In Projects, budgets help you plan, monitor, and control financial performance depending on how a project is billed and delivered.

There are three budget types available:

1. Time & Materials
2. Fixed price
3. No budget

Time & Materials budget

A Time & Materials (T&M) project is billed based on tracked hours and rates. The budget evolves as work is logged, giving you real-time visibility into costs, billable amounts, and profitability.

You can configure how the budget is monitored from the project settings.

How to configure a Time & Materials budget

1. Go to project → Settings → Financial details
2. In the Time & Materials section, you can choose:
   1. How the budget is monitored
   2. How it is structured (Project or Phases)

Monitor budget based on tracked hours

In Time & Materials projects, the budget is monitored based on:

• Tracked hours
• Cost rates and bill rates
• Fixed and variable costs

As team members log time, the project automatically updates:

• Used vs total budget
• Registered vs estimated cost
• Current vs estimated profit

Time & Materials Budget structure options

Project budget

With a Project budget, you define one single budget for the entire project.

All tracked hours, costs, and billable amounts contribute to the same total.

Use a Project budget when:

• The project is managed as one scope
• You don’t need financial limits per phase
• You want a simple, high-level view of performance

Phase budget

With a Phase budget, you define a separate budget for each phase.

The total project budget is the sum of all phase budgets, and tracking is done per phase. You have to go to phases and set up each Phase information directly there in the “Go to Phases” link

Use a Phase budget when:

• The project is delivered in distinct stages
• Each phase has its own scope or constraints
• You want more granular financial control

What you can track in Time & Materials projects

Depending on your configuration, you can track:

• Estimated hours
• Estimated cost
• Fixed costs
• Estimated client budget (expected revenue)
• Billable-to-date amount
• Current and estimated profit

All values update automatically as time and costs are registered.

Fixed price budget

A Fixed price project is billed for a pre-agreed amount, regardless of the number of hours worked. The focus is on tracking costs and profitability, not on billing based on time.

In Fixed price projects, Factorial helps you understand whether the project is profitable compared to the agreed income.

How Fixed price budgets work

In a Fixed price project:

• Income is defined upfront (flat fee)
• Costs increase as work is delivered
• Profit is calculated as:
• Income − Total cost

Tracked hours are still important, but they are used to:

• Calculate labor cost
• Monitor overspending
• Understand project efficiency

They do not affect the billed amount.

How to configure a Fixed price budget

1. Go to Projects → Settings → Financial details
2. Select Fixed price as the budget type.

Fixed price budget structure options

As with Time & Materials, you can choose how to structure the budget:

Project budget

With a Project budget, you define the budget at project level.

You can configure:

• Estimated total cost (including fixed costs)
• Fixed cost
• Income (the agreed project price)

All costs are tracked against this single budget.

Use this option when:

• The project is managed as one scope
• You don’t need financial tracking per phase

Phase budget

With a Phase budget, you define a separate budget for each phase. You need to set up each phase in the Phases tab of the project, just follow the “Go to phase” link.

Each phase has its own:

• Estimated cost
• Fixed cost (if applicable)
• Share of the total project cost

The total project budget is the sum of all phase budgets.

Use this option when:

• The project is delivered in milestones
• You want to identify which phase is over or under budget

What you can track in Fixed price projects

In the project overview, you can monitor:

• Registered vs planned cost
• Current vs estimated profit
• Overspending alerts
• Tracked hours (for cost control)
• Cost evolution over time

This gives you a clear picture of whether the project is:

• On budget
• At risk
• Or already unprofitable

No budget

A No budget project lets you track work and financials without setting budget limits.

This option is designed for teams that want visibility, not control: you can see costs, billable amounts, and profit, but the project is not constrained by a predefined budget.

How No budget projects work

In a No budget project:

• No estimated cost, hours, or client budget is required
• There are no budget limits or alerts
• Work can continue regardless of cost or time spent

As the project progresses, Factorial still tracks:

• Tracked hours
• Labor cost
• Fixed and variable costs
• Billable-to-date amount (if the project is billable)
• Current profit and profit margin

This gives you full transparency without enforcing financial thresholds.

How to configure a No budget project

1. Go to Project → Settings → Financial details
2. Select No budget.

You can still choose how to structure the project:

• Project → tracking at project level
• Phases → tracking per phase (without budget limits). You need to go to set up Phases in the Phases tab of the project.

Optionally, you can:

• Add fixed costs
• Mark the project as billable

What you can see in No budget projects

In the project overview, you’ll see:

• Billable-to-date
• Cost-to-date
• Current profit and profit margin
• Tracked hours
• Cost breakdown and cost evolution over time

Unlike other budget types:

• There is no “used vs total budget”
• There are no overspending indicators

The focus is on monitoring, not enforcement.