Project Costs

1. Understanding the Bill of Costs

The Costs panel is available on each project card for Project Manager and Admin users. It provides a fixed-format cost tracking table called the Bill of Costs.

Unlike a freeform spreadsheet, the Bill of Costs has a predefined set of seven cost categories — one row per category, no adding or deleting rows. This keeps cost data consistent across all projects and simplifies reporting.

Each row has three value columns:

  • Baseline — the approved budget for that category
  • Forecast — your current estimate of what will be spent
  • Actual — what has been spent to date

All values are whole numbers (no decimals). When you type a number, it displays with comma formatting (e.g., 12,500) automatically.

The Costs panel has its own Save button — cost changes are saved independently from the main project fields.

2. Cost Categories Explained

Every project’s Bill of Costs contains the same seven categories:

  1. Category
  2. Consulting
  3. Travel & Expenses
  4. Meetings
  5. Giveaways
  6. Training
  7. Software/Hardware
  8. Other

Categories cannot be added, removed, or renamed — they are fixed across all projects. If a category doesn’t apply to your project, simply leave its values at zero.

The Other category serves as a catch-all for costs that don’t fit the first six categories.

3. Setting a Cost Baseline

The baseline represents your approved budget. Before setting it, only the Baseline column is editable — the Forecast and Actual columns are grayed out and cannot receive input.

To set the baseline:

  1. Enter your baseline values for each cost category
  2. Click the lock icon next to the “Baseline” column header
  3. A confirmation modal appears — this action cannot be undone
  4. Confirm to lock the baseline

What happens when you set the baseline:

  • All current Baseline values are saved automatically before the lock takes effect
  • The Baseline column becomes read-only — values are permanently locked
  • The Forecast and Actual columns become editable — they were previously disabled
  • The lock icon disappears

This workflow ensures you establish an approved budget before tracking begins. Since the lock is permanent, make sure your baseline values are correct before confirming.

4. Tracking Forecast and Actual Costs

Once the baseline is locked, the Forecast and Actual columns become available for ongoing cost tracking.

  • Forecast — update this as your cost expectations change during the project. Compare against the Baseline to see whether you’re trending over or under budget per category.
  • Actual — update this as costs are incurred. Compare against both Baseline (original budget) and Forecast (current expectation) to track spending accuracy.

Editing values:

  • Click a field to edit — comma formatting is temporarily removed so you can type a plain number
  • When you click away, the value reformats with commas
  • All values are rounded to the nearest whole number

Remember to click the Save button on the Costs panel after making changes. Cost fields are independent of the main project save bar — changes here won’t trigger the project-level “unsaved changes” prompt, and the project save bar won’t save your cost edits.