Track a project's budget against actual
Set budget lines for a project, match transactions to them, and run the feasibility calculator.
On this page
Open the Finance Model tab
Open the project. Click the Finance Model tab.
The sub-tabs are Overview, Transactions, Timeline, Loans, Duty & Fees, Feasibility and Attachments.
Set the budget
On Overview, click Add budget line. Pick the Category, type the Label and the Budgeted amount. Add the Xero account code if you want transactions matched by code.
Click Categories to add your own cost categories. Revenue is fixed and cannot be renamed.
Click Stamp duty & fees to add the duty and title fees for the purchase as budget lines.
Finance Model
Budget vs Actual
| Category | Label | Budgeted | Actual | Variance | Tasks | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acquisition | Land purchase | -$8,200,000.00 | -$8,200,000.00 | $0.00 | ||
| Construction | Head contract - superstructure | -$12,400,000.00 | - | - | ||
| Professional Fees | Architect and engineering | -$980,000.00 | -$74,000.00 | +$906,000.00 | ||
| Finance Costs | Senior debt interest | -$1,650,000.00 | - | - | ||
| Contingency | Construction contingency (8%) | -$992,000.00 | - | - | ||
| Revenue | Apartment presales | $31,500,000.00 | $3,200,000.00 | -$28,300,000.00 | ||
| Total | $7,278,000.00 | -$5,074,000.00 | -$12,352,000.00 | |||
Match transactions
Click Transactions. Connect Xero under Admin, then Xero, to pull the bank feed in. Without Xero, add transactions by hand.
Pick the budget line for each transaction. Actual and Variance on Overview update.
Plan the project
Click Timeline. It groups the project's tasks by phase, and each phase has its own colour. Click a phase's row to fold it away or open it again.
Click a task to edit it. Set its Category (phase), its dates, Shown as (Job or Task), Budget hrs and Forecast hrs. A phase adds up the hours of its tasks.
List shows every row with its dates and hours. Timeline draws each one as a bar against the dates, with today marked in red. Switch between Days, Weeks and Months beside the range.
Turn All jobs or All tasks off to hide that kind of row.
Nothing records time against a task yet, so Actual hrs stays blank.
Check the forecast
Click Forecasting. Each phase shows its Planned end against its Forecast end, and its hours over or under budget.
A task past its due date and not done gets today as its forecast end. Every task that waits on it under Blocked by moves back by the same number of days. One late approval shows up in every phase after it.
Planned end
31 May 2027
Forecast end
05 June 2027
5 days late
Budget hrs
1,444
Forecast hrs
1,482
38 hrs over
| Phase | Planned end | Forecast end | Plan against forecast | Budget hrs | Forecast hrs | Over or under |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Acquisition | 26 June 2026 | 26 June 2026 On time | 48 | 52 | 4 hrs over | |
Approvals | 09 Oct 2026 | 17 Oct 2026 8 days late | 56 | 78 | 22 hrs over | |
Design | 27 Nov 2026 | 17 Jan 2027 51 days late | 210 | 210 | On budget | |
Sales & settlement | 31 May 2027 | 05 June 2027 5 days late | 100 | 92 | 8 hrs under | |
Construction | 07 May 2027 | 18 May 2027 11 days late | 1,030 | 1,050 | 20 hrs over |
A task past its due date and not done gets today as its forecast end, and a task waiting on a late one moves back with it. Forecast hrs is the budget until somebody changes it.
Run the feasibility
Click Feasibility. Pick the GST method. Type the dwellings, sizes, sale price, duration, construction rate and cost percentages.
The results show Return on equity, Required equity, Verdict, Net profit, Margin on cost and the rest.
Click Sync to Budget Lines to write the calculated costs into the budget. Click IC Memo for a printable summary.
Feasibility Calculator
IC MemoReturn on equity
57.4%
Required equity
$8,581,147.02
Verdict
Feasible
Net profit
$4,928,075.77
Margin on cost
20.1%
Total development cost
$24,501,015.14
Gross revenue
$31,500,000.00
Peak debt
$15,919,868.12
Break-even price / dwelling
$308,336.17
Max supportable land price
$23,625.40
Simplified IRR
19.9%
Share it
On Overview, click Share. Type a Title and an Access code (optional). Copy the link.
A person with the link sees the budget and feasibility but not the transactions.