✔️ Available (with limits) on per-user based subscriptions. 1
See the "Feature limits" section below for more information.

What
Create fixed fee budgets for projects where a non-negotiable price of work has been agreed with a client upfront. 
Why
  • Monitor accumulating costs and profit margin throughout a project.
  • Visualize how a project's costs are progressing towards the fixed budget.
  • Stay on top of current spend so you can make adjustments to end a project on budget.
Who
  • Site admins (in the owner company) can create, view, and manage fixed fee budgets.
  • Standard users and client users with all of the following project permissions can create fixed fee budgets:
    • View project budget
    • Manage project budget
    • View project budget profitability
      ⚠️ Enabling this permission may (in some cases) allow the user to calculate other users' cost rates. Ex. If only one user has logged eight hours and the budget's reported cost is $800, it can be concluded that said user's cost rate is $100 / hour. Only enable if you understand and accept this.
When
For projects that involve a set cost agreed with a client, regardless of the amount of time or effort required to complete the project.
What
Create fixed fee budgets for projects where a non-negotiable price of work has been agreed with a client upfront. 
Why
  • Monitor accumulating costs and profit margin throughout a project.
  • Visualize how a project's costs are tracking towards its target.
  • Stay on top of current spend so you can make adjustments to end a project on budget.
Who
  • Site admins (in the owner company) can create, view, and manage fixed fee budgets.
  • Standard users and client users with all of the following project permissions can create fixed fee budgets:
    • View project budget
    • Manage project budget
    • View project budget profitability
      ⚠️ Enabling this permission may (in some cases) allow the user to calculate other users' cost rates. Ex. If only one user has logged eight hours and the budget's reported cost is $800, it can be concluded that said user's cost rate is $100 / hour. Only enable if you understand and accept this.
When
For projects that involve a set cost agreed with a client, regardless of the amount of time or effort required to complete the project.

Feature limits

The number of active fixed fee budgets available to you is dependent on your Teamwork.com subscription.

Teamwork.com plan
Number of active fixed fee budgets
Free Forever
1 active fixed fee budget
Starter
1 active fixed fee budget
Deliver & Pro
3 active fixed fee budgets
Grow & Premium
10 active fixed fee budgets
Scale & Enterprise
Unlimited active fixed fee budgets
Teamwork.com plan
Number of active fixed fee budgets
Free Forever
1 active fixed fee budget
Starter
1 active fixed fee budget
Deliver & Pro
3 active fixed fee budgets
Grow & Premium
10 active fixed fee budgets
Scale & Enterprise
Unlimited active fixed fee budgets

Before you start

  • Fixed fee budgets require a project's Time and Finance features to be turned on.
  • A project can only have one active budget at a time. The active budget is the one encompassing today’s date.
    • Projects can have multiple budgets but the budgets cannot have overlapping dates, i.e. one budget's start and end dates cannot coincide with an existing (current or upcoming) budget’s dates.
📖 Are fixed fee budgets not the right fit? Check out retainer budgets, time and materials budgets, and task list budgets.
 

Cost rates

Fixed fee budgets are at their most powerful when user cost rates are active.

While not a requirement for creating a fixed fee budget, we strongly recommend setting cost rates for each user from the outset (before they start logging time) to ensure accurate profitability tracking within projects. If a team member is logging billable time but has no cost rate set, their time is essentially treated as free.

Create a fixed fee budget


  1. Click Jump to in Teamwork.com's left navigation menu.
  2. Search for and select a project. 
    💡 You can also create budgets from the quick add menu or the project creation (or edit) flow.
  3. Switch to the Finance section and select the Budgets tab. 
  4. Click Create budget. 
    1. If an existing budget exists, click the ellipsis (three dots) in the Budgets area's top right and select Add new budget. 
  5. Select Fixed fee as the budget type. 
  6. Enter the fixed fee budget amount. This is the maximum amount agreed with the client.
     
    Image Placeholder
     
  7. Choose a repeat interval (if needed). Ex. If your agreed fee is per month, set the budget to repeat monthly so that you don't have to create a new one each month.
  8. Select the budget's start date.
  9. Set the budget's end date. This is optional for open-ended budgets, but required for repeating budgets.
  10. Set financial targets:
    1. Profit margin: Set a % profit margin goal.
    2. Target profit: Set a profit amount goal.
    3. Target costs: Set a target maximum cost spend.
      📝 The financial target fields are synced — adjusting one recalculates the others automatically based on the budget's fixed fee total.
  11. Set up notifications for budget usage:
    1. Scroll to the end of the window.
    2. Check the Enable notifications box.
    3. Select recipients, notification type, and the budget % that should trigger the notification.
      🔑 Fixed fee budget notifications can only be set for users with permission to manage fixed fee budgets.
  12. Click Create budget.

💡 Granular budgeting
Once your fixed fee budget is created, attribute portions of the budget to specific task lists for a more granular level of budgeting. 

Monitor an active fixed fee budget

  1. Click Jump to in Teamwork.com's left navigation menu. 
  2. Search for and select a project. 
  3. Switch to the project’s Finance section, then select the Budgets tab.
  4. Hover over any point in the graph for a detailed breakdown.



Budget overview

  • Current period total: The current active budget's total fixed fee amount.
  • Percentage usage: % bar representing the budget's progress towards completion (used versus remaining, in monetary amounts and percentage distribution).
  • Graph: Tracks total spend (cost) through the budget period.
    • Costs to date (solid blue line)
    • Total available budget (red dotted line)
    • Target costs (blue dotted line) — maximum cost point in order to achieve target profit.

📝 If costs to date exceed target costs, the profit margin is less than the budget's target. If costs also exceed total budget, the project is operating at a loss.

Image Placeholder
 

Profitability

  • Profit: Current projected profit amount versus the budget's target amount.
  • Profit margin: Current projected profit percentage versus the budget's target.
  • Total costs: Total costs to date for the budget's period versus the budget's target.
    • Target costs = budget total - profit amount

Image Placeholder


Manage a fixed fee budget

  1. Click Jump to in Teamwork.com's left navigation menu. 
  2. Search for and select a project. 
  3. Switch to the project’s Finance section, then select the Budgets tab.
  4. Click the ... (ellipsis) in the view's top right. 
  5. Next, choose an option:
    1. Edit: Select Edit budget. Update the budget's details, then click Update.
    2. End: Select End current budget. Select the budget's end date, then click Save. The budget continues to be active up to and including the selected date. It ends at 11:59pm on the selected date and after that date shows up in budget history. 
    3. Delete: Select Delete budget, then click OK. The budget is deleted (i.e. erased from the account). It will no longer appear on reports or invoices and won’t be visible or editable.

Best practices

  • Establish a budget baseline: Clearly define the budget amount with the client. When negotiating a budget, set a realistic target based on past performance, market rates, and industry standards.
  • Set up a budget review process: Regularly review the budget and assess its performance, making adjustments as needed to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

1. Also available on legacy subscriptions: Pro, Premium, Enterprise.