Is it lying? Is this considered sinful?

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Juanshark25

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I’ve been struggling with an issue at work that I’m not sure if it is a sin or considered lying. Any help would be much appreciated

I work in construction and at work I am responsible for paying Bills for the work done on the job. Each bill is is designated for a certain budget of that house.

It is a common practice for people at work to spread the cost across multiple houses even if the work was done in only one house. People will also try to justify that the money should go to a different budget than what it should. They’ll attempt to justify it on the bill by saying work was done that wasn’t really done.

I’ve participated in this over the years. Lately I’ve started to wonder if it is morally acceptable. Is it considered lying? I’m not getting anyone in trouble. However I guess I’m lying on paper. I just dont know if that is considered lying or a sin. I’m not trying to get anyone in trouble or not pay anyone. I’m just trying not to go over budget
 
Most priests are happy to talk on the telephone or via email.

Tell your priest what you’ve just told us.
 
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Isn’t that fraud or money malversation? It is also breaking law
 
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I’m a little unclear. Are you saying that the company gives a client a bid, and if they go over on one job, they charge it to another client that they haven’t gone over on? If so, then yes, that’ is obviously lying, stealing, and illegal. Now, if the budget is only within your company and no client is actually being charged more than they should, it probably isn’t immoral, as long as everyone is aware of it and it isn’t causing anyone any problems.
 
Sorry its probably could’ve explained it a little better. I was trying not to make this be extremely long. The paying for jobs with different budgets does not effect anyone directly in a negative way.

Let’s say my company gives me 300k to build a house. My company has already designated it should cost me a certain amount to do each phase of construction. However, if I have $300 left in my drywall budget. When someone sends me a bill I would pay them from that extra $300 in the drywall budget. Then when I give my company the Bills to pay the contractor it would be paid out of my drywall budget on the house instead of some other part. Also if I have that $300 in house X I would put the money to that house instead of house Y.

I hope that makes sense. So it doesnt effect the contractor who does it in anyway. Also if I make good notes on my Bills no one in my office gets in trouble. Generally if a bill is very sketch and shouldnt ve going to that budget then they’ll tell me this isn’t correct and to fix it.

My question is it wrongful to put that money in different budgets but trying to justify it. I would never try to rob anyone of money, do anything that would prohibit someone from getting work, or anything illegal. I’m just curious if what I’m doing should be considered lying or morally wrong if its not negatively affecting anyone.

I hope that makes sense. It’s somewhat difficult to explain.
 
To answer that last part. Most people are aware of it. However technically it is frowned upon. From my understanding they dont want us to do anything sketchy that would get them in trouble if we ever got audited.
 
If I understand the issue, your company projects a cost to build the house (I am assuming you are doing one-ups and not a division with 5 different house plans, and an overall budget for the whole division)

With a one-up, you have a buyer/broker who is going to pay for the house, and the two of you have come to a contract for “X” house plan to cost “Y” dollars.

Costs are normally determined to include a profit to the builder. That, too is an estimate, but as I understand it, that is an internal number - meaning it is not in the contract as a line item. Line items will include finishings provided (flooring, grade of carpet, paint, doors, plumbing fixtures, cabinets, appliances, etc.)

When you get billed by the subs, you may have $3500 for interior painting, $4500 for cabinets, $3000 for counters, etc. A specific job - sheet rock - may be bid at a certain prices and there may be some cost overruns; and flooring may come in a bit less, and money still comes within the budget; or perhaps eats a bit into profit because of price increases.

There is no sin in the matter if that is what you are dealing with. The house was bid based on the cost of doing x, y and z as of the day the contract is signed; costs can go up or down due to a multitude of issues beyond anyone’s control and unless there is a part of the contract which proposes a final accounting (lumber and roofing goes up 15% due to fires and/or trading costs from the supplier, resulting in a 2% cost overrun), the final price is the one contracted. How the money moves internally is not a moral matter, it is an accounting and bidding manner.

Unless costs are escalating faster than normal (roofing material got caught in that squeeze some time ago due to issues relating to the oil industry), it sounds as if you contract for a set cost for house A and a set cost for house B, and the internal accounting leaves a profit margin within standard ratios. House A might be $300,000; house B might be $429,000, and at the end, the company makes a profit of 10%. Unless someone is intentionally overbidding the costs of the various components in order to skew profit higher than normal, I fail to see a moral issue.
 
Thanks for the good explanation. Smoothing the costs is very different from padding them or hiding them. This isn’t a case where deceit is being used on the client, just internal shuffling. As long as you are sure no deceit is going on…or any other funny business, this is just how construction works.

There are plenty of other areas where shady goings on do occur in construction, but this isn’t one of them.
 
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