Float’s estimates feature empower teams to plan and deliver projects with greater confidence and control. It allows you to set, track, and compare how work was initially scoped against how it actually unfolds, helping you stay on top of budgets, timelines, and margins.

Using estimates, you can save snapshots of a project’s data at any time in its lifecycle. From initial scoping or mid-project changes, you can save a new estimate at any time and choose one of them to be the baseline for tracking estimated vs. actuals. This baseline acts as your point of comparison for scheduled and logged time, helping you monitor progress and profitability as the project evolves. When the project wraps, you can see how close the baseline estimate was to the actual scheduled or logged time.

The estimates feature is available on Pro and Enterprise plans only. If you are currently on a Starter plan and would like to save estimates and compare to baselines, you can start a free 30-day Pro trial—just let us know!

Creating, viewing, and managing estimates is restricted based on access rights. Account Owners and Admins have full access. Managers can use estimates only if they have permission to edit projects and view cost rates and budgets. Members do not have access to estimates.

An estimate is a saved snapshot of a project’s data at a specific point in time. You can save multiple estimates per project, and you can save an estimate at any time in the project’s lifecycle. Only one estimate at a time can be set as the baseline estimate.

To add an estimate, plan your project on the Project view and use the Save as estimate button in the project overview bar.

Saving an estimate is designed to track your project's evolution and compare it as a baseline once the project is confirmed.

Optionally, you can add the name and description for each estimate for reference. The default name is the budget type and estimate, e.g., "Hourly fee estimate," but it can be modified as needed. 

Each estimate includes the project details being saved (fee, costs, and margin) and a timestamp indicating who created it and when.

Saved estimates appear in the Estimates section of the project side panel.

You can save multiple estimates per project, and you can save an estimate at any time in the project’s lifecycle with the Save as estimate button on a Project view.

Under the View estimates in the Estimates section, you can see a list of saved estimates, with one of them marked as the baseline.

📝Note: You can store up to 20 estimates per project. Saving a new one will automatically delete the oldest.

A baseline estimate is the estimate used as the reference point for comparing the project’s estimates to actuals in the project overview bar and Single Project Report. It serves as a reference point for comparing how your project evolves over time.

By default, the estimate saved first becomes the baseline estimate. Saving a new estimate or restoring a previously saved estimate automatically replaces the current baseline. A project can only have one baseline estimate set at a time. Depending on your needs, you can:

The baseline estimate is 'the current one', and it is displayed in the Estimates section with the baseline label.

You can mark any estimate as the project’s baseline. This is useful when the scope changes, the new scope is approved, and you need to save a new estimate and set it as the baseline. To change a baseline estimate, navigate to the Estimates section, click View estimates, and select Set as baseline estimate from the action menu.

For full breakdowns and comparisons between estimates and the scheduled or logged hours, head to the Report page and open the Single Project Report. This is where you can choose to view:

By default, these reports are generated for the entire project duration. They include all active employees, contractors, and placeholders, and their confirmed time off.

The baseline estimate and the scheduled/logged hours appear as distinct lines on the reports, so you can easily compare the plan and the reality throughout the project lifecycle.

The table data uses the baseline as a reference point to highlight differences in hours, fees, and costs.

The table data export of the Baseline estimate vs Scheduled hours (beta) and Baseline estimate vs Logged hours (beta) includes the following estimate data:

If a project has more than one estimate saved, the exported CSV data is based on the baseline estimate.