Include or add a cost item – Cost Control

Include or add a cost itemCost ControlYou can say whether a cost item counts inside an account's value or on top of it, and you know which to choose.Every cost item carries a checkbox, and it decides one thing:If checked, the cost item is included in the account value. If unchecked, it is added on top of the account value.What that means**Checked — included.** The item is part of what the account was already going to cost. The account's value absorbs it.**Unchecked — added on top.** The item is *extra* to the account's value, and raises it.The distinction only makes sense once you remember that an account already carries a value from the budget. An included item is one of the things that value was for; an on-top item is something the value did not anticipate.Which to chooseThe question to ask is: **was this cost already in the account's number?**| Situation | Choose | | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------ | | The invoice for the work the account was budgeted for | **included** | | Part of a budgeted amount, invoiced in instalments | **included** | | An imported booking that belongs to this account's planned spend | **included** | | A cost genuinely additional to what the account planned | **on top** |Most items are included. On-top is the exception, and it exists so that an unbudgeted extra can be tracked against the right account without pretending the plan anticipated it.Why it is worth getting rightIt changes the account's value, and the account's value is what Expected, Paid and Free are read against. Setting an item on top when it belongs inside inflates the account; the reverse hides a real overspend.The tooltip is unusually careful for a checkbox, which is a fair signal of how easy it is to get backwards.Changing it laterToggle the checkbox on the item. The account's figures follow immediately — nothing has to be recomputed and nothing else is affected.Markdown