Most budget overruns don’t happen at the end of a project — they happen quietly in the middle, and are only noticed when the invoice is due. Tracking a project budget means comparing what you’ve spent with what you planned, while there’s still time to act. Here’s how to set it up.
Two kinds of budget
- Hours budget — how many hours the project should take. Easy for the team to understand and to check day by day.
- Money budget — the total cost or value of the project, including labour and expenses. The number that matters for profit.
Use both. Clocknico lets you set a budget in hours and a budget amount on every project. The project list shows the percentage of the hours budget used; the project’s profitability page compares costs with the budget amount.
Step 1: Build the estimate from past data
The best estimate for a new project is what similar projects actually took. If you’ve been tracking time per project and task, your reports already contain that history. Add a buffer for unknowns — 10–20% is common.
Step 2: Split big projects into phases
A single budget for a six-month project tells you very little until it’s too late. Split it into sub-projects — for example “Discovery”, “Design”, “Build”, “Launch” — each with its own hours. In Clocknico, sub-projects roll up into their parent, so you see both the phase and the whole project.
Step 3: Track all time and expenses against the project
Budgets only work if everything lands in the right place: all hours (billable or not), and all project expenses such as travel, licences or subcontractors, with receipts attached.
Step 4: Check progress vs. budget weekly
A simple rule of thumb: compare percentage of budget used with percentage of work done. If you’ve used 60% of the hours and delivered 40% of the work, you have a problem — and you know about it with 40% of the project still ahead.
Step 5: Act early
- Scope grew? Raise a change request with the client before doing the extra work.
- Estimate was wrong? Tell the client early, and adjust future estimates.
- Inefficiency? Look at which tasks overran and why.
Step 6: Review after delivery
When the project ends, compare budget with actuals per phase. That review is what makes your next estimate better. Clocknico’s Profitability page shows revenue, labour cost, expenses, profit and margin for each project, next to its budget.
Budget tracking checklist
- Hours budget and money budget on every project
- Large projects split into sub-projects
- All time tracked to the project, billable or not
- Expenses logged with receipts
- Weekly check: % budget used vs. % work done
- Post-project review
Project budgets, sub-projects, expenses and profitability are included in every Clocknico plan — free for teams of up to 5 users.