Skip to main content
Beebole’s budgets let you set targets for billing, costs, or hours on your projects and subprojects, and track progress against those targets in real time. Budgets help you spot overruns before they become problems.
Budgets are not included in every Beebole plan. Review your plan and add-ons on the Subscription page.

Assigning a budget to a project in Beebole

​
Budget types

Each budget on a project has three target fields: You can use any combination of these on the same budget — fields you leave empty simply aren’t tracked. The Time target is stated in the unit you pick next to the field — Hours or Days — and your last choice becomes the default for the next budget. Days are measured against each person’s work schedule, so a day always means one person’s scheduled day.

​
Setting up a budget

1

Open the project

Navigate to Projects and click the project you want to budget.
2

Open the Budgets panel

In the project’s detail panel, open the Budgets panel.
3

Add a budget

Click Add. Beebole creates the budget and opens it for editing.
4

Define the targets

Enter your targets in Time, Billing amount, and Cost amount. Changes are saved automatically, and Beebole starts tracking progress against the budget immediately.
5

Set when it starts (optional)

A new budget starts counting from the day you create it — its From date is set to today. Change From to apply the budget from another day. A budget with no From date counts From the start — everything ever logged on the project.
Each budget can also hold free-text Notes — a purchase order number or the agreement with the customer, for example — shown on the budget’s card.

​
Several budgets over time

A project can hold more than one budget: click Add again to create the next one. Each budget applies from its own From date onward, so successive budgets model renewals, yearly envelopes, or a re-negotiated scope — the panel lists them in chronological order.

​
Budget splits

For more detailed tracking, you can split a budget using its Type field:
  • Split by person — Allocate a portion of the budget to each team member, with its own time, billing amount, and cost amount.
  • Split by project — Distribute the budget across projects from another category — for example, splitting a client’s budget across activities.
  • No split — One set of targets applies to the whole project.
Budget splits let you see not just whether the overall project is on track, but whether individual contributors or work streams are within their allocation.

​
Monitoring budgets

Click Reports in the sidebar, then Budget Status, to track every budget in one place. The report shows a progress bar per project comparing the hours, billing, and cost actually logged against your targets, rolls subproject activity up the hierarchy, and flags budgets that are at risk or over budget. See Reports for the report’s filters and export options. Beebole also alerts you as a budget fills up:
  • When consumption passes the alert threshold (80% by default), Beebole sends a notification and shows an alert badge on the budget’s card in the Budgets panel.
  • When consumption reaches 100%, you get another notification and an Over budget badge.
To clear a triggered badge, click its × (Reset alert).
Beebole tracks budget consumption in real time, but does not block time entries when a budget is exceeded. Use reports to monitor progress and take action proactively.

​
Related content

Projects

Create and configure the projects where budgets are set and tracked.

Cost rates

Define cost rates that feed into cost budget calculations.

Reports

View detailed budget progress, consumption, and variance in custom reports.

Billing rates

Configure billing rates used in billing budget tracking.

​
Frequently asked questions

Budgets are set on individual projects or subprojects. The Budget Status report rolls subproject consumption up the project hierarchy for a higher-level view.
Yes. Beebole alerts you when a budget passes its alert threshold (80% by default) and again when it goes over budget. Alert badges appear on the budget itself, and the Budget Status report flags at-risk and over-budget projects.
Yes. You can update a budget’s targets at any time — changes are saved automatically, and the Budget Status report immediately measures all consumption against the new target.
Yes. Expense amounts contribute to a project’s budget consumption alongside time-based costs — controlled per expense type by its Impacts budget setting. See Expenses.
Yes. Each budget’s Time target has a unit picker — choose Hours or Days per budget, and Beebole remembers your last choice for the next one. Days are measured against each person’s work schedule, and the Budget Status report shows every budget in the unit it was stated in.