On most projects the budget lives in three places — the owner's workbook, the GC's pay application, and the lender's tracking sheet — and every month someone spends two days reconciling them. Playgrounds builds a draw-tracking app that all three read the same way: budget, committed, and drawn by line item; contingency burn against percent complete; retainage held at the contract rate; and the monthly draw package assembled from the numbers instead of retyped into them. The lender who sized the loan on loan-to-value and loan-to-cost reviews the same figures the project team manages against.
How It Works
Upload the development budget the deal was underwritten against — hard costs by division, soft costs, financing costs, contingency. The app keeps original budget, approved changes, and current budget as separate columns from day one, so reallocations stay visible instead of overwriting history.
Log each pay application against its budget lines. The app tracks committed versus drawn versus remaining per line, holds retainage at the rate each contract specifies, and flags lines trending past budget while there's still money and schedule to react.
When it's time to submit, generate the draw request — cover summary, line-item detail, change order log, lien waiver checklist, and backup — in one package the lender's inspector can follow. The same numbers everyone has been reading all month.
What You Can Build
- A budget-versus-actual board — original, revised, committed, drawn, and remaining for every line item, with variances flagged as they develop instead of at closeout.
- A contingency burn-down — contingency used plotted against percent complete, so a job that's 40% built and 70% through its contingency triggers the hard conversation early.
- A change order log — every CO priced, tracked, and tied to the lines it hits, with its effect on the current budget shown before approval, not after.
- A draw package generator — the monthly submission assembled from live data, with retainage math and lien waiver tracking built in.
- A multi-project roll-up — every active job's spend, contingency position, and draw status in one portfolio view for the Monday meeting.
Why Generic AI Falls Short Here
Generic AI has never balanced a draw against a budget. Ask ChatGPT or Claude about a draw request and you get advice, not a ledger. It doesn't hold your budget lines, doesn't remember what draw six did to contingency, and can't give the owner, the GC, and the lender one view that's still accurate next month. Playgrounds starts from a framework that knows how construction money moves — lines, retainage, change orders, draws — and what you build becomes the project's running system of record, not a paragraph of suggestions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can our GC and lender work in the same app?
Yes, with role-based access. The GC can submit pay applications against the budget lines, the lender or inspector can review the draw with backup attached, and you control who sees and edits what. Everyone reads the same numbers instead of reconciling three versions.
How does it handle change orders?
Each change order is logged with its price, status, and the budget lines it affects. Approved changes flow into the current budget while the original stays visible, so you can answer at any point how far the project has drifted from day one — and why.
What goes into the draw package?
Whatever your lender requires — most packages include budget versus drawn by line item, the current requisition, retainage held, the change order log, lien waiver status, and backup documents. The app assembles it from live data instead of a night of copy-paste.
Is our project data used to train AI?
No. AI features run under enterprise terms that prohibit training on your inputs. Every record is tenant-scoped, encrypted in transit and at rest, and stays yours.
Free to start, no credit card. Upload the budget and have a working draw tracker in minutes.
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