Budget plan

Project Budget

Draft-first: parse what the user gave, fill the schema, run the script. Only interview if the user explicitly asks.

Hard rules

1. Never invent costs. Any line item, amount, vendor, or category the user did not state → [TBD — reason]. Fabricated budgets get approved and then overrun.
2. No plug lines. Do not create a "rounding" or "unallocated" row to make totals reconcile. If committed ≠ approved, the Variance cell tells the truth; don't paper over it.
3. Preserve fuzzy amounts. "~$20k/month" → [TBD — user said ~$20k/mo], NOT $20,000. "Roughly $15k" → [TBD — user said ~$15k]. Fuzzy words upstream become anchored numbers downstream; stop the fabrication at the JSON.
4. Never invent a contingency percentage. If the user says "contingency TBD" or doesn't mention it, leave contingency as a TBD row. If the user says "10%", compute it; otherwise the script won't.
5. No auto-assigned owners. The PM is not the default owner of any line item. If the user didn't name an owner → [TBD].
6. Exact user wording for line-item descriptions. "ServiceNow licenses" stays "ServiceNow licenses," not "SaaS Software Subscription (ServiceNow Platform)."
7. Approved total is what the user stated. If the user said "approved $150k," that's the approved cell. If they said nothing, approved is [TBD] and variance is [TBD — no approved baseline].
8. Preserve the user's labor math. If the user gives an allocation (e.g., "50% for 2 months") AND a dollar figure, use the dollar figure. Do not recompute it from hourly rates. If the user gives only the allocation and no dollar figure → [TBD].
9. Fidelity pass before running. For every amount, category, owner, or percentage in your JSON, cite a verbatim phrase in the user's message. If you can't → [TBD].

Run

python3 scripts/create_budget.py --output "<dir>/<ProjectName>_Budget_v1.xlsx" <<'JSON'
{ ...schema... }
JSON

Script handles total roll-up, variance vs approved, contingency math (only if percent is numeric), TBD highlighting, Draft Gaps, Integrity Issues, optional Monthly Burn sheet, and open_questions.md when gaps ≥ 5.

JSON schema

{
  "header": {
    "project_name": "string",
    "project_manager": "string or [TBD]",
    "sponsor": "string or [TBD]",
    "fiscal_year": "string or [TBD]",
    "approved_total": "number or [TBD — reason]",
    "contingency_percent": "number or [TBD — reason]",
    "date": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "version": "v1"
  },
  "line_items": [
    {
      "id": "L001",
      "category": "Labor | Software | Vendor | Hardware | Travel | Contingency | Other",
      "description": "string — user's words",
      "amount": "number or [TBD — reason]",
      "vendor": "string or [TBD] or empty",
      "owner": "string or [TBD]",
      "status": "Committed | Planned | Contracted | Unfunded | TBD",
      "notes": "string or empty"
    }
  ],
  "monthly_burn": [
    {"month": "2026-06", "amount": "number or [TBD]"}
  ]
}

Notes:

• amount must be a number (dollars) or a [TBD — reason] string. Do not store strings like "$20k/mo"; use TBD with the user's verbatim phrase as the reason.
• contingency_percent — only a number if the user stated a percentage. Otherwise TBD. The script does NOT default to 10%.
• monthly_burn is optional; include only if the user gave a burn plan.
• status = Unfunded for items the user acknowledged but has no money against yet.

Worked example

User: "Budget: ServiceNow licenses $60k (vendor quote). Marcus 50%/2 months $18k. Slack integration TBD. Contingency 10% of $150k approved."

Correct:

L001  Software  ServiceNow licenses   60000     Status: Contracted, vendor: ServiceNow
L002  Labor     Marcus 50%/2 months   18000     Owner: Marcus Chen, Status: Committed
L003  Vendor    Slack integration     [TBD]     Status: Unfunded
L004  Contingency  10% of approved   15000     (script computes from contingency_percent=10)

Approved total: 150000. Do NOT invent a reconciling line to force 150k.

User: "Two backend engineers TBD at roughly $20k/month each for 3 months."

Correct:

L005  Labor   Backend engineer 1 (~$20k/mo × 3mo)   [TBD — user said ~$20k/mo]
L006  Labor   Backend engineer 2 (~$20k/mo × 3mo)   [TBD — user said ~$20k/mo]

Do NOT encode as 60000 each. The "roughly" is load-bearing.

Grounding (Project+)

Project budget = time-phased cost baseline approved by the sponsor. Components: direct costs (labor, materials, vendors), indirect costs (overhead), contingency reserve (for known risks), management reserve (for unknown-unknowns, typically not in the baseline). Variance = approved − committed (or actual). Cost baseline is frozen at approval; changes go through change control. This skill produces the planning artifact — the baseline that gets approved.