Projects and budgets

Projects and budgets lists every client and project your organization runs, and shows how much of each project's hour budget the tracked time has already burned.

Who this is for

Managers and owners. Viewing the list needs the permission that reads projects, and creating or editing a client or project (including setting its budget) needs the permission that manages them. Both come with the default Manager role, so in practice a Manager can do everything on this screen that an Owner can. Without either permission, the page shows "Projects are restricted", *"You need project access to see clients, projects and their budgets. Ask an owner or manager if you need it."*

What you'll see

• Header actions New client and New project.
• A Clients table: Client (name, with its code underneath if it has one), Status (Active or Archived), Currency, and how many Projects it has. Each row has an Edit button.
• A Projects section with two filters, Client (All clients, or a specific one) and Status (All, Active, Completed, Archived), above a list of project cards.
• Each project card shows its name, a status chip (Active, Completed or Archived), a Non-billable chip when the project isn't billable, the client it belongs to (or Internal when it has none), its billing model (Time & materials, Fixed fee, Retainer or Non-billable), its currency, and Edit and Open controls.
• Underneath each card, a budget bar: a dashed, unfilled rail and "No budget" when the project has no hour cap; otherwise a filled bar with the hours logged, the percentage consumed and how many hours are left, turning amber once 80% of the budget is burned, and reading "Over by" however far past it the project has run.
• If one project's budget can't be read, its bar is replaced with "Budget burn unavailable" rather than taking down the rest of the list.

Setting a client's or a project's fields is done through the New client/New project dialogs (or Edit on an existing one). A project's dialog carries a Budget (hours) field (hint: *"Blank = uncapped."*), plus a Budget (amount) and a Fixed fee field. The dialog says plainly what each is for: *"Budgets are tracked in hours; the amount and fixed fee are recorded in the project's currency."* The hour figure is what the budget bar on this screen charts. A client's dialog carries Name, Code, Currency, Contact name, Contact email, Billing address and Notes, plus a Status field once you're editing one (hint: *"Archiving hides the client from pickers; it never touches its invoices."*).

What happens next

Saving a client or project closes its dialog and refreshes the lists. A toast confirms it: "Client created", "Client saved", "Project created" or "Project saved", each naming the record. If you changed a project's budget, its bar updates to match. Selecting Open on a project takes you to that project's own page.

If it doesn't work

• "Couldn't load clients" / "Couldn't load projects": either list failed to load; retry from the button shown.
• "No clients yet" (*"A client owns projects and receives invoices. Create one to start billing."*) with a New client button.
• "No projects match": *"Try widening the filters above, or create a project."* when you've filtered, or *"Projects carry the budget, the billing model and the time that becomes an invoice."* when the org simply has none yet, with a New project button.
• A client needs a name: "A client needs a name."
• A project needs a name: "A project needs a name."
• A malformed budget or fee isn't silently accepted: "Enter hours as a number, e.g. 40 or 37.5.", "Enter an amount like 2500 or 2500.00.", or "Enter an amount like 15000 or 15000.00.", depending on the field.
• An end date before its start date: "The end date must be on or after the start date."
• "Couldn't create the client", "Couldn't save the client", "Couldn't create the project" and "Couldn't save the project" each carry the server's own message when something else goes wrong.

Related

• Create a client
• Edit a client's details
• Archive a client
• Create a project
• Edit a project
• Set or clear a project's hour budget
• Open a project
• Invoices (overview)
• Time reports (overview)