Project Reports: Budget vs. Actual and Profitability
Check whether projects are on budget and making money
Applies to: Premium · LawBillity
Busy isn't the same as profitable. Project reports compare actual hours and costs with your estimates, so you can step in while a project still has room to recover.
Which Project Report?
If you want to know...
Run this report
Whether a project is on budget
Project-Estimates: the estimate, the actual, the difference, and the percentage used.
Which projects make money
Profitability: what you billed compared with what the work cost.
What a project has cost
Project Costing Summary, or
Project Costing Details for entry-level detail.
Where the hours go inside a project
Project-Summary: hours by project, broken down by user and activity.
Running a Project Report
- Click Home > Reports and choose the report.
- Filter by date range, client, or project. Tick Include Closed Project to include finished projects.
- Click Generate Report.
Set Up Estimates First
The budget report needs something to compare against. If a project has no estimate, start with Project-Summary to see where hours go, then set a budget based on what you learn. See Setting Up Project Estimates and Budgets.
Catch Overruns Early
- Run these reports every week or two. Catching an overrun at 60% leaves room to fix it. At 95%, it doesn't.
- For a quick visual check of every project, use the Project Tracker. See Using the Project Tracker.
- Get an alert when a project reaches a share of its estimated time (80% unless you change it) in Admin > Settings > Notifications > Project Management. See Configuring Firm Notifications.
Common Problems
- The budget columns are empty. The project has no estimate. See Setting Up Project Estimates and Budgets.
- A finished project is missing. Tick Include Closed Project.
- Profit looks low on a busy project. Work that hasn't been billed yet isn't counted as revenue. Check for unbilled time. See Understanding Billing Statuses: UnBilled, Pre-Billed, and Billed.