Add costs and materials to a project

Costs show what a project really spends. They feed the project's margin, and billable costs can go on a time-and-materials invoice with your markup.

Before you start

• You need the right Create and change projects, costs and invoices.
• To take materials from stock, Inventory must be switched on for your organisation.

Steps

To type a cost:

1. Open the project and go to Costs.
2. Under Add a cost, choose the Kind: Expense, Supplier bill, Subcontractor or Other.
3. Type the Amount before VAT, the Date and the Phase.
4. Fill in the Supplier and a Reference, such as the bill number.
5. Leave Billable ticked if the customer pays for it, and check the Markup on costs %.
6. Select Add.

To take materials from stock:

1. Under Materials from stock, type the Product or barcode and the Qty.
2. Choose the Phase, and set Billable and the markup.
3. Select Take from stock. The branch's stock goes down at once, and the cost line uses the product's cost.

To tag an everyday expense:

1. Open Expenses, the page where you record running costs such as rent or fuel.
2. Fill in the expense as usual and choose the project in Project.
3. Select Add. The expense and the project's cost line are saved together.

Good to know

• If Procurement is switched on, typing a Supplier invoice no. (procurement) fills in the supplier, reference and net amount for you.
• A supplier bill entered in Books is not linked to the project automatically. Add it here as a Supplier bill line with its number as the reference.
• If the stock is short in the branch, the materials are refused. Sending the same form twice never takes the stock twice.
• Materials taken for a project appear in the stock movements with the project's number as the reference.
• The Project choice on the expenses page lists open projects only.
• A billable cost is charged once: after it goes on an invoice it shows that invoice's number.
• See how costs affect the margin in Follow project margins and alerts.