Forecast project budget

In addition to tracking time spent on projects and tasks, Clockify allows you to forecast the budget allocated to each project or task. This feature helps you plan your budget in advance and prepare for future projects.

This feature is available to all admin users with a Pro and higher subscription plans and during Free trial.

To enable project budget estimation, project billability needs to be activated in the Workspace settings.

To enable billability:

1. Open Workspace settings
2. Go to Billable hours section in Permissions tab
3. Turn on Activate billable hours 

This way, all the entries created on that workspace will be marked as billable, allowing you to set a budget and effectively monitor expenses.

You can customize billability settings for specific projects as needed.

To enable project billability:

1. Open the Projects page in the sidebar
2. Choose the project you wish to configure
3. Navigate to the Settings tab 
4. In the Billable by default section, toggle the switch to enable billability

With this setting, all tasks created for that project will automatically be billable.

Now, you can proceed and set up a project budget. 

To set up project budget: 

1. Navigate to the Projects page
2. Select the desired project from the list
3. Click on the Settings tab
4. In the Project estimate section, select Project budget from the dropdown menu

If you are manually tracking the budget, don’t forget to set the applicable rate.

Budget estimation details #

• The budget forecasting chart is made out of the values on the X and Y axes, with the intersection representing the data points
• All numerical values follow your Workspace settings for formatting
• Values are displayed with two decimal places, and the currency is determined by your Workspace settings or a specific client

Y axis:

• Represents monetary values (amount of money)
• The minimal value is where the two axes first intersect, while the maximal value is the highest point on the chart within the selected date range
• Only numbers are shown, excluding currency symbols

X axis:

• Displays dates, with the time range adjustable at the top right corner of the page
• Horizontal line above the Y axis represents the project’s budget. This status line adjusts if the project’s budget changes, including weekly, monthly, or annual resets.

When the project’s budget is exceeded, the forecasted line will continue beyond the estimated budget line, reflecting continued expenses.

For example: If the budget for the initial months of the year was $5,000 and $150 was spent, the budget line will be positioned on the chart according to its value relative to the Y axis. 

Check out Forecasting project budget chart for more details.