The Project Profitability report compares one project's budget with the cost of the time and expenses recorded on the project. It shows the project margin. For a budget in hours, it shows the hours left instead. It also shows how the costs built up over time. Project managers use the report to notice budget overruns early. They also use it to show a customer how much of their budget has been used.
Open the report
Go to Reports in the left menu. On the Standard tab, Project Profitability is in the Project Management group. You can also type "profitability" into Search to find it.
Click the report to open it. In the panel on the right, choose a Customer and a Project, then click Preview. The report runs for one project at a time.
You can also open the report from a project budget alert email. The email's Analyse Spend In Detail button opens this report for that project.
Choose what to include
- Customer and Project: the project to report on. Project Archive Status sets which projects the lists show: active, archived, or both.
- Project Budget based on linked Invoices: the budget is the total of the invoice lines linked to the project, minus credit notes.
- Budget Override: try a different budget without changing the project. If the project's budget is in hours, the number you enter counts as hours. For No Budget or Total Project Fees, it counts as an amount. Budget Override takes priority over Project Budget based on linked Invoices.
- Time Format: decimal hours, or hours and minutes.
- Expense Status: which expenses to count, by their billing status. Examples are Invoiced, Uninvoiced and Not Chargeable.
- Use Timesheet Billable Rate: values time at billable rates instead of cost rates. Non-billable time then counts as zero. The Cost Rate column becomes Billable Rate, and Total Cost becomes Total Billable. Use this option together with Budget Override to show a customer how much of their budget is used.
- Apply Timesheet Rounding: applies your account's timesheet rounding to the hours.
- Only include Billable Timesheets: leaves out non-billable time.
- Timesheet Status and Expense Approval Status: which entries to count. By default, the report counts time that is approved, automatically approved or invoiced. It counts expenses that are approved or automatically approved.
Read the report
Which sections the report shows depends on the project's Budget Type.
Section | When it shows | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
Customer Details | Always | The customer, project, Budget Type, Billing Method and currency |
Financial Summary | Always | The budget compared with Total Cost and Project Margin. For a budget in hours: the budget compared with tracked and remaining hours |
Accumulated Cost or Accumulated Time Tracked | Always | How timesheet and expense costs built up over time, compared with the budget line. For a budget in hours: the tracked hours |
Timesheet Details and Expense Details | No Budget and Total Project Fees | Each time entry and expense. Click a date to open the entry. Click a task to open the task. Click Link to open an expense's attachment |
Category Hours | Category Hours budgets | Budget, tracked and remaining hours per timesheet category |
Person Hours | Person Hours budgets | Budget, tracked and remaining hours per person |
Linked Invoice Items | Project Budget based on linked Invoices is ticked | The invoice lines used as the budget |
Click a name in Category Hours or Person Hours to see the time entries behind it.
The report uses the cost rate saved on each time entry. If a person has no cost rate, their time costs nothing in this report. The margin then looks better than it really is. You can change a person's rates in the project settings. When you do, you choose whether existing uninvoiced timesheets get the new rates too. By default, only new time gets the new rates. See cost rates and billable rates.
For a No Budget project, the budget is the total of the project's billable time and expenses. If the project is Not Billable, the budget is zero. To set a budget, see entering a project budget. For a full overview of the project, including invoicing, use the Project Summary report.
Save, schedule or export
To keep your parameter choices, save the report as your own copy. See saving and sharing reports. You can email a saved report on a schedule, for example as a monthly progress report. See scheduling reports for email delivery. To download the report as a file, see exporting data.
Who can see it
Administrators, Portfolio Managers and Finance Managers can run the report for any project. Project Managers can run it only for projects where they're an active member. The Customer and Project lists show only those projects. Project Managers see the figures only if they have Can manage Project Member Cost & Billable Rates on that project. If they don't, the report asks them to request access from an administrator.