Budget tracking
In scalenow AI you can create and manage a project budget to monitor your available and spent costs throughout a project.
You can define planned unit costs and labor costs for the project. Work packages can then be assigned to budgets. When time or costs are logged to these work packages, the expenses are allocated to the corresponding budget, allowing you to track the percentage of the budget used for the project.
Create a project budget
To create a budget in scalenow AI, ensure the Budgets module is activated in the project settings.
To add your first budget, click the orange + Budget button located at the top right of the page.
In the detailed view, you can input the specifics for your project budget, including planned unit costs and planned labor costs:
- Budget Subject: Add a clear title to easily identify the budget.
- Description: Provide detailed information, such as the budget owner, status, or additional notes.
- File Attachments: Upload supporting files by dragging and dropping them or selecting them from your file explorer.
- Fixed Date: Set a fixed date to calculate planned costs based on the configured hourly rates in a user’s profile or cost types. Since rates can vary across date ranges, the fixed date determines which rate applies for the budget calculations.
With these details configured, scalenow AI ensures precise and organised budget management for your projects.
Planned unit costs
In scalenow AI, you can add planned unit costs to a project budget, but these unit costs must first be configured in the system administration.
Steps to Add Planned Unit Costs:
- Enter Units: Specify the number of units for the cost type you want to include in your budget.
- Select Cost Type: Choose a cost type from the dropdown menu. The unit name will auto-populate based on the configuration in system administration.
- Add Comments: Provide additional details or comments to clarify the unit costs.
- Automatic Cost Calculation: The planned costs for the selected cost type will be calculated automatically, based on the configured cost per unit and the fixed date specified in your budget. The system uses the cost rate associated with the fixed date.
- Manual Adjustment: To override the calculated costs, click the edit icon (small pencil) and enter your desired value.
- Delete Costs: If needed, remove the planned unit costs by clicking the delete icon.
- Add More Cost Types: Use the + icon to include additional unit cost types in the budget.
With these steps, scalenow AI makes it easy to manage and customise planned unit costs for your project budgets.
Planned labour costs
Assign a Work Package to a Budget
To allocate time and costs for a work package to a project budget, follow these steps:
- Navigate to the detailed view of the respective work package.
- In the Costs section, select the desired budget from the dropdown menu. The list will display all budgets configured for your project.
- Once assigned, all time and costs logged for this work package will be automatically tracked against the selected budget.
This feature in scalenow AI ensures precise cost management and budget tracking for your project activities.
View and Update Budget Details
In scalenow AI, you can view and modify budget details by selecting the desired budget from the list of budgets.
Access Budget Details: Click on the budget subject to open its detailed view.
Overview:
- See a breakdown of planned and spent costs, along with available costs for variable rate budgets.
- View the total progress of the budget, represented as the ratio of spent costs to the budgeted amount.
- The fixed rate used for calculating labor and unit costs is also displayed.
Update Budget: Make adjustments to planned unit costs or planned labor costs as needed.
Copy Budget: Use the current budget configuration as a template to create a new budget.
Delete Budget: Remove the budget if it is no longer needed.
Detailed Information:
- Planned unit costs are listed in the details view.
- Work packages assigned to the budget with actual unit costs booked are displayed.
- Planned labor costs for the budget are shown.
- Actual labor costs include all work packages assigned to the budget that have logged time against it.
This comprehensive budget management feature in scalenow AI ensures efficient tracking, updating, and monitoring of project finances.
