Set up a project and watch its margin

Create it

Projects → New project.

·Project name is the only required field.

·Contract amount — what the client is paying. This is the revenue you expect.

·Budget cost — what you expect it to cost you. The gap between these two is your planned margin.

·Client name, start and end date, project code are optional.

Break it into stages

Open the project and go to Stages → + Add stage. Each stage takes a planned cost, a planned revenue and a progress percentage.

Stages are what make Overall progress and Budget used mean anything. Without them a project is one number that moves when somebody remembers to move it.

Where the real numbers come from

You do not type actual cost. It arrives on its own:

·Categorise a bank transaction and tag it to the project.

·Enter a bill from a supplier against the project.

·Log hours under Time & subcontractors.

The Overview section then shows Billed, Collected, Yet to bill and Not yet invoiced against your contract, and margin against your budget. Over budget by appears in red the moment it happens rather than at the end.

Time and subcontractors

+ Add entry logs hours or a fixed amount per stage, against a worker or a vendor. When you are ready to pay a subcontractor, generate a bill from what is logged instead of retyping it.

Billing the client