Follow project margins and alerts

Every project and every phase shows its budget against what it has cost so far, what you have invoiced and been paid, and the margin. Alerts tell the owner when a project needs attention.

Before you start

• You need the right See projects and their figures.

Steps

1. Open Projects. The tiles at the top show the total Contract, Invoiced, Paid, Margin, and how many projects are Past due and Over budget.
2. Filter the list with Open, Quotes, Active, On hold, Done, Cancelled or All, or search by name, number or customer.
3. Read each row: Budget used, Cost, Hours, Invoiced, Paid and Margin %.
4. Select a project to open it. Budget and actual shows the figures per phase: budget, costs by kind, labour, revenue, margin, and a mark when the phase is over budget.
5. To share the figures, go back to the list and select Download CSV or Download Excel.

Good to know

• Costs are the cost lines plus labour. Labour is every time entry not sent back, at the hourly cost kept on the entry.
• Revenue is the work billed on milestone, progress and time-and-materials invoices. An advance is not revenue.
• Budget used compares costs with the budget. Over budget stops being checked once a project is done.
• There is no separate view of change orders or rework.
• The owner receives these alerts when owner alerts and Projects are switched on:
  • Past due: an active or on-hold project is past its due date.
  • Over budget: costs are above the budget.
  • Unbilled time: approved billable time older than the days you set (30 by default) is not invoiced.
  • Retention due: a done project still holds retention after the days you set.
• Each alert is sent once for the same project and situation.
• Ask can answer "how are my projects" with the active projects, budget used, margins, late and over-budget counts and retention held.
• Change the alert days in Set up projects. Bill what is waiting in Invoice a project.