Project Expenses

Expenses let you track costs beyond team hours—software licenses, travel, subcontractors, equipment, or any other project-related spending. These costs factor into your project margin calculations.

Accessing Expenses

Navigate to any project's detail page and scroll to the Expenses section below the workload table.

Adding an Expense

Click Add Expense to open the expense form. You'll configure:

Required Fields

• Name — What the expense is for (e.g., "Adobe Creative Cloud", "Travel to client site")
• Date — When the expense occurred
• Cost Type — Fixed or Percentage (see below)

Cost Types

Expenses support two calculation methods:

Fixed expenses multiply your entered amount by the quantity. For example, a $50 software license with quantity 3 equals $150 total.

Percentage expenses calculate based on the project's total value. A 10% expense on a $50,000 project equals $5,000.

Optional Fields

• Quantity — For fixed costs, multiply the amount (default: 1)
• Markup % — For Time & Materials projects only, add a markup for billing
• Notes — Additional context about the expense

Example: Adding a Fixed Expense

1. Click Add Expense
2. Enter name: "Design software license"
3. Select date
4. Choose Fixed cost type
5. Enter amount: $50
6. Set quantity: 12 (for annual)
7. Click Save

Total cost: $600

Example: Adding a Percentage Expense

1. Click Add Expense
2. Enter name: "Platform fee"
3. Select date
4. Choose Percentage cost type
5. Enter percentage: 5%
6. Click Save

If the project value is $100,000, the expense equals $5,000.

Markup for Time & Materials Projects

For Time & Materials projects, you can add a markup percentage to expenses. This represents what you charge the client above your cost.

For example:

• Expense cost: $1,000
• Markup: 15%
• Billable amount: $1,150

The Billable column appears only for Time & Materials projects.

Viewing Expense Totals

The expenses table shows:

A total row at the bottom sums all expenses.

Editing and Deleting Expenses

Click the three-dot menu on any expense row to:

• Edit — Modify any field
• Delete — Remove the expense permanently

Changes immediately update project margin calculations.

How Expenses Affect Profitability

Expenses are included in your project's total cost calculation:

Total Cost = Team Costs + Expenses
Margin = Project Value - Total Cost
Margin % = (Margin / Project Value) × 100

High expenses reduce margin. Monitor the Profitability settings to ensure your projects stay above your minimum viable rate.

Tips

Track expenses as they occur. It's easier to record costs when they happen than to reconstruct them later.

Use percentage for variable costs. If a cost scales with project size (like a 5% agency fee), percentage keeps it accurate as the project value changes.

Review before project close. Ensure all expenses are captured before marking a project complete—it affects final profitability reports.

Add notes for context. Future you will appreciate knowing why a $2,000 expense was necessary.

Related

• Managing Projects — Project detail page and workload
• Project Financials — Margins and profitability tracking
• Profitability — Agency rate thresholds and financial tracking
• Member Costs — How team member costs are calculated