Direct Costs in Excel

Direct cost data already lives in spreadsheets: invoices, expense logs, payroll sheets, equipment rentals, general conditions. Direct Costs lets you prepare that data in Excel, check it against your Procore project, and sync only the rows that are ready.

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What it does

A direct cost is a project cost recorded directly against the job rather than through a subcontract or purchase order. Getting those costs into Procore cleanly usually means re-keying from a spreadsheet and catching errors after they land. Direct Costs moves the review step before the sync.

• Collect and prepare direct cost rows in the workbook where the data already lives
• Validate rows against your Procore project before anything syncs
• Stage rows for review so PMs, project accountants, and ops can fix issues first
• Sync only approved, ready rows to Procore

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Prerequisites

• The Sandspit Excel add-in installed and signed in. See Install the Excel Add-in
• A Procore project with vendors, budget codes, cost codes, and cost types configured
• Access to the Direct Costs tool in Procore for that project

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Prepare the rows

1. Open the Sandspit task pane and select your Procore project
2. Add the required sheets so the add-in can populate picklists from your project
3. Enter or paste your direct cost rows: vendor, budget code, cost code, cost type, date, amount, and description

Picklists are pulled from your Procore project, so values like vendors and budget codes match what Procore expects.

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Validate against Procore

Validation checks each row against your Procore project reference data before sync: vendors, budget codes, cost codes, cost types, dates, amounts, and required fields. Issues are grouped so you know exactly what to fix.

• Common flags: a budget code not in the project budget, a vendor not in the directory, or a missing required field
• Fix issues by editing the rows directly or using the values from the picklists
• Re-validate until no blockers remain

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Review and sync

Once rows are clean and approved, sync them to Procore. Sandspit keeps rows that still need attention out of Procore and sends only the reviewed, ready rows. After sync, you can see which rows synced successfully and which need another look.