Labor Cost Budgets for Non-Billable Projects

Labor Cost Budgets allow you to set a lifetime labor cost budget for a non-billable (internal) project and track internal spend as employees enter time. This helps you monitor internal initiatives and understand when a project is approaching or exceeding budget.  As time is entered, ClickTime applies labor costs using employee cost rates and draws down the remaining budget automatically.

Jump to:

• What Labor Cost Budgets are for
• How Labor Cost Budgets work
• Create or edit a Labor Cost Budget
• Track labor spend over time
• Monitor budgets in the Project Performance Dashboard
• Permissions
• Related articles

What Labor Cost Budgets are for

• Set a lifetime labor cost budget for non-billable, internal projects
• Track total labor spend across the full duration of a project
• Monitor how employee time entry impacts overall project cost
• Understand when internal initiatives are approaching or exceeding budget
• Separate cost tracking for non-billable work from revenue tracking on billable projects

How Labor Cost Budgets work

• A single lifetime labor cost budget is set on the Project Details page
• The budget applies only to non-billable projects
• As employees enter time against the project, their labor costs are applied to the budget
• Actual labor costs draw down the remaining budget automatically

Create or edit a Labor Cost Budget

You can set up a Labor Cost Budget either when you create a new non-billable project or when you edit an existing non-billable project.

Create a Labor Cost Budget on a new non-billable project

1. Go to Company > Projects.
2. Click Add Project.
3. Enter the required fields (such as Client and Project Name).
4. Under Basic Information, set Billable to Non-Billable.
5. Confirm the budget field updates from Lifetime Billings Budget to Lifetime Cost Budget (Labor Cost Budget).
   
6. Enter the Lifetime Cost Budget amount.
7. Save your changes.

Edit or add a Labor Cost Budget on an existing project

1. Go to Company > Projects.
2. Open the non-billable project you want to track.
3. On the Project Details page, enter (or update) the Lifetime Cost Budget.
4. Save your changes.

Track labor spend over time

After a labor cost budget is set, ClickTime calculates labor cost as time is entered and applies it to the budget automatically.

You can monitor progress in places such as the Project Performance Dashboard and the Project Health View (project drill-down), including:

• Total Labor Cost for a selected date range
• Labor Cost Budget Remaining
• Cost vs Budget charts (when available)

Monitor budgets in the Project Performance Dashboard

After a Labor Cost Budget is set, you can monitor project spend and budget status from the Project Performance Dashboard.

1. Go to Company > Dashboard.
2. Select Project Performance.
   
3. Click the Non-Billable Projects tab.
   

In the Non-Billable Projects view, you can track cost and budget progress using columns such as:

• Total Labor Cost
• Lifetime Cost Budget
• Budget (visual indicator)

To view deeper details for a specific project (including budget remaining and spending trends), click the View (eye) icon in the Actions column to open the Project Health View.

Permissions

Access to Labor Cost Budgets depends on which actions you need to perform.

To create or update a Labor Cost Budget

• Must have permission to add and edit projects (Project access).

To view Labor Cost Budgets in the Project Performance Dashboard

• Must have access to the Project Performance Dashboard (see here)
  • Project Insights enabled: Accounts with Project Insights enabled cannot access the Project Performance dashboard. Learn more about the Project Insights Module.
• Must have permission to view cost rates and billing rates to see the full dashboard experience.

Related articles

• Project Performance Dashboard
• Project Health View