Budget management

A project's Budget screen lets you build, track and analyze a project's full budget: both costs and revenues, in currency or man-days, with monitoring of the gap between what was planned and what is delivered.

You reach it from the Budget menu in the project sidebar.

Overview

A project budget is organized into lines (or envelopes), each matching a category. Each line is typed:

• Expense — a cost (resources, services, purchases…)
• Income — a revenue (customer billing…)

Two display modes are available:

• Hierarchical — lines grouped under a parent envelope
• Flat — all lines at the same level

And two entry units, switchable via the selector at the top:

• Currency (€, $, £, CHF, xof…)
• M.D — man-days

The unit you pick follows you

Man-days or currency is a display preference tied to your account, not to the project. It is kept from one session to the next and reused as is in the other budget views — detail, summary and the portfolio budget and arbitrations.

Adding and editing a budget

To add a line, click "+ Budget" at the top left of the budget screen.

When you assign a resource to a task, you can specify which budget the allocation is charged to. FoxPlan then automatically integrates the planned and actual values into the matching lines (see Costs from resources).

You can also manually add envelopes in currency or man-days via the "+" button next to Planned or Actual.

Fields of a budget line

When editing a line (or a cost), you fill in, depending on the case:

Field	Description
Title / Name	Line label
Type	Expense or Income
Envelope	Parent grouping of the line
Parent task	Project task the line is attached to
Planned / Actual amount	Expected then observed values
Cost / Revenue	Cost or revenue amount
Resource cost	Computed automatically from allocations
Billable cost / Billable revenue	For customer billing
Daily rate	Daily rate applied (M.D → currency)
Currency + Exchange rate	For foreign-currency lines
Customer / supplier name	Third party involved
Supplier expenses	External costs
Internal / third-party reference	Reference numbers (PO, invoice…)
Attachment	Supporting document
Event	Associated milestone or event

Envelope actual type

This field only appears if the workspace has several actual types active (by default, only "Standard" is). It is set in the envelope panel, under the OPEX / CAPEX Type.

It has two effects:

• Time entry — it is the type offered by default in the timesheet for tasks charged to this envelope, unless the task enforces its own;
• Valuation — when the envelope has no rate for a resource, FoxPlan uses the workspace rate matching this type (see Resource rates). A Not Billable envelope only generates revenue if a revenue is entered for that type.

Left empty, the envelope behaves as "Standard".

Rates by actual type

Under Resource cost, each resource shows a Cost / Revenue table whose first row carries the envelope's default type (default badge): these are its usual rates. + Add a type adds a row for another active actual type, with its own rates; the cross removes it.

Time entered under a type is valued, from most specific to most general:

1. at the envelope's rate for that type;
2. otherwise at the workspace rate for that type (Resource rates);
3. otherwise at the envelope's default rate;
4. otherwise at the workspace standard rate.

An empty field (inherited) therefore applies the next level; a 0 forces a zero rate. Non-billable time only produces revenue if a revenue is entered for that type (on the envelope or in the workspace). Planned work, which has no type, is valued at the default type. Without typed rates, amounts are unchanged.

Profiles cost

Below Resource cost, the Profiles cost section sets rates per profile for this envelope. + adds a profile from the catalogue; its rates are entered like a resource's (per actual type included).

A profile rate only serves the resources of that profile that have no rate of their own on the envelope: a resource listed under Resource cost always keeps its rate. A profile rate on the envelope does, however, take precedence over the resource rate set in the workspace. Full order: Profile rates.

Linked contracts

When time-and-materials client contracts are allocated to the envelope (or to its whole project), the Linked contracts section lists them with their client, their allocation share and the daily rates of their grid (by profile or by resource, as chosen on the contract). Only contracts of clients you can view appear.

Copy to envelope carries these rates over to Profiles cost or Resource cost: the daily cost and sale rates replace the default rates of the same profiles or resources; per-actual-type rates already entered are kept. A resource that is not a project member is skipped, and a row with a former free-text label (no catalogue profile) cannot be copied.

Budget versions

FoxPlan tracks each line across several versions (or scenarios), which lets you compare planned vs actual:

Version	Costs	Revenues	Margin
Approved budget	Approved costs	Approved revenues	Budgeted margin
Forecast budget	Forecast costs	Forecast revenues	Forecast margin
Planned budget	Planned costs	Planned revenues	Planned margin
Actual budget	Actual costs	Actual revenues	Actual margin

A version's margin is the gap between its revenues and its costs. Comparing the forecast margin to the actual margin highlights the project's financial drift.

Quick read

• Approved = the validated reference budget
• Forecast = the to-date projection (re-forecast)
• Planned = what the resource planning implies
• Actual = what was actually spent / billed

Costs from resources

The resource cost does not have to be entered manually: it derives from planning.

• The planned cost comes from the resources' planned allocations on the tasks charged to the budget.
• The actual cost comes from time entries / actuals.
• The amount is computed via the resource's daily rate × the number of man-days.

You can also analyze the cost by resource or the cost by state, as well as the matching revenues.

Budget line statuses

Each line (or version) can carry a status, useful for steering and locking:

Status	Meaning
Open	Free entry
Ongoing	Being processed
Pending	To be validated
Approved	Validated
Baseline	Frozen reference for comparison
Closed	Closed
Archived	Archived

Draft mode

The draft lets you work on a copy of the budget table without saving changes — ideal to simulate a scenario or prepare a one-off export.

• Open a draft: you switch to the copy; changes are no longer persisted.
• Close the draft: you return to the real data.

caution

As long as a draft is open, no change is saved to the real budget. Close the draft to return to normal mode.

Configuring budget entry display

Entry configuration happens at the project definition level, Budget tab. It lets you show only the elements relevant to your project.

FoxPlan handles costs and/or revenues, each trackable as:

• Approved budget
• Forecast
• Planned
• Actual

Checking / unchecking these elements simplifies the display: for example, disabling Revenues for a cost-only project, or removing Planned if you only track actuals.

Configuring budget management (workspace)

Global configuration happens in Settings → Workspace → Budget tab:

• Default currency
• Budget cutoff dates
• Number of decimals
• Creation / duplication of budget versions
• Available budget line statuses

Remember to save after each change.

The Summary

The Summary tab consolidates the envelopes into a table of totals, alongside an optional chart. The Total OPEX and Total CAPEX rows stay pinned at the top of the table.

Filtering

Two filters sit in the top bar, to the left of the unit selector. Both act on the table and the chart alike, and their setting is kept from one session to the next.

Filter	Effect
CAPEX / OPEX / CAPEX + OPEX	Restricts rows to the chosen type. The total row of the excluded type disappears: filtering on CAPEX leaves only Total CAPEX. Defaults to CAPEX + OPEX.
Expense / Revenue / Margin	Shows only the columns of the chosen family. Defaults to Expense.

The family filter follows your workspace

It offers only the families actually enabled in the workspace budget configuration. If only one is enabled, the filter disappears — there would be nothing to choose.

Reading overruns

Forecast, Planned and Actual are compared with the Budget on the same row:

• under Expense, an amount above the budget shows in red — more is being spent than planned;
• under Revenue, an amount above the budget shows in green — more is being earned than planned.

With no reference budget entered on the row, no colour is applied: there is nothing to compare.

The chart

The 📊 icon in the top bar shows or hides the chart below the table. It reflects the rows actually displayed: filtering the table updates the bars.

• The Grouped bars / Stacked bars selector changes its rendering.
• The horizontal handle between the table and the chart resizes both areas. The chosen position is kept.

Analyzing a budget (pivot table)

Budget analysis at project or portfolio level is available through a built-in pivot table.

1. Select Analysis at the top of the screen
2. Available fields appear at the top: drag them into the table (rows / columns / values)
3. Filter each field via the three-line icon
4. Export the result to Excel

Expanding or collapsing the columns

When several fields are used as pivot columns, the columns nest inside one another: each group header carries a chevron that opens or closes it individually. The More menu in the toolbar acts on every column at once:

• Expand all — every level is visible; this is the default state;
• Collapse all — only the top level remains, with its aggregated totals.

The active option is ticked in the menu. The choice is kept for the next openings of the view, separately for a project budget and a portfolio budget.

Depending on license

Some advanced budget analyses may be part of the Pro version.

See also

• Project management — planning and resource allocation that feed the costs
• Project members — who can edit the budget depending on their role