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Project budgets

Keep track of your project budgets

Justyna Kawalec avatar
Written by Justyna Kawalec
Updated over a week ago

For a quick overview, check the Project budgets video guide.

Project budgets let you set a budget type and monitor the burndown based on scheduled (and/or logged—if you use time tracking features) hours and hourly rates.

When the project budget is set, the remaining budget is displayed on the Projects and Project plan pages and in the Projects view on the Report page.

​📝Note: The remaining budget on the Projects and Project plan pages is based on scheduled hours only. It does not consider logged time, which can be reviewed on the Reports.

Budget types

There are three main project budget types available within Float:

1) Hours-based

  • Hours by project

  • Hours by phase

  • Hours by task

2) Fee-based

  • Fee by project

  • Fee by phase

  • Fee by task

3) Hourly fee

You can set them up in the Budget tab of each project.

updating budget type on project side panel

Hours-based project budget

Project

Set the overall time to be spent on a project (e.g., 200 hours). When new allocations are scheduled, the number of hours remaining in the project budget is utilized accordingly.

📝 Note: Non-billable allocations on billable projects do not utilize the project budget.

hours-based project budget


Phase

If your project has phases, you can set the hours budget for each phase. When selecting this option, the Total Hours field will be read-only, and it will be adjusted based on the hours set under each phase.

hours by phase project budget

📝Note: When the project budget is set to Hours by Phase, any allocation scheduled or logged at the project level (that is, any that does not belong to a specific phase) is considered non-billable.


Task

You can set the hours budget for individual project tasks. Similarly, when selecting this option, the Total Hours field will be read-only, and it will be adjusted based on the hours set under the tasks section for each billable task, including phase tasks.

📝 Note: Non-billable tasks are not included in the total budget. Allocations on non-billable tasks for billable projects can be tracked in Reports.

setting budget per hour for tasks

Fee-based project budget

Project

In the Budget section, set the total project fee (e.g., $50,000). In the Team section, you can configure the hourly rate for each team member. The hourly rate can be different for each person or the same for everyone on the project team. You can use their default hourly rates or set up new project rates.

Setting up team rates.

Phase

If your project has phases, you can also set a total fee for each phase. When selecting this option, the Total Fee field will be read-only, and it will be adjusted based on the budget set under each phase.

Fee by phase budget.


​📝Note: When the project budget is set to Fee by Phase, any allocation that is scheduled or logged at the project level (that is, any that does not belong to a specific phase) is considered non-billable.

In the Team tab of each project phase, you can set up phase hourly rates that apply to that phase only.

Setting up phase hourly rates.

Task

You can set the total fee budget for each task at the project level and under each phase. The Total Fee field will be read-only, and it will show the sum of all task budgets on all phases plus any task budgets that were added directly to the project.

Fee based tasks budget.


📝 Note: Non-billable tasks are not included in the total budget, and allocations against them do not utilize the project budget. Allocations on non-billable tasks can be tracked in Reports.

Hourly fee project budget

Set your team's hourly rates and track the costs of each assigned allocation.

Hourly fee project budget.

 

As with the total fee budget, rates can be customized for each person or set across the board. Project and phase-specific hourly rates can be set in the Team section of each project and phase.


💡 Here's a tip: Your team members' default hourly rates are set in the Info tab of their profiles. Updating a person's default rate will not change their rate for existing projects.


Additional info

  • The project’s tasks can be set as billable or non-billable in the Tasks section. Non-billable tasks added to billable projects are not included in the project budget. Non-billable task allocations can be tracked in Reports to monitor internal costs.

  • The budget summary will display red when a project is over budget.

  • The default currency for your team can be changed from the Team settings > Hours & currency.

  • The Account Owner and Admins can see project budget rates. Project Managers can be granted this access individually by checking the View Everyone's rates and their project budgets permission box in the Access tab of their profile.

  • The remaining budget displayed on the Projects page, the Project Plan page, and the allocation menu is based on scheduled hours only. It includes scheduled time for archived people but does not consider logged time.

  • The remaining budget displayed on the Projects page, the Project Plan page, and the allocation menu are based on scheduled billable hours only. It includes scheduled billable time for archived people but does not consider logged time or non-billable time, which can be tracked in Reports.

  • We don’t currently offer project expense tracking in Float.

  • Check out the Project Reports article for more information on monitoring your project budgets.

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