VG Ops · Operations · Finance · 2026-06-08
Before this system existed, every budget number looked equally authoritative — even if it was a guess. A property at 100% guessed budget showed a $200k 'overrun' that wasn't really an overrun, because the underlying budget wasn't a real budget. Worse, properties without any budget (like 32 Clinton and 519 Highland) didn't show up on the dashboard at all, which made them invisible.
Tagging each line with a source fixes both problems. Numbers without confidence are clearly marked, their variance coloring is muted (so it doesn't trigger false alarms), and properties can now appear with placeholder budgets so they're at least visible.
| Source | Who produced it | Confidence | Visual mark | Variance coloring |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| admin_placeholder | Randall (admin) filled from comparable properties | Lowest | † (gray italics) | Muted — not a real variance |
| buyer_initial | Buyer's per-WO ballpark | Low | * (italics) | Muted |
| buyer_topdown | Buyer's project-level total (e.g. '$750k for the whole job') | Low | * (italics) | Muted |
| detailed_estimate | Scoped & priced (walk, bid, estimating sheet) | High | (none) | Active — red over, green under |
| committed | Signed PO or contract — locked | Highest | ◆ (blue bold) | Active — red over, green under |
Open any actualsboard report. Each budget line shows the dollar amount followed by a small mark indicating its source:
$35,000 † — admin placeholder (gray italic dagger)$28,000 * — buyer initial or top-down (italic asterisk)$41,200 — detailed estimate (normal weight, no mark)$39,500 ◆ — committed (bold blue diamond)A small bar at the top of each property column (or the property header on the detail board) shows the composition — what percentage of that property's budget dollars come from each source. A property at 100% placeholder reads very differently from one at 80% committed · 20% detailed.
If a budget line is an admin placeholder or a buyer ballpark, the variance against actuals isn't a real variance — it's a comparison against a guess. Showing it in red (over) or green (under) would imply meaning that isn't there. So variance for those sources renders in muted gray, and the property total's variance is also muted if 100% of its budget is low-confidence.
This protects the dashboard from false alarms. When you see a red variance, you can trust it's measured against a real estimate.
Sometimes the buyer gives a top-down total — e.g. 'this rehab should run $750k' — without breaking it down by WO. That number lives on the property's project target (set on properties.yaml).
The actualsboard shows both in the property header:
These don't have to match. A rollup below the target usually means contingency or scope not yet broken out. A rollup above the target means the WO-level estimates are exceeding the buyer's expectation — that's the moment to surface a conversation.
Today, upgrading a number means editing a YAML file. The next phase of this system will let team members upgrade a placeholder directly from the dashboard — clicking on a marked number to enter a higher-confidence value. Until that's built, the YAML edit + regenerate flow above is how numbers improve.