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Project budgets & profitability

See an overrun coming and know what every project earns

Budgets, cost rates and billing rates sit next to the plan. Every approved hour becomes cost on its project, so budget against actual, the forecast and the margin are there whenever you look.

Budget vs actualAtlas web relaunch
PlanActual
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAug
Budget
€180,000
Cost to date
€122,400
Forecast margin
21%

How a project's money is followed in Akollo

From the first budget to the closed month, the numbers come from the same projects and hours your teams already work in.

  1. Budgets

    Set the budget when the project starts

    Budget a project, department or cost centre in hours, cost or revenue, as one total or monthly lines, and choose whether an overrun warns or blocks new commitments.

  2. Rates

    Agree what an hour costs and what it bills

    Hourly cost rates per person, approved by a second person, and rate cards per customer, project, role, task type or employee.

  3. Time tracking

    Let approved hours turn into cost

    Hours logged by timer, timesheet or the desktop agent are priced at each person's cost rate. Hours without a rate are flagged, never counted as zero.

  4. Profitability

    Watch the margin month by month

    Cost, expenses, revenue and margin per project or department, with the cost lines behind each row and a forecast to the end.

  5. Billing and periods

    Invoice the work and close the month

    Start invoice drafts in Billing, hand figures to your accounting system with accounting exports, then lock and close the month.

The views project leads and finance share

Both sides read the same records, so the project lead and the finance team stop arguing about whose spreadsheet is right.

  • Finance overview

    The highest budget usage, open budget alerts, this month's period and the expenses waiting for approval, on one page.

    • Budget against actual per scope
    • Tags such as On track or Past half
    • Shortcuts to alerts and approvals

  • Profitability

    One row per project or department and month, with cost, expenses, revenue and margin, for the months you pick.

    • Cost lines behind every row
    • A forecast per row
    • Hours without a cost rate marked

  • Budgets and revisions

    Every budget with its scope, basis, amount and status, above a chart of the largest variances to date.

    • Each change is a numbered revision
    • Large changes need a second approver
    • Alert history per budget

  • New budget

    Pick the scope and basis, enter a total or monthly lines and choose what happens on an overrun. Every save asks for a reason.

    • Hours, cost or revenue
    • Warn or block on overrun
    • Any currency you work in

Let the assistant gather the numbers

Akollo AI reads budgets, hours and margins you are allowed to see and explains them. The money decisions stay with people.

Akollo AI

Which projects have used more than half their budget with less than half the work done?

Two projects: Atlas web relaunch at 68% of budget with 55% of items done, and the CRM rollout at 61% with 40% done. Want the cost lines for either?

Ask Akollo AI

Try asking

The assistant never sets an amount, changes a rate or approves anything. It reads only what the person asking may open, and can run on our cloud, on your own model or not at all.

See what the assistant can do

What you can finally measure

No separate cost sheet to keep up. These figures come from approved hours, rates and expenses already in Akollo.

  • Budget against actual

    Actual cost, hours or revenue against the approved budget for each project, department or cost centre, with an alert when usage crosses your line.

    Where you see itFinance overview

  • Margin per project

    Revenue minus labour cost and expenses, month by month, for each project or for whole departments.

    Where you see itProfitability

  • Forecast to completion

    Where the project will land if work continues at its current pace, so you can act while there is still budget left.

    Where you see itProfitability › Forecast

  • Hours without a cost rate

    Logged hours that cannot be priced yet, counted on each row, so a missing rate never makes a project look cheaper than it is.

    Where you see itProfitability

The Akollo modules behind project budgets

Questions about budgets and profitability

Does Akollo replace our accounting system?

No. Your accounting system stays the book of record. Akollo connects work with what it costs and earns, and hands figures over through accounting exports.

Who can see what our people cost?

Hourly cost rates count as salary information and need their own permission. Owners and administrators do not get it automatically, and nobody approves their own rate proposal.

Can a budget stop a project from overspending?

You choose per budget: an overrun can only warn, or it can block new commitments. A change of more than ten percent to the approved total needs another person's approval.

Which billing rate applies to a piece of work?

The most specific rate card line: employee first, then task type, role, project, customer and organisation. If two lines tie, no rate is chosen and the hours stay visible for a decision.

Do we need to track time for this to work?

Labour cost comes from approved hours, so yes for cost and margin. Timers, weekly timesheets and the desktop agent all feed the same records.

Time tracking

See the margin of your own projects

We will set up two of your projects with budgets and rates and walk through budget against actual on a call.

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