Rehab Budget and Draw Tracking Tool Setup with FlipperForce

Go to flipperforce.com and try it for free. Once you're in, you'll land on the Overall Dashboards view, which is where every project you're running lives once you've added it.

1. Sign up and create your account.
2. Start a new project and enter the property address and basic details.

What you should see: A new project card on your dashboard with the property address and a status of not yet analyzed or in progress. Troubleshooting: If you're not sure whether to start with Deal Analysis or Project Management first, start with Deal Analysis, since your rehab budget for tracking purposes should come from the same numbers you used to underwrite the deal.

Inside the project, look for Cost Estimating (the FlipperForce feature specifically built for this, sometimes shown on the site as the Rehab Estimator). Use it to break the scope of work into line items instead of a single lump rehab number.

1. Open Cost Estimating for your project.
2. Add a line item for each trade or category: [roofing], [electrical], [plumbing], [flooring], [paint], and so on.
3. Enter your estimated cost for each line item, based on your contractor bids or your own research.

What you should see: A list of budget line items with an estimated cost next to each, totaling to your overall rehab budget. Troubleshooting: If your contractor bids came in a single lump sum, ask the contractor for a rough breakdown by category before you enter it. A single line item defeats the purpose of catching which specific trade is running over.

Once your budget is built, connect each line item to the contractor or vendor responsible for it. This is what makes the Budget vs Actual comparison later mean something specific (you'll know exactly which contractor's work is over or under, not just that the project overall is off).

1. For each line item, note the assigned contractor or vendor.
2. Save any contact details you'll need for coordination during the project.

What you should see: Line items in your budget now labeled with a contractor name or vendor next to the cost. Troubleshooting: Contractor bids and business details are fine to enter directly into FlipperForce. This is exactly the kind of business data the tool is built to hold.

FlipperForce includes a Receipt Inbox where you can forward or upload receipts, and an AI Receipt Analyzer that reads and itemizes them automatically instead of you typing every line by hand. This is the step that turns a shoebox of paper receipts into tracked expenses.

1. Open the Receipt Inbox for your project.
2. Upload a photo or forward an email receipt from a recent purchase.
3. Let the AI Receipt Analyzer extract the vendor, amount, and items, then confirm it matched them to the right budget line item.

What you should see: A processed receipt showing the extracted vendor name and total, linked to a specific line item in your budget. Troubleshooting: If the analyzer miscategorizes a receipt, correct the line item assignment manually. It gets more accurate as you use it, but always check the first several before trusting it fully.

This is the core habit that catches overruns early. As invoices and receipts come in and get logged, the Budget vs Actual view shows you, line by line, where actual spend is tracking against your original estimate.

1. Open the Budget vs Actual view for your project.
2. Review it weekly while the project is active, not just at the end.
3. Flag any line item running noticeably over budget while there's still time to adjust scope or negotiate.

What you should see: A table or chart comparing budgeted versus actual spend per line item, with variances highlighted (over or under). Troubleshooting: A single line item running over isn't automatically a crisis. Check whether it's a timing issue (an invoice logged early) before assuming a real cost overrun.