Budget Summary Panel

The budget summary panel gives you a high-level financial overview of your entire project in one place. It aggregates cost data from every task and breaks it down by section, making it easy to see where money is being spent and whether the project is tracking to budget.

Opening the Panel

Click the budget icon in the project header toolbar to open the budget summary as a slide-out panel on the right side of the screen. The panel stays open while you continue working with the Gantt chart and task list, so you can reference budget data alongside your schedule.

What the Panel Shows

The budget summary panel displays the following information:

• Total project budget — The overall budget amount you set in project settings. This is the top-line number that all other figures are compared against.
• Sum of estimated task costs — The total of all individual task estimated costs added together. If this exceeds the total project budget, your plan is already over budget before work begins.
• Sum of actual task costs — The total of all actual costs entered across every task. This represents what has actually been spent so far.
• Overall variance — The difference between estimated and actual costs. A positive variance means you are under budget. A negative variance means you are over budget. The value is color-coded: green for under budget, red for over.
• Breakdown by section — Costs are grouped by your project sections (Planning, Execution, Closeout). Each section shows its own estimated total, actual total, and variance, so you can pinpoint exactly which phase of the project is driving cost overruns or savings.
• Top 5 most expensive tasks — A ranked list of the five tasks with the highest actual costs. This helps you quickly identify the biggest line items in your budget.

Budget on Dashboard Cards

You do not need to open a project to get a quick budget read. The dashboard project cards include a budget summary line that shows the project's overall budget status at a glance. The line displays the total actual spend against the total estimated cost, and is color-coded: green if the project is under budget, red if it is over. This lets you scan all your projects from the dashboard and immediately spot any that need financial attention.

Setting the Total Project Budget

The total project budget is set in project settings, not in the budget summary panel itself. Navigate to the project settings page and enter the overall budget amount. This is the number the summary panel uses as the top-line comparison. You can update it at any time if the project scope or contract amount changes.