Hi Michael,
This discussion has a lot of implications with how you configure Adagio Job Costing and what modules you are using with Job Costing. We have installed Adagio Job Cost into a number of sites that initially had similar types of questions as being posed here.
We would not consider a Job Cost site installation without Adagio Gridview and Adagio Purchase Orders. Tip of the day!
After you have budget numbers entered into Job Cost, if the vendor invoice distribution (in AP) is allocated to a job, then you can see budgeted amounts and incurred cost amounts in Job Cost Inquiries under the job, after the payables batch is posted and costs are retrieved and posted into Job Cost. Note, you cannot see variance amounts being the differences between budget and incurred costs. To get effective reporting for Job Costing you should consider using Adagio Gridview, and then you can have a real cooking solution.
Even better (or almost required), install Adagio Purchase Orders so that the PO line item is committed to the job (inside of Job Costing) when the PO is issued and the receipt of goods or services on the PO is updated to the job costing data, as soon as the packing slip is received or services rendered. The PO solution even prompts you when your PO is exceeding the budget which helps ensure that you are posting to the correct category (and Job), as well as awareness of going over budget.
Adagio Job costing with PO's and Gridview can be configured so that there is no down time or waiting for month end to be completed or revenue recognition, and so your inquiry into costs versus budget are always current.
You cannot input quotes directly into Adagio Job Costs but your quotes (assuming from your vendors) would be Purchase Orders. And if you are using Purchase Orders, the PO updates the Job costs details as soon as the PO (quote) is posted. Then entering vendor invoices into Purchase Orders (matched to the Open PO's) will draw down the open commitments (Purchase Orders), so that you can see the outstanding commitments (remaining), the incurred costs, and do a comparison to the budget (using Gridview) with detailed drill down to the incurred details and open Purchase Orders for an informed analysis.
If you are using Adagio Purchase Orders, you can create PO's with inventory items or non-inventoried items (sundry items) that can go on the PO's as item qty or as contract amounts, with multiple line distribution to multiple jobs or to inventory (if using Adagio Inventory). If not using Adagio Inventory, then only sundry items are available but still as quantity or as contract amounts.
For further information, please talk to your Adagio consultant. Hopefully this quick answer helps.
Best,
Brian