Progress & Budgets

Projects track progress and compare actual time spent against budgeted time. This helps monitor project health and profitability.

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Progress tracking

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Task completion

Progress starts at the task level:

• Each task has a status
• Complete tasks count toward progress
• Simple calculation: completed / total

Example:

• 15 tasks in phase
• 10 tasks complete
• Phase progress: 67%

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Phase progress

Each phase calculates its own progress:

• Based on tasks within that phase
• Updates automatically when tasks complete
• Shown as percentage
• Independent of other phases

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Project progress

Overall project progress:

• Weighted average of budgeted phases
• Larger budgets have more impact
• Non-budgeted phases don’t contribute
• Shown on project card and detail page

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Progress calculation

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Weighted average formula

Project with multiple budgeted phases: Phase 1 (Design):

• Budget: 10 days
• Progress: 100% complete
• Contribution: 10 days

Phase 2 (Development):

• Budget: 30 days
• Progress: 50% complete
• Contribution: 15 days

Project total:

• Combined: 25 days of 40 days
• Progress: 62.5%

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Why weighted?

Weighting ensures:

• Larger phases have proportional impact
• 100% of small phase ≠ 100% of large phase
• Accurate reflection of work completed
• Fair representation of effort

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Budget tracking

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Budget components

Each budgeted phase has:

• Allocated minutes - Core work budget
• QA minutes - Testing budget
• Total budget - Allocated + QA
• Actual minutes - Time logged on tasks

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Viewing budget vs actual

Phase detail shows:

• Budgeted time (in days or hours)
• Actual time logged
• Remaining budget
• Over/under budget status

Example display:

• Budget: 40 days (18,000 minutes)
• Actual: 35 days (15,750 minutes)
• Remaining: 5 days (2,250 minutes)
• Status: Under budget ✓

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Over budget indicators

When actual exceeds budget:

• Visual indicator (red/warning color)
• Shows overage amount
• Helps catch budget issues early
• PM notified to review

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Time tracking

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Logging time

Time is logged against tasks:

• Each time entry links to a task
• Task belongs to a phase
• Phase aggregates all task time
• Project totals all phase time

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Real-time aggregation

Budget tracking updates automatically:

• Log time on task
• Phase actual minutes increase
• Project totals update
• Progress recalculates

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Historical tracking

All time entries preserved:

• View time logged over project lifecycle
• Compare early vs late phases
• Analyze team member contributions
• Improve future estimates

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Project health indicators

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On track

Project is healthy when:

• Progress matches timeline expectations
• Budget consumption aligns with progress
• No phases significantly over budget
• Completion date achievable

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Warning signs

Watch for:

• Actual time exceeding budget early
• Progress slower than time consumed
• Tasks consistently completing late
• Multiple phases over budget

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Taking action

If project is struggling:

• Review remaining work scope
• Assess if budget increase needed
• Communicate with client
• Adjust resources or timeline

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Monitoring workflows

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PM review cadence

Daily:

• Review time entries
• Check for late tasks
• Monitor progress updates

Weekly:

• Compare budget vs actual per phase
• Review overall project health
• Identify blockers
• Adjust schedules if needed

At phase completion:

• Finalize phase budget analysis
• Document lessons learned
• Apply insights to next phase

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Team member view

Delivery team can see:

• Their assigned tasks
• Task estimates
• Time logged so far
• Cannot see full project budget

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Reporting insights

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Budget variance

Compare final vs budgeted:

• Which phases came in under?
• Which phases went over?
• Why? (complexity, scope, unknowns)
• Apply to future estimates

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Task-level analysis

Review completed tasks:

• Estimate vs actual time
• Tasks that took longer
• Tasks that were faster
• Patterns to inform future work

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Efficiency metrics

Measure project efficiency:

• Total budget vs total actual
• Percentage over/under
• Days saved or consumed
• ROI on quoted work

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Best practices

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Common scenarios

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Scenario 1: Phase running over

Situation:

• Development phase 60% complete
• 80% of budget consumed
• 40% of work remaining

Analysis:

• Will exceed budget
• Estimate 33% overage

Actions:

1. Review remaining tasks
2. Identify scope vs estimate issues
3. Communicate with PM and client
4. Consider additional budget or scope reduction

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Scenario 2: Project ahead of schedule

Situation:

• 75% of budget used
• 85% of work complete
• Coming in under budget

Analysis:

• Efficient execution
• Good estimates
• Potential for early delivery

Actions:

1. Maintain quality standards
2. Don’t rush final 15%
3. Use extra time for polish
4. Communicate success to client

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Scenario 3: Unbudgeted work requested

Situation:

• Client wants additional features
• Not in original scope
• How to track separately?

Solution:

1. Create non-budgeted custom phase
2. Add tasks for new work
3. Log time against new phase
4. Track separate from budgeted work
5. Clear delineation for billing

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Understanding the numbers

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Day calculations

Standard conversion:

• 1 day = 450 minutes (7.5 hours)
• Used for consistency
• Matches agency working day
• QA and allocated time use same conversion

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Displaying time

Time shown in most natural unit:

• Over 1 day: shows in days (e.g., “2.5 days”)
• Under 1 day: shows in hours (e.g., “6 hours”)
• Precise calculations use minutes
• Rounded for display

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Budget precision

Budget set at project creation:

• Specified in whole or half days
• Converted to minutes for tracking
• Prevents accidental changes
• Maintains quote integrity

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Troubleshooting

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Next steps