Skip to main content

Project budgets

Keep track of your project budgets

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

Budget type labels update

We’ve updated the names of project budget types to use industry-standard terms. The functionality remains the same.

  • No budget → No budget

  • Hours-based → Fixed hours

  • Fee-based → Fixed price

  • Hourly fee → Time & materials

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) Fixed hours

  • Fixed hours by project

  • Fixed hours by phase

  • Fixed hours by task

2) Fixed fee

  • Fixed fee by project

  • Fixed fee by phase

  • Fixed fee by task

3) Time & materials 

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

updating budget gif

Fixed hours 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.

fixed hours by project screenshot


Phase

If your project has phases, you can set the fixed 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.

📝Note: When the project budget is set to Fixed 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 fixed 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.

tasks hours screnshot

Fixed fee 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 bill 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.

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.

fixed fee by phase screenshot


​📝Note: When the project budget is set to Fixed 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.

phase team rate

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.


📝 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.

Time & materials budget

Set hourly rates for your team, add markup to expenses, and track both the costs and fees for each allocation.

 

As with the fixed fee budget, bill 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 project budget type also changes how project expenses behave.

  • 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.

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

Did this answer your question?