Order actual costs and stock

The «Actual» tool of an order (the «Installation and results» stage): spending by kind of cost with a receipt photo, plan and actual against the estimate, the deviation and the margin before and after. The «Order stock» tool in the same stage and the «Supplies and materials in stock» page (formerly the studio stock, the «Materials in stock» row in the left column): the studio's supplies and materials with names from the price list, frames and products that came back from the installation, booking for the order dates and the purchase less the stock. A closed order can become a reference project. Available in beta to everyone, no invitation needed.

Learn more: Help · Features.

Reviewed: 2026-10-13

How to use it

Open an order in «Production», the «Installation and results» stage: it has the «Actual» and «Order stock» cards (the «Add an expense» and «Open the stock» buttons).
On «Actual», in the «Add an expense» block, choose the kind of cost: «Materials», «Crew and labor», «Subcontract», «Transport» or «Other». Enter the amount and the date, and if the expense belongs to an estimate row, choose it in the «Estimate row» field.
You can attach the receipt right away in the «Receipt photo» field: JPG, PNG, WebP or PDF up to 20 MB, on a phone the camera opens. Click «Add expense».
The «Plan and actual» block compares the spending with the estimate by the same kinds of cost and shows the deviation in roubles and percent, the planned margin and the actual margin.
After the dismantling, open the «Order stock» tool and in the «Came back from the installation» block mark each product «Good», «Repair», «Write off» or «Did not come back». Click «Mark the return».
Make a closed order a reference project: on «Actual», in the «Reference project» block, click «Make it a reference project».

Plan and actual, deviation and margin

Plan: the cost of the order's estimate rows by kind of cost. A product row is split by its composition: the frame goes to materials, welding and assembly to labor, outside painting to subcontract.
Deviation: actual minus plan. A plus means more was spent than planned, a minus means less.
The planned margin is the same as the margin in the order's estimate: the client amount without VAT minus the cost, and also the agency share, the tax load and the contingency reserve if the estimate has them. The actual margin subtracts the same, only with the entered spending instead of the cost, and the contingency reserve is not subtracted: the unforeseen costs are already in the spending. It appears after the first expense.
Estimate rows without a price are not in the plan, their number is written under the table: «no price» is not zero.
A product whose cost is not fully counted goes into the plan with its counted lines. Under the table it says that the plan is understated and the planned margin is overstated.

Actual amount of an estimate row

While an estimate row has expenses in «Actual», its actual amount equals their sum and cannot be changed by hand, including in «Documents».
A row without expenses keeps its actual amount typed by hand, as before.
If all expenses of a row are deleted or moved to another row, the field keeps the last counted amount, not the one typed by hand before the first expense. Check it and correct it by hand if needed.

Workshop marks

Workers mark work centre hours and material used from a phone by the QR on the workshop task or by a personal link. Marks are shown on «Actual» in the «Workshop marks» block, new ones first.
Each new mark has an estimate: hours at the work centre rate in the product calculation, or if there is none, at the work centre rate from «Works and rates»; material at the price from the materials library in the unit that was marked. Replace rates and prices marked «Example» with your own.
Press «Accept»: an expense «Crew and labor» for hours or «Materials» for material appears with the estimated amount. To accept another amount, type it in the field next to it. A mark without an estimate can only be accepted with an amount.
«Accept all with an estimate» accepts at once every new mark that has an estimate. «Reject» keeps the mark out of the actual costs, «Return to new» brings it back.
The table by work centre compares the hours of the estimate's product calculations with the marked and accepted hours.
If you delete an expense made from a mark, the mark becomes new again.

Stock: what came back and remnants

The stock is a simple list, not a warehouse: no receipts or issues are kept in it.
«Good»: the frame or product is in stock and is offered to the next orders with the same product. «Repair»: in stock, but not offered until its condition is changed to «Good». «Write off»: only a record stays.
The whole list opens on the left in «Production» → «Materials in stock», and the page is called «Supplies and materials in stock» (formerly the studio stock). Above the cards are the «Kind» filter («Everything», «Materials», «Frames», «Products») and a search. On a card the state («Good», «Repair», «Written off») is changed with buttons, and «Edit» opens the amount, the storage place and the wear. An item photo: JPG, PNG or WebP up to 20 MB, and AURA writes the reason of a refusal right on the card.
A frame can have «Wear per order, %»: this percentage of the price of its materials goes into the cost of the order that takes it. The value in the field hint is only an example, the studio sets its own wear.

How to add a material

Open «Production» → «Materials in stock» and click «Add material».
In the «Name» field start typing a name or a code, for example MDF or mat-mdf-16. Materials from the price list appear under the field: pick one with a click or with the arrows and Enter. The unit comes from the price list.
If the price list has no such material, type your own name, for example double-sided tape. The line under the field says the item is not from the price list.
Fill in the amount, the unit, the sizes, the state and where it is stored, then click «Save».

Frames and products are not added here: they come to the list from an order after the installation, through the «Order stock» tool. The window no longer has the field about what the item is.

Why an item does not lower the purchase

Only a material chosen from the price list lowers the purchase of an order: it has a code, and AURA knows which material of the products it is. The card of such an item says «Material from the price list».
An item with a name of your own simply stays in the list and does not change the purchase. To have it counted, click «Edit» and choose the name from the hints of the price list.
The hints come from «Price list and norms». If there are none, the price list is empty or closed for your account: the name can be typed by hand.

A frame from stock in the calculator

Open the product in the order's «Calculator». If the stock has a good frame of the same product, a «From stock» block appears under the parameters.
Check the «Booked from» and «Booked until» dates and click «Take from stock». The frame is booked for these dates and the product is recalculated: the materials of the «Frame» group cost the wear percentage, welding and painting of the frame are not needed and go to «Not included».
Click «To the order estimate» to update the product row. The frame material no longer goes into the purchase.
«Make it again» removes the booking, and the product is counted as made again.

Booking for the order dates

A booking holds a stock item for the order from the installation to the dismantling. The «Booked from» and «Booked until» fields above the list set the dates: «from» is the order's installation date by default, «until» comes from the order's previous booking, and without one it is the installation day. Without an installation date, enter the dates yourself.
If the installation is on Friday and the dismantling on Sunday, enter Friday and Sunday. Then an order installing on Sunday sees that the frame is taken.
To change the dates of a booking, enter the new dates and click «Move to these dates» next to the booking.
If another order has already taken the item for overlapping dates, AURA warns «These dates overlap with the order…» but still books it: decide who needs the frame more, or make a second one. If you are not a member of that order, AURA says «another order» without its name.
The order's bookings and the frames that fit it are in the «Order stock» tool in the «Booked from stock» block, together with the «Remove booking» button.

Purchase with stock

The «Purchase with stock» block in the «Order stock» tool adds up the purchase of the order's products by material in whole sheets, bars and rolls and subtracts the remnants of the same material, for example «MDF 16: 3 sheets without stock, 1 in stock, buy 2».
Remnants in the unit of use, for example 2 m² of offcuts, are converted into sheets by the consumption of the order's products and are not counted as whole sheets.
A part of a product taken from stock is not purchased.

Make it a reference project

Only a closed order becomes a reference project: the stage is «Closed» or the installation date has passed. The studio owner clicks the button.
The reference project gets the spending by kind of cost and the order's calculations: products, decor and estimate calculators. Materials are compared with the materials of the calculations, the crew with the labor.
«Check the calculation» in «Reference projects» recalculates them with today's norms and shows the deviation. The norms do not change by themselves: you decide how to correct them.

Beta: open to everyone

«Actual», «Order stock», «Materials in stock» and the «From stock» block are part of professional-level production. Since 7 October 2026 they are open to everyone, no invitation needed.
The owner and the editors who see prices see the actual costs. The «Order stock» tool has no money: installers without access to prices mark the returned structures too.
«Workshop marks» are seen by the owner and the editors who can see prices. Links and the QR for marks in the «Workshop task» tool can also be made by participants without access to prices.

FAQ

Why does the actual amount of an estimate row not change? It has expenses in the «Actual» tool and is counted from them. Change or delete the expense.
No frame in the «From stock» block? It is under repair or written off, or it came back from another product: a frame is offered only to the same product.
Where can I see the receipt? In the «Order expenses» list, click «Receipt».
The item photo does not upload? A JPG, PNG or WebP up to 20 MB will do. Save an iPhone photo in HEIC as JPG first. If AURA says the file did not reach the server, choose the photo again.