Invoicing a job tells you what came in. It doesn’t tell you whether the job made money. The Profit tab on a project puts revenue, costs and profit side by side, and lets you set a budget so you hear about overruns before they happen.
When you’d use this
Check it while a job is running to see if you’re on track, and after it’s done to learn which kinds of work pay best. Set a budget on fixed-price jobs or any job where hours tend to creep.
How to read the Profit tab
- Open a project and go to the Profit tab (Profit & Budget).
- The top cards show Invoiced (collected and open), Costs (expenses plus labour), Profit with margin %, and Effective rate per hour along with hours logged.
- The Revenue panel shows estimate value, invoiced, collected, outstanding and unbilled time.
- The Costs panel shows expenses attached to the project, labour (logged hours × cost rate), total costs and profit.
Labour uses each teammate’s cost rate, which owners and admins set on the team member, or your workspace default cost rate in Settings → Preferences → Invoices → Rates & Fees. Hours with no rate show as “cost not set”, never as $0, so your profit isn’t quietly overstated.
How to set a budget
- In the Budget section, enter Hours, an Amount in $, or both.
- Choose what the money budget counts: Cost (the default, expenses plus labour at cost) or Billed (invoiced plus unbilled billable time, handy for fixed-fee work).
- Click Save budget. Use Clear to remove it.
Usage bars show progress on each budget, and the projects list shows a budget bar on every budgeted project. At 80% and 100%, owners and admins get an email and a team-only activity note. If you raise the budget, the alerts re-arm.
Tip: Set a workspace default cost rate first so every logged hour has a cost, even before you set individual rates.
FAQ
Can I compare all my jobs at once?
Yes. Go to Projects → Profit. It lists jobs with Invoiced, Costs, Profit, Margin, Hours and Effective rate. Toggle Most profitable / Least profitable or sort any column.
Why does a job say “cost not set”?
Some logged hours have no cost rate. Add a rate for that teammate or set the workspace default.
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