Project costs and figures
Follow a project's figures and cost ledger
See what a project has earned and cost, its margin, the figures by task, and every ledger line charged to it.
3 min readLast updated
In this article
Every figure on a project page is read from the ledger lines charged to the project. Nothing is typed in by hand, so the project agrees with the books at all times, and a correction in the books shows on the project straight away.
Open a project's figures
Open Projects › Projects.
Open the project. The Overview tab opens.
What the overview shows
Contract value: the value agreed with the client, for comparison.
Revenue to date: income charged to the project, from sales invoices, receipts and journal entries.
Cost to date: everything the job has used, which is the cost of activity plus the other expenses charged to it.
Margin: what is left of the revenue after the cost, as a percentage of revenue.
Held for the project: stock and other balances bought for the project and not yet used, such as material in the store. It is not counted as cost until it is used.
Revenue and cost by task: the revenue, cost and margin amount of each task, with No task for amounts charged without one. A negative margin, in red, shows a part of the job whose cost is not yet covered by what has been billed for it.
How amounts are classified follows your chart of accounts: revenue accounts are revenue, cost-of-activity accounts and other expense accounts are cost, and asset and liability accounts are balances held for the project.
The cost ledger
Open the Cost ledger tab to see every line charged to the project, newest first: the Date, the Entry number, the Account, the Task, the Debit or Credit and the Note of the document.
Choose From and To to look at one period.
Choose a task to see only its lines, or All tasks.
Use the ledger to check a figure on the overview: the lines in the ledger add up to it.
Common questions
Why is a purchase not in the cost? Stock bought for the project is held for it until it is used, so it shows under Held for the project, not in Cost.
The figures differ from the trial balance. The project shows only lines charged to it. Lines without a project, such as cash, tax and supplier balances, are in the trial balance but never on a project.