Costs and budget
Desktop Plan keeps three kinds of cost for each task, and a budget for the whole plan. You don’t have to use any of them.
How to set the budget and currency#
Choose Project › Edit project… (or click Edit project on the ribbon).
- Estimated budget: what the project is allowed to cost. The dashboard compares the tasks’ costs with this figure.
- Baseline budget: the budget as first agreed, for your records.
- Currency symbol:
$,£,€, or whatever you use. Number format: how amounts are written. Each choice shows itself, so pick the one that looks right to you:
Choice Used in, for example 1,234,567.89the US, the UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, much of Asia 1.234.567,89the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Brazil 1 234 567,89France, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Poland, South Africa 1'234'567.89Switzerland 12,34,567.89India, Pakistan, Bangladesh - Symbol: before the amount (
€5,00), before it with a space (€ 5,00), or after it (5,00 €). - Decimals: two, or none for currencies that are written whole, such as the yen.
The line under these choices shows how money will look, for example Money shows as € 1.234.567,89.
A new plan starts with the symbol and number format your Windows region uses, so in the Netherlands it starts as € 1.234,56. These settings belong to the plan, not to your computer: anyone who opens the plan sees its amounts written the same way, wherever they are. Changing them changes how amounts are written, never the amounts themselves, and Undo takes a change back.
Each change is kept as soon as you move to the next box. Enter keeps it and takes you to the next box, as in Excel; Shift+Enter goes back.
The cost columns#
Switch these on in Settings › Columns:
| Column | What it is | Typed or worked out? |
|---|---|---|
| Estimated cost | What you expect the task to cost. | You type it. |
| Actual cost | What it really cost. | You type it. |
| Baseline cost | The estimate when you set the baseline. | Copied by Set baseline, or typed. |
| Resource cost | The people’s rates × the hours they spend on the task. | Worked out, can’t be typed. |
Type amounts the way the plan writes them. In a plan set to 1,234,567.89 that is 1250, 1,250.00 or $1,250; in one set to 1.234.567,89 it is 1250, 1.250,00 or € 1.250, and the Dutch and German € 5,- means five. An amount written the other way, such as 1,5 in the first or 1.5 in the second, is refused rather than guessed at, and the message shows an amount the plan would take. A cost can’t be negative. An empty cell means not costed yet, which is different from 0.
With Decimals set to none, amounts are shown whole, but a cost typed with cents keeps them: click into the cell to see the exact figure.
Phases add up the costs of the tasks inside them.
The Estimated cost is yours to type. It isn’t filled in from the people’s rates. Use Resource cost to see what the people on a task cost. The dashboard counts the people’s cost for any task that has no Estimated cost typed (see below).
How people’s rates become a cost#
Give each person a Rate per hour (or per day) in the Resources panel. A task’s Resource cost is then each assigned person’s rate × the hours they spend on it, added up. Two people on a 2-day task at $70 an hour cost 2 × 16 hours × $70 = $2,240. If one of them is on it half-time (an allocation of 50%), they spend 8 hours on it, and the task costs $1,120 + $560 = $1,680. See People and resources.
Watching the budget#
The Cost dial on the dashboard shows the total estimated cost as a percentage of the estimated budget. For each task it counts the Estimated cost you typed, or, where you typed none, what the task’s people cost, and then the dial says Includes people’s rates. So a plan costed only through the people’s rates still shows its cost. It is green while you are within budget and red when you are over. Oakfield Villa Build is at 98%, with $6,600 to spare.
The dashboard page also has a Cost chart (baseline, estimated and actual cost for each phase) and a Planned spend by month chart. See The dashboard.