Projects: see what each job earns and costs

A project is a job you do for one customer: a kitchen remodel, a landscaping season, a website build. Everything for the job goes on it, so Projects shows what it earned, what it cost and the profit, without a spreadsheet.

Start a project

1. 1Go to [Projects](/projects) and press New project (or + Create › Project, or New transaction › Project on a customer's page).
2. 2Give it a Project name and choose the Customer. A customer can have several projects.
3. 3Its Status starts as In progress. Add a start and end date and notes if you like.
4. 4Press Save project.

Put work on it

On the project's page, Add to project opens a new invoice, estimate, sales receipt, credit memo, refund, expense, check, bill, time entry or expense claim with the project already chosen. You can also choose it on the form:

• Invoices, estimates, sales receipts, refunds, credit memos and recurring invoices: choose the customer, then the Project under it. The whole document belongs to the project.
• Bills, expenses, checks, vendor credits and purchase orders: each line has a Customer/project column, so one store run for two jobs is split between them. A purchase order turned into a bill keeps each line's project.
• Time entries and the weekly timesheet: choose the Project after the customer (choosing a project chooses its customer). Employees who enter their own time can choose it too.
• Expense claims: choose the Project the money was spent for.
• Bank transactions: in Pending, click a transaction's description and choose its Project before you post it; when you Split one, each line has its own project. Posted, it shows Project: … under its category.
• Journal entries: each line has a Project column (on a wide screen; below the line on a phone). Only income and expense lines count in the project's numbers.

An invoice for a project offers that project's billable time (Billable time for this customer), so time is billed on the right job. The project's page has Invoice unbilled time too.

Its numbers

• Income: its invoices (in your books once sent), sales receipts, refunds and credit memos.
• Costs: its lines on bills, expenses and checks, less vendor credits, its approved expense claims, its bank transaction and journal entry lines, and the cost of any inventory items sold on it. Equipment and inventory bought count when they're used or sold, not when bought.
• Labour: each employee's hours on it × their cost rate (Time › Employees) when the time was entered. It isn't in your books until you run payroll, so it's shown on its own.
• Profit margin: income less costs and labour, as a share of income. The page also shows hours, unbilled time and what's still owed on its invoices.

Transactions lists everything on the project, with its bank transaction and journal entry lines under From Bank transactions and journal entries; Time activity lists its time with each entry's labour cost and whether it's billed. A customer's page has a Projects tab with each of their projects.

Each bank transaction or line counts once. A deposit matched to an invoice counts on the invoice, not again on the bank transaction, so put the invoice on the project rather than the deposit.

Project reports

In Reports, the Projects group has (the project's page and the Projects list link to them too):

• [Project profitability summary](/reports/project-profitability): income, costs, labour, profit and margin for every project, for all dates or any period.
• [Estimates vs actuals](/reports/estimates-vs-actuals): each product or service on a project's estimates beside what you actually invoiced or sold (less credits and refunds), with the difference and the percent of the estimate. Choose one project or all.
• [Time cost by employee or vendor](/reports/time-cost): everyone's time with the customer and project, hours, cost rate and cost, with a total for each person.
• Time activities by project and Unbilled time by project: the Time page grouped by project.

Like every report they can be printed, downloaded (Excel or CSV), emailed and saved.

To plan a job's income and costs, give it a budget: Add a budget under Reports on the project's page, then Budget vs. actuals compares it with the project's own numbers.

Projects in connected apps

Apps connected to TallyPip can list projects with their numbers, start one, change one (for example mark it completed), and put invoices and bill or expense lines on a project. See Connect other apps to your books.

Finish a project

Change its status to Completed (or Canceled). It stays with everything on it, but new work can't be added until you set it back to In progress. A project with nothing on it can be deleted; one with transactions or time can't (and keeps its customer).