The Autofill Higher Projects toggle controls whether the totals from a subproject budget automatically roll up into the budget of the parent (main) project. This setting helps you decide how connected or independent you want your project and subproject budgets to be.
What “Autofill Higher Projects” Does
When you create a budget for a subproject, you’ll see a toggle labeled Autofill Higher Projects.
When Autofill Higher Projects is ON
The subproject’s totals (labor hours, labor costs, equipment hours, and equipment costs) are automatically added into the main project’s budget.
Every time you save that subproject budget, the parent project updates to reflect those totals.
BusyBusy will show a confirmation message before updating the parent project.
When Autofill Higher Projects is OFF
The subproject’s totals will not update the main project budget.
You can manually adjust the parent project budget without it being overwritten by subproject changes.
Subprojects remain fully separate from the parent totals.
Where to Find the Toggle
You will see Autofill Higher Projects when:
Creating a new budget for a subproject
Editing an existing subproject budget
The toggle appears near your total hours and cost columns, shown here:
When to Use Autofill Higher Projects
Use Autofill ON When:
You want the parent project budget to always reflect the sum of all subprojects
You’re managing large jobs (e.g., subdivisions, multi-phase projects)
Project managers need a real-time rollup of all subproject labor and costs
You want consistent reporting across all project levels
Use Autofill OFF When:
You want to review or adjust parent totals manually
You’re adding buffer time, contingency, or management hours at the parent level
You want subproject budgets for detail, but a simplified parent budget
You’re experimenting with budget structures and don’t want automatic rollups yet
How It Impacts Budget Editing
Even when Autofill is ON:
You can still edit your parent project’s budget manually
You can add parent-level cost codes
You can adjust totals if needed
 | Just remember:
If Autofill is ON and you save a subproject budget later, the parent totals will update again.
|
Best Practices
Create your subproject budgets first before building the parent project.
Turn Autofill ON when you want a live, accurate rollup of all subprojects.
Turn Autofill OFF if you need flexibility in the parent project or want to control it manually.
Review subproject totals often to ensure your parent project reflects the structure you expect.
Tip
You can view all your subproject budgets from the parent project by clicking on the main project, then use the dropdown menu (in the middle) to select Subprojects.