{"id":126,"date":"2018-01-25T12:27:44","date_gmt":"2018-01-25T12:27:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/?p=126"},"modified":"2026-01-05T07:16:48","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T07:16:48","slug":"tracking-project-profitability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/projects\/tracking-project-profitability","title":{"rendered":"Set up project rates &amp; estimates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>If you\u2019re working on a fixed-fee project, tracking time is crucial to determining your actual cost and maintaining profitability. Knowing the actual time spent, you can assess the accuracy of your original estimates and set better prices for future work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>For example:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"translation-block\"><em>A project has a fixed price and will take <\/em><strong><em>50 hours<\/em><\/strong><em> to finish (e.g., 20h for design, 30h for coding). If the work takes <\/em><strong><em>70 hours<\/em><\/strong><em> to complete, which is <strong>20 hours<\/strong> more than the initial estimate, then you know you went over the estimate.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Time tracking allows you to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Negotiate with the client for a higher price or less work, if necessary<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use accurate data to set better estimates for future projects, ensuring you maintain profitability<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Before starting the project, configure your Clockify workspace to accurately categorize and track time entries. You can do this by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"translation-block\">Creating <a href=\"https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/track-time-and-expenses\/categorizing-time-entries#create-tags\">tags<\/a> to represent different types of activities (e.g., project management).&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"translation-block\">Specifying the client&#8217;s name on the <a href=\"https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/projects\/creating-projects#managing-clients\">Clients<\/a> page.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Set manual project estimate<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"translation-block\">1. Go to the <strong>Projects <\/strong>page<br>2. Click on a project<br>3. Click <strong>Settings<\/strong><br>4. Select <strong>Manual<\/strong> under <strong>Project Estimate<\/strong><br>5. Enter the number of hours&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"384\" src=\"https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Manual-project-estimate.gif\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-28240\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Set task-based estimate<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"translation-block\">1. Go to <strong>Project settings<\/strong><br>2. Select <strong>Task-based<\/strong> under <strong>Project estimate<\/strong><br>3. Set it to recur and include non-billable time (optional)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"384\" src=\"https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Task-based-estimate.gif\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-28241\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"translation-block\">4. Go to the <strong>Tasks<\/strong> tab<br>5. Set an estimate for each task on the list<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"384\" src=\"https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Set-estimate-per-task.gif\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-28242\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Set project billable rate<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"translation-block\">1. Go to <strong>Project settings<\/strong><br>2. Click <strong>Change<\/strong> under <strong>Project billable rate<\/strong><br>3. Enter the amount<br>4. Click <strong>Save<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"384\" src=\"https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Set-project-billable-rate.gif\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-28243\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Set cost rate<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"note translation-block\">Cost rate is a paid feature, which you can enable by upgrading your workspace to <a href=\"https:\/\/clockify.me\/pricing\">Pro or Enterprise plan<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"translation-block\">1. Go to <strong>Workspace settings<\/strong><br>2. Enable <strong>Activate cost rate<\/strong> under <strong>Cost and profit analysis<br><\/strong>3. Click <strong>Change<\/strong><br>4. Enter the cost rate<br>5. Click <strong>Save<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"384\" src=\"https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Set-cost-rate.gif\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-28244\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Tips for accurate estimates:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Make sure every time entry is associated with the correct project and a specific task when tracking time.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Check the project status to compare estimated time versus tracked time when reaching milestones.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Generate project report<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>When a project is done, use reports to analyze profitability and refine your future workflow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"translation-block\">1. Go to <strong>Reports<\/strong><br>2. Select <strong>Summary Report<\/strong><br>3. Apply the necessary filters, such as filtering by a specific project.<br>4. Open the <strong>Show All <\/strong>settings dropdown and verify that the <strong>Show Amount<\/strong>, <strong>Show Cost<\/strong>, and <strong>Show Profit<\/strong> options are all selected.<br>5. Click the <strong>Export<\/strong> dropdown menu and select <strong>Save as CSV<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"732\" height=\"366\" src=\"https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Generate-report.gif\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-28245\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>From the generated report, you can analyze data to help identify activities that exceeded the planned duration, find the cause, and improve future estimates and pricing.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"502\" src=\"https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Analyze-report-1024x502.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-28246\" srcset=\"https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Analyze-report-1024x502.png 1024w, https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Analyze-report-300x147.png 300w, https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Analyze-report-768x376.png 768w, https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Analyze-report-1536x753.png 1536w, https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Analyze-report-18x9.png 18w, https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Analyze-report.png 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"tip translation-block\">Within the reports, you can examine figures for billing, cost, or<a href=\"https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/reports\/labor-cost\"> profit<\/a><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group related-articles\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Related articles<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list related-articles-list\">\n<li class=\"translation-block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/reports\/hourly-rates\">Overview of hourly rates<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"translation-block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/reports\/labor-cost\">Cost rate<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"translation-block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/projects\/creating-projects\">Create projects &amp; clients<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"translation-block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/projects\/working-with-tasks\">Use tasks<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"translation-block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/track-time-and-expenses\/categorizing-time-entries\">Time categorization &amp; tags<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re working on a fixed-fee project, tracking time is crucial to determin&#8230;","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_helpful_status":1,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-manage-projects"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"helpadmin","author_link":"https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/author\/helpadmin"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126"}],"version-history":[{"count":52,"href":"https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28304,"href":"https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions\/28304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clockify.me\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}