Project budgets and financial control
A project's budget is what the work is planned to take, in hours, cost, and price. EVX Software builds it from the project's own records, not from a separate spreadsheet: the estimates on its tasks, its budgeted expenses, and its contract amount. As your team records time and expenses, the same project shows what has been spent against that plan, so overruns show up while there is still time to act.
Jump to:
- What the budget is made of
- What is measured against it
- Where to follow it
- Keep the budget reliable
- Example: catching an overrun early
What the budget is made of
| Part | Where it is | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Task estimates | Each task's estimated time and price, in its Basic data and Financials tabs | The planned hours, and their price and cost at the rates of the project's rate schedule |
| Budgeted expenses | The project's budgeted expenses, such as laboratory analysis or subcontracted drilling | The planned expenses, billable or not |
| Contract amount | The project's Contract Amount field | The amount agreed with the client |
A task's price is calculated from its estimated time and its labor category's rate, or entered as a fixed fee. See Important and optional task fields.
What is measured against it
- Worked time: the hours recorded in time entries, priced and costed at their rates.
- Actual expenses: the expenses incurred.
- Earned value: the value of the work done so far.
- Invoiced amounts: what has been billed.
Where to follow it
| To see | Use |
|---|---|
| All projects, estimated against executed | Budget control report |
| One project, task by task | Project budget by task report |
| One project's budget, invoices, and what remains | Budget status report |
| Billing against the budget or the contract amount | Invoicing history |
| The state of every project at a glance | Overview and dashboard |
Estimated labor comes from the tasks; executed labor from the time recorded.
Keep the budget reliable
- Give every task an estimate before work starts.
- Record budgeted expenses for the costs you already know.
- Record time on tasks, with the right labor category, so it counts against the right estimate.
- Review the budget at a fixed rhythm, such as every week or month.
Example: catching an overrun early
A remediation project has 400 estimated hours. At the weekly review, the Project budget by task report shows the confirmation sampling task at 90% of its hours with a third of the samples still to take. The project manager raises a change order with the client before the task runs over.
What you can do next
- Budget control report to compare projects with their estimates.
- Contract types for how pricing differs by contract.
- Billing and cost rates for the rates behind the figures.