Budget vs actual: what a project dashboard should show

A good project budget dashboard answers one question per project: will it finish within budget? To do that it needs five numbers: budget vs actual, the share of budget spent against the share of work done, a forecast at completion, margin, and work not yet invoiced.

Many project reports stop at budget vs actual. Knowing that a project has used most of its budget says little on its own; a project that is nearly done and nearly spent is fine, while one that is half done and nearly spent is in trouble. The rest of the dashboard exists to tell those two apart early, while there is still time to talk to the client.

The numbers that belong on the dashboard

Number	The question it answers	How it is worked out	Warning sign
Budget vs actual	How much has been used?	Recorded cost or hours against the budget	Actual rising faster than planned
Burn vs progress	Is spending running ahead of delivery?	Share of budget spent against share of work complete	Spent share well ahead of progress
Forecast at completion	Where will it land?	Actual to date plus estimated cost to complete	Forecast above budget
Margin	Is it still profitable?	Expected revenue minus forecast cost	Margin shrinking week on week
Unbilled work	What is done but not invoiced?	Billable time and costs recorded but not yet invoiced	Unbilled total growing month on month

Keep the same numbers on every project, in the same order. A dashboard is useful because it can be scanned; a different layout per project defeats that.

Budget vs actual, done properly

Budget vs actual compares what a project was planned to cost, in hours or money, with what has been recorded so far. The difference is the variance. Three habits make the comparison trustworthy:

• Break the budget down. A total for the whole project hides where the overrun is. Budget per phase, or per deliverable, and compare at that level too.
• Record actuals promptly. A dashboard is as current as the last timesheet. Weekly time entry is the minimum; daily is better.
• Include costs, not just hours. Subcontractors, travel and materials count against the budget. The guide to tracking project expenses and receipts covers how to keep them attached to the right project.

The broader routine of setting a budget and checking it through the life of a project is in the guide to tracking a project budget.

Burn against progress

This is the number that catches trouble early. Compare the share of the budget spent with the share of the work complete. If a project has spent half its budget and is roughly half done, it is on track. If it has spent three quarters and is half done, it will overrun unless something changes.

Progress is the hard part to measure honestly. Hours logged are not progress. Use something you can check: deliverables accepted, milestones reached, tasks closed. A rough but honest estimate beats a precise one built on hours alone.

Forecast at completion

The forecast takes what has been spent so far and adds an estimate of what is left to do. Ask the person doing the work for the remaining estimate, not the original plan; the original plan is what the budget already says.

When the forecast moves above the budget, the dashboard should make that visible. That is the moment to look for scope that crept in without being priced. The guide to handling change orders on client projects explains how to turn extra requests into agreed changes instead of silent overruns.

Margin and the billing model

What margin means depends on how the project is billed:

• Fixed fee. Revenue is set, so every extra hour comes straight out of margin. Burn against progress matters most here.
• Time and materials. Revenue grows with hours, so the risk shifts to hours that cannot be billed and to clients pushing back on the total.
• Capped or retainer work. Watch both: the cap and the hours used against it.

The trade-offs between the models are covered in fixed fee vs time and materials.

Billable time and unbilled work

Two people-side numbers round out the picture. Utilization is billable hours divided by available hours, per person or per team. Realization, in one common definition, is hours invoiced divided by billable hours recorded; it shows how much recorded work actually reaches an invoice. The guide to tracking billable hours explains how to record time so both numbers are reliable.

Unbilled work, sometimes called work in progress, is billable time and costs recorded but not yet invoiced. A growing unbilled total is a cash problem in the making, even on a profitable project.

Design rules for the dashboard itself

1. One row per project, with the numbers in columns, so a manager can scan them in a minute.
2. Flag, do not just display. Mark any project whose forecast exceeds budget or whose burn runs well ahead of progress. Never rely on color alone; add a label or icon.
3. Show the trend. A number that was fine last week and worse this week matters more than a number that has been slightly off for months.
4. Link to the detail. Every flagged number should lead to the phase, the people and the entries behind it.
5. Review it on a fixed day. A weekly fifteen-minute review beats a dashboard nobody opens.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between budget variance and forecast variance?

Budget variance compares the budget with what has been spent so far. Forecast variance compares the budget with where the project is expected to land. The second is more useful mid-project, because it includes the work still to do.

How often should a project budget be reviewed?

Weekly suits many client projects, with a quick look whenever a large cost or change request lands. Monthly is generally too slow to fix a fixed-fee project before the margin is gone.

What is a project profitability report?

It compares a project's revenue with its full cost, including people's time at an internal cost rate and any direct expenses. Run it during the project to steer, and again at the end to price the next one better.

What is a good utilization rate?

There is no single answer. It depends on the role, since managers and sales staff bill less, and on how much time goes to internal work. Track the trend per person rather than chasing a benchmark.