Once you or your team accurately tracks time against the project, you can use the Project Dashboard to view your progress status.

Select what “project” you’re working on.

It takes a few seconds to switch the timer to a different task (especially if projects and tasks are already set up). You and your team can quickly start tracking your time against the project by entering a time entry description and hitting the timer button. Once you’ve added all tasks, you can add time estimates for each.Īdding estimates for each task will automatically calculate your total project time estimate (remaining hours).

Enter the fixed fee (your total estimated cost)Ĭlick on the project you’ve just created and head to the ‘Tasks’ dashboard.Īdd each project task and hit enter.Select task-based estimate (click ‘Estimates and billing options).Head to the Project tab and click ‘+ New project’ in the top right-hand corner and: Follow this simple process to track your project budget with Toggl Track today. It’s time to ditch the budget tracking spreadsheet. How to track your project budget in Toggl Track Using Toggl Track, you can track project performance and assess project profitability in real-time. Unlike spreadsheets, many of the best time tracking apps come with features that help to automate and streamline the entire project budget-tracking process. Project time tracking software is the best for keeping track of hours worked - especially for teams that work on client projects and tasks all day. Thanks to time tracking software, tracking project budgets have never been more manageable. You’re unable to quickly get insights you can leverage (more on this later).People don’t tend to fill them in all that much.Project budgeting software - the better alternativeĪre spreadsheets your best option for tracking the budget of a project?ĭon’t get me wrong - our project budget template is solid.īut I’ve chatted with a few agencies and freelancers that use spreadsheets to track their time – and they always say how chaotic they are. estimated costs as part of your general project management process. Project budget tracking – The obvious one! Use this budget spreadsheet template to track actual vs.Projecting cost estimation – Use the template as part of your cost estimation process to create a baseline budget for your clients.Transfer the tasks over once done to set your baseline project budget. Work Breakdown Structure – Use a WBS to establish what tasks (and how long they will take) for each client project.Here are a few scenarios in which you can put this template to good use. Once you’ve completed the project and tracked time against all tasks, the total project cost and profit will be displayed at the template’s bottom (and top). Note: The task dropdown inside the ‘Tracker’ tab automatically pulls in the tasks you entered in the ‘Budget’ tab. This will automatically update the ‘Actual hours’ and ‘Actual cost’ columns in the ‘Budget’ tab within the template. Once you’ve done this, you can start tracking time for each project task via the ‘Tracker’ tab inside the project budget template.Įnter it here whenever you or your team spend time on a specific project task. This will then calculate their estimated cost based on the hourly rate you enter. Note: this template works best if you follow the project estimation process in our project cost estimating post. The first step is to enter the project tasks and their estimates inside the ‘Budget’ tab. How to track a project budget with this template The cell on the right-hand side will show you how the project is making or costing you as you track hours against each task. The total for all columns will be displayed at the bottom of the spreadsheet.

The profitability for each task will be automatically calculated based on actual hours minus estimated hours. The estimated cost will be automatically calculated based on the hourly rate you enter.Īctual hours and costs are automatically generated once you start tracking time on the project. Estimates and actualsĮstimated hours are based on the hours you and your team estimated for each task when you scoped the project out. This will then update the progress bar in green above. The status of each task can be updated as the project progresses.

This will help to know who is accountable for each task. How to Create a Work Breakdown Structure in 6 Steps Assigned to and statusĪssign each task an owner if need be.

Budgeting spreadsheet template