to make significant revisions before approval, you can create a new revision of the estimate and generate an updated proposal.
When the proposal is approved, the lead automatically moves to the Projects pipeline.
3. Your Budget Is Created Automatically
The moment a proposal is approved, Structur creates your Budget automatically. You do not need to do anything.
The budget pulls directly from the approved estimate and becomes your financial command center for the rest of the project. It shows:
Original Estimate — what you planned to spend per cost code
Approved Change Orders — adjustments to the contract value
Revised Budget — original estimate plus approved change orders
Subcontract Balance — what you have committed to subcontractors
Bills — what you have paid or owe to vendors
Expenses — direct project costs like materials and receipts
Labor Hours — time tracked against the project
Total Costs — everything spent so far
Revised Budget vs Total Costs — your real-time profitability indicator
Note: The budget shows raw costs before markup. Your proposal total includes markup, overhead, and profit. The difference between the two is normal and expected — it represents your margin.
4. Manage Subcontractors (with Optional Bid Packages)
If you need to bring in subcontractors, you have two paths depending on whether you already know who you are using.
If you already have your subcontractor:
Go to Subcontracts in the module top bar
Click New Subcontract, select your vendor, and add the cost codes from the budget they are responsible for
Set the contract amount and enable Lien Waivers if required
Send the subcontract to the vendor for electronic signature
Once signed, the subcontract committed amount appears in your budget
If you want to get competitive bids first (Bid Packages):
Go to Bid Packages in the module top bar
Click New Bid Package, add your scope of work and cost codes
Add all the vendors you want to invite to bid
Send the bid package — each vendor gets a link to submit their price
Compare bids side by side in the Leveling view
Award the bid to your preferred vendor
Structur converts the awarded bid directly into a Subcontract automatically
Note: If you skip bid packages and go straight to subcontracts, that is completely fine. Bid packages are optional and only needed when you want to collect and compare multiple bids before committing.
5. Record Bills Against Subcontracts
As work progresses and vendors submit invoices, you create Bills in Structur to track what you owe.
Go to Bills in the module top bar
Click New Bill and link it to the subcontract
Add the cost codes and amounts being billed
If a lien waiver is required, the bill stays in Lien Waiver status until the vendor signs. Once signed, the bill moves to Open and becomes payable.
Click Mark as Paid when the payment is made
Each bill reduces the available budget on its associated cost code in real time.
6. Track Expenses
For direct purchases like materials, fuel, or equipment rentals, create Expenses.
Go to Expenses in the module top bar
Click New Expense and add the cost code, amount, and vendor
Upload a receipt photo if you have one, or go to Receipts to snap a photo and convert it to an expense
Mark the expense as paid to record it in the budget
Note: Do not use both timesheets and expenses to track the same labor. Both appear in the budget and will double count your costs. Use timesheets for internal hour tracking and expenses for actual dollar amounts you want to sync to QuickBooks.
7. Handle Change Orders
When the scope of work changes, create a Change Order rather than editing the original estimate.
Client Change Order — use this when the client is requesting additional work or a scope reduction. It adjusts the contract value and updates the revised budget automatically.
Subcontract Change Order — use this when a subcontractor's scope changes. It adjusts the committed cost on that specific subcontract.
Go to Change Orders in the module top bar
Click New Change Order and select the type (Client or Subcontract)
Add the cost codes and amounts
Send to the client or vendor for approval, or approve manually
Once approved, the budget updates automatically
8. Invoice Your Client
When it is time to collect payment, create an Invoice.
Structur has three invoice types:
Simple Invoice — use for flat fee billing. Enter the amount and send it.
Pay Application — use for progress billing on larger projects. The pay application tracks each line item from your schedule of values, what percentage is complete, what has been invoiced previously, and what the current amount due is. Retainage can be applied per invoice.
Cost Plus Invoice — use for cost plus contracts where you are billing your client for actual costs incurred. This pulls directly from your expenses, subcontracts, and labor hours without requiring a change order.
Go to Invoices in the module top bar
Click New Invoice and select the type
Fill in the details and amounts
Send to your client or save for later
9. QuickBooks Online Sync (Pro Plan)
If you are on the Pro plan and connected to QuickBooks Online, every financial document syncs automatically.
Create in Structur and it syncs to QBO — invoices, bills, and expenses all flow over without any manual entry
When your client pays through QBO Payments online, that payment syncs back to Structur and marks the invoice as paid
Always create documents in Structur first and let them sync to QBO. Do not create invoices in QBO directly or they will not appear in Structur.
Note: Credit memos applied in QBO do not sync back to Structur. If a client pays partially by credit memo and partially by online payment, only the online payment will sync back automatically. Contact support if you need help reconciling a credit memo payment.
Best Practices
Set up your proposal defaults before your first estimate — your company sections, terms, and branding save once and load on every future proposal automatically.
Use cost codes consistently — the budget, subcontracts, bills, and expenses all tie back to cost codes. Consistent use makes your budget reporting accurate and meaningful.
Never edit a sent proposal directly — create a new revision of the estimate instead and generate an updated proposal from it.
Use bid packages when you have multiple subs competing — the leveling view saves time comparing bids and the awarded bid converts to a subcontract in one click.
Always create documents in Structur first if you use QBO — creating in QBO and hoping it syncs back does not work for most document types.
Check the budget regularly — the Revised Budget vs Total Costs column is your real-time profitability indicator. Review it after every bill, expense, and change order.
Save estimate templates for repeat job types — if you do the same type of work frequently, a good template cuts your estimating time dramatically.
Common Questions
Q: Why does my budget total look different from my proposal total?
A: The budget shows raw costs before markup, overhead, and profit. Your proposal total includes all of those. The difference between the two is your margin. This is expected behavior, not an error.
Q: Do I have to create a bid package before creating a subcontract?
A: No. Bid packages are completely optional. If you already know which subcontractor you are using, go straight to Subcontracts and skip the bid process entirely.
Q: What happens to the budget when I approve a change order?
A: Client change orders update the Revised Budget column automatically. The original estimate stays unchanged so you always have a record of the original scope. Subcontract change orders update the committed cost on that specific subcontract line.
Q: Can I invoice my client before the proposal is approved?
A: Yes. You can create a Simple Invoice at any time regardless of proposal status. However Pay Applications and Cost Plus Invoices work best after a proposal is approved since they pull from the approved budget and schedule of values.
Q: What is the difference between a Bill and an Expense?
A: Bills are payments tied to a specific subcontract. You create a bill when a subcontractor submits an invoice for work completed under their contract. Expenses are for direct purchases like materials, fuel, or receipts that are not tied to a subcontract.
Q: What happens if my client pays in QuickBooks but Structur still shows the invoice as unpaid?
A: If your client paid through QBO Payments online, that payment should sync back to Structur automatically within a few minutes. If they paid via check or credit memo recorded manually in QBO, those may not sync back. Contact support if the invoice is not updating after an online payment.
Q: Can I move expenses from one project to another if I entered them on the wrong project?
A: Currently there is no way to move an expense between projects. You would need to delete the expense from the incorrect project and recreate it on the correct one. This is a known limitation on the Structur roadmap.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
❌ Don't | ✅ Do |
Edit a sent or approved proposal directly | Create a new estimate revision and generate a new proposal from it |
Create invoices in QuickBooks first | Create all documents in Structur and let them sync to QBO |
Use both timesheets and expenses for the same labor | Pick one method per cost: timesheets for hour tracking, expenses for dollar amounts |
Skip setting up proposal defaults before your first estimate | Set up company sections, branding, and terms once so they load automatically every time |
Ignore the budget after setup | Review Revised Budget vs Total Costs regularly throughout the project |
Create a subcontract without assigning cost codes | Always tie subcontracts to the specific cost codes from the budget they are responsible for |
Approve a change order without reviewing the budget impact | Open the budget after every approved change order to confirm the numbers look correct |