Where control turns projects into profit

You’ve likely experienced that sinking feeling when a project looks profitable on paper, but the actual supplier bills tell a different story. When your project delivery data and your accounting records live in different worlds, margin leak is inevitable.

Cost Management in AtomicSam bridges that gap by giving you commercial control over every cent spent on a project. Instead of waiting for a month-end report from finance, you can see exactly how your actual spend stacks up against your original quotes in real-time.

Tracking the three stages of a cost

At any given moment, a project cost exists in one of three states. Tracking these separately ensures you aren’t surprised by a large bill that you forgot was coming.

Stage	What it represents	When to use it
Estimated	The "best guess" figures from your initial quote or budget.	During the proposal phase to protect your initial margin.
Committed	Costs tied to an approved Purchase Order (PO).	When you’ve signed off on a supplier's work but haven't received the bill.
Actual	Real money spent, verified by a receipt or supplier invoice.	When the work is done and the expense is ready for the ledger.

💡 Tip: Always move costs from Estimated to Committed via a PO. This locks in your supplier pricing and prevents "scope creep" from your vendors before the bill even arrives.

Standardizing spend with Cost Templates

Manually typing in tax rates and expense accounts for every line item is a recipe for data entry errors. AtomicSam uses Cost Templates to standardize how you spend money. These templates pre-define the default pricing, tax rates, and the specific expense accounts used in your accounting software (like Xero or QuickBooks).

Each template includes a Resell flag. When this is toggled on, AtomicSam knows this cost should be passed through to the client. If you have a standard 20% markup on software licenses, you can set that in the template so the sell price is automatically calculated using the formula: Sell Price = Cost × (1 + Markup%).

⚠️ Heads up: Ensure your Template Categories match your Chart of Accounts. This ensures that when costs export to your accounting system, they land in the right bucket every time.

Capturing Expenses and AI Smart Fill

For ad-hoc costs like travel or project materials, you can create Expenses on the go. AtomicSam includes AI-powered receipt parsing to shave minutes off your day. When you upload a receipt, the system identifies the vendor, date, and amount automatically.

If you are processing a formal supplier invoice, use Smart Fill. This tool reads the PDF invoice and auto-populates the cost details, matching them against your existing Cost Templates. You simply review the data, confirm if it is Billable or Non-billable, and the cost flows directly into your project financials and eventual client invoice.

✅ Did you know: Marking a cost as "Billable" doesn't just track it; it queues it up for your next invoice run, ensuring you never forget to recharge a client for a project expense.

Protecting sensitive margin data

Not everyone on the team needs to know the firm’s internal margins or the exact cost of a specialist contractor. AtomicSam uses Safe Views to maintain commercial confidentiality. Staff without specific cost permissions will see the revenue figures (what you are charging the client) but the cost and margin columns will be hidden. This allows project leads to manage their timelines without exposing sensitive firm-wide financial data.

Generating Bills for Accounting

Once a cost is moved to the Actual stage (usually via a receipted PO), you can click Create Bill. This generates a formal supplier bill within AtomicSam that includes the parsed receipt or invoice image. From here, you can export these bills directly to Xero or QuickBooks, closing the loop between project delivery and your firm's books.

Pro Tips for Commercial Control

Review the "Committed vs. Actual" variance: If your Actual costs are consistently higher than your Committed POs, your suppliers may be overcharging, or your team is approving work without updated POs.
Use "Non-billable" for visibility: Even if a cost isn't passed to the client, track it against the project. This gives you a true reflection of your net margin rather than an inflated "gross" figure.
Audit your Resell flags: Every quarter, review your Cost Templates to ensure your markups are still covering your overheads and protecting your project margins.