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Every week, spend fifteen minutes on this. It is the cheapest habit in the product. A project rarely fails suddenly. It drifts for six weeks, and then it is out of money. The signals are visible from about week three, and this check finds them.
The example: Harbor Logistics – Mobile App. An hours budget of 600 hours. Priya Raman (Project Manager) runs the check every Monday.

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Before you start

Plan requirement. Budgets and profitability are Pro. Setting a cost rate is also Pro, and without cost rates there is no margin to read. Billable rates stay free. See Free vs Pro.
Seeing cost and margin is also a permission question, not only a plan question. time.viewCost and rate.viewCost decide who can see what a person costs. Members do not have them. See Rate permissions.

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The three numbers

Burn on its own tells you nothing. Burn compared against how much of the work is done is the whole signal.

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The weekly check

1

Open the project and read the burn

Harbor at the end of week 9:→ Project overview page · How budgets work
2

Ask how much of the work is actually done

This is the number the product cannot read for you. Look at your sections and count what is finished.Priya’s honest answer: about 40% of the mobile app is done.55% of the budget bought 40% of the project. That is the warning.→ Project sections
3

Forecast the finish

If 330 hours delivered 40%, the whole job needs about 825 hours (330 ÷ 0.40).That is 225 hours over the 600 hour budget. At this pace Harbor overruns by 37.5%.Priya now has a decision to make while there are still 270 hours in the budget, instead of a crisis in week 15 with nothing left.
4

Read the margin

Hours over budget cost you money only if the work is unprofitable. Check the margin.Margin: 36,600−36,600 − 17,550 = $19,050, or 52.0%.The work Northwind has done is profitable. The problem is not the rate, it is the volume. That points at scope, not at pricing.→ Calculate project profitability
5

Check who is doing the work

Build a report grouped by person and task. Look for expensive people on cheap work.If Jonas at 120anhourhas40hoursontasksSarahcoulddoat120 an hour has 40 hours on tasks Sarah could do at 100, that is $800 of margin given away for nothing.→ Build a report · Grouping and pivots
6

Do one thing about it

The check is worthless if nothing changes. Pick one:→ Assignees · Set a project budget

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Early warning signs

Any two of these together mean the project needs attention this week.
Let the product watch the first one for you. Budget alerts fire at 50%, 75%, 90% and 100%. See Budget alerts.

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Set up the check once

Do this once and the weekly fifteen minutes becomes five.
1

Put a budget on every project

A project with no budget cannot be off track, because there is nothing to be off. Fenwick Legal – Brand Refresh has no budget, and that is a real choice, but it means nobody is watching it.→ Set a project budget · Hours vs money budgets
2

Turn budget alerts on

So the 50% crossing finds you rather than the other way round.→ Budget alerts
3

Save one profitability report

Group by client, then project. Show hours, billable value, cost and margin. Save it, and it reruns with fresh numbers whenever you open it.→ Build a report · Saved reports
4

Schedule it to arrive every Monday

Have the report emailed to Priya and Maya on Monday morning, so the check happens even in a busy week.→ Schedule a report

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Hours budget or money budget?

The two behave differently, and that changes what “over budget” means. Harbor uses hours because it is a capacity commitment. Bluebird’s redesign uses money because it is a fixed $40,000. → Hours vs money budgets

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Common questions

Either no cost rate is set for the people on the project, or your role cannot see cost. Cost rates need rate.manage to set and rate.viewCost to read. Members do not have them. See Cost rates and Rate permissions.
Cost, revenue and margin already recorded stay readable on Free. What Pro gates is setting a new cost rate. So you keep your history, but you cannot price new people until you upgrade. See Free vs Pro.
On a money budget, the entries may have no billable value because there is no rate on their date. On an hours budget, check the entries are actually attached to this project. See How budgets work.
For margin on a project, yes – the hours cost you money whether or not you bill them. That is exactly why a rising non-billable share is a warning sign. See Billable vs non-billable.
No. Cost, margin and budget are internal. A client portal contact sees only what is explicitly shared with their company. See What clients can see.

Quote to invoice

Where the estimate and the invoice separate.

Run a monthly retainer

Watching a budget that resets every month.

Month-end close

The monthly version of this check.

Track work for a client

Where the budget gets set in the first place.

Manage contractors

Contractor hours and what they do to margin.