Project Financial Tracking

PrimeTask turns project custom fields into a financial dashboard. By assigning a role (Budget, Expense, Revenue, Payment, Estimate, or Value) to each currency field, you tell PrimeTask what that field represents - and the Cost Summary on the Fields tab automatically calculates derived metrics: Profit, ROI, Budget Utilisation, Burn Rate, Budget Runway, Estimate Variance, Pipeline, Remaining to Pay, and Budget Health. No spreadsheets, no manual maths - change a value and every metric updates instantly.

This article focuses on the financial workflow: how the six roles work, how the calculations interact, and which patterns fit different project types. For the Cost Summary on the Fields tab, see Project Fields Tab. To enter amounts record-by-record across your linked customers or suppliers, see Project Database.

What you can do

The six currency roles

A currency field becomes financially meaningful when you assign it a role. The role tells the Cost Summary how to categorise the field's value into one of six totals:

Roles are assigned per field in the Custom Field Editor. A field doesn't need a role to exist - but without a role, it just shows in the database view and doesn't contribute to derived metrics.

"Spent" combines Expense and Payment

Throughout the financial calculations, Spent means Expense + Payment - both roles count toward outflows. This lets you separate raw expenses (invoices) from payments to specific parties (contractors, vendors) while still getting a unified spending total.

The financial calculations

The Cost Summary computes the following metrics automatically. Each metric only appears when the data needed to calculate it exists.

Budget Health

Shown when you have a Budget role and at least one of Expense or Payment.

Total Spent   = Expense + Payment
Remaining     = Budget − Total Spent
Percent Spent = (Total Spent / Budget) × 100

Percent Spent is highlighted more strongly as your spending approaches and passes the budget, so a project heading over budget stands out at a glance.

Example: Budget = €10,000, Expense = €4,500, Payment = €1,500. Total Spent = €6,000. Remaining = €4,000. Percent Spent = 60%.

Estimate Accuracy

Shown when you have Estimate and Expense but no Budget role.

Variance = Estimate − Expense

Labelled "under budget" if Variance ≥ 0, "over budget" if Variance < 0.

Example: Estimate = €8,000, Expense = €9,500. Variance = −€1,500 (over budget).

Pipeline

Shown when you have Value and Revenue roles.

Outstanding = Value − Revenue

Example: Value = €50,000, Revenue = €20,000. Outstanding = €30,000.

Remaining to Pay

Shown when you have a Value role (an agreed contract amount) and a Revenue role (what has been collected so far). This is the collection lens on the same two numbers - the figure freelancers and agencies look at every day: "of what was agreed, how much is still to come in, and how much have I already collected?"

Remaining to Pay = Value − Revenue   (never below zero)
% Collected      = (Revenue / Value) × 100   (capped at 100%)

Example: Contract Value = €12,000, collected Revenue = €9,000. Remaining to Pay = €3,000, with 75% collected.

Profit

Shown when the project has spent money (Expense or Payment) and earned Revenue.

Profit = Revenue − Total Spent

Example: Revenue = €15,000, Total Spent = €9,000. Profit = €6,000.

ROI (Return on Investment)

Shown when the project has spent money and earned Revenue (and Total Spent > 0).

ROI = ((Revenue − Total Spent) / Total Spent) × 100

Example: Revenue = €15,000, Total Spent = €10,000. ROI = ((15,000 − 10,000) / 10,000) × 100 = 50%.

Budget Utilisation

Shown when you have a Budget role, the project has spent money, and Budget > 0.

Budget Utilisation = (Total Spent / Budget) × 100

This is the same percentage as Budget Health's "Percent Spent" but called out as its own derived metric - useful when scanning summary numbers without the full Budget Health context.

Burn Rate

Shown when you have spent money and the project has a start date set.

Elapsed Days = max(1, days since start_date)
Burn Rate    = Total Spent / Elapsed Days

Displayed as currency per day (e.g., €120/day).

Example: Project started 30 days ago. Total Spent = €6,000. Burn Rate = €200/day.

Budget Runway

Shown when you have a Burn Rate > 0 and Remaining > 0.

Budget Runway = Remaining / Burn Rate

Displayed in days, with smart formatting:

• ≥ 365 days - formatted as years (e.g., "1.5 yrs")
• 60–364 days - formatted as months (e.g., "4 months")
• < 60 days - formatted as days (e.g., "23 days")

Runway is highlighted more strongly as it gets short, so a project about to run out of budget stands out.

Example: Remaining = €4,000, Burn Rate = €200/day. Runway = 20 days.

Money that flows in and out automatically

The most powerful financial pattern doesn't ask you to update project totals by hand at all. Instead, the money lives on the people and companies linked to the project, and rolls up into the project's Revenue and Expense for you.

• Customers paying in. A per-customer "Amount Paid" field (Revenue role) rolls up into the project's Revenue. As each customer pays, project Revenue rises and Remaining to Pay falls.
• Suppliers being paid. A per-supplier "Amount Paid" field (Expense role) rolls up into the project's Expense. As you pay each one, project Expense rises and your margin updates.

The Field Setup Wizard's Pay Schedule and Contractor Costs presets build these chains in one pass - the project-side total, the per-record field, and the rollup that links them. You then enter each amount on the record's own row in the Project Database view, and every project metric above reflects it automatically.

Workflow patterns

The six roles combine in different ways depending on what you're tracking. The Field Setup Wizard offers these as presets so you don't have to set them up from scratch.

Budgeting (Budget + Expense)

The simplest pattern. Add a Budget field and an Expense field. The Cost Summary shows Budget Health with remaining and percent spent. As you log expenses, you see how close you're getting to the cap.

Freelance (Payment tracking)

A single Payment field, tracked over time. Useful when you're paying contractors regularly and want to see total payouts. Add a Budget field too if you have a cap.

Sales (Value + Revenue)

A Value field for the deal size and a Revenue field for what you've earned. The Cost Summary shows Pipeline with the outstanding amount left to collect.

Estimate vs Actual (Estimate + Expense, no Budget)

Compare your forecast against reality without a hard budget cap. Estimate Accuracy shows the variance - under budget (you're efficient) or over budget (you underestimated).

Pay Schedule (contract value + customer payments)

A contract value on the project plus a per-customer amount-paid field (Revenue role) that rolls up. The project shows Revenue, Remaining to Pay, and percent collected, all updating as customers pay. Pairs with a Fields tab pivoted to your contacts in the Project Database view.

Contractor Costs (contract cost + supplier payments)

A contract cost on the project plus a per-supplier amount-paid field (Expense role) that rolls up. The project's Expense and margin update as you pay out. Pairs with a Fields tab pivoted to your suppliers in the Project Database view.

Full Financial (all six roles)

The complete picture: Budget, Estimate, Expense, Payment, Revenue, Value. The Cost Summary shows every metric. Best for projects where you want true P&L visibility.

Custom

Pick exactly which roles you need. The wizard lets you create only the currency fields you'll actually use - no template forced on you.

For the wizard walkthrough, see Field Setup Wizard.

Multi-currency support

Each currency field has its own currency code, so a single project can track multi-currency data:

• USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, CNY, CAD, AUD, CHF, INR, KRW, PLN, BRL, MXN, plus BTC (₿)

Each role's total uses its assigned field's currency, so the Cost Summary handles per-currency totals correctly. PrimeTask doesn't auto-convert between currencies - values are kept in their original currency for accuracy.

When metrics don't appear

The Cost Summary auto-hides sections that don't have enough data. Reasons a metric might not show:

If a metric you expect isn't showing, check that all of its inputs exist with values.

Things worth knowing

The Cost Summary lives on the Fields tab

The Cost Summary card sits below the database view on the Fields tab, on the project view - see Project Fields Tab. It auto-shows when you have currency fields with values, and auto-hides when you don't.

Roles are optional

A currency field doesn't need a role. Without one, the field shows in the database view with its value, but it doesn't contribute to any financial calculation. Add a role from the Custom Field Editor when you want a field to count.

A field can have only one role

Each currency field has a single role. If you need both an estimate and an expense for the same line item, use two separate fields. The summary aggregates by role across all fields, so multiple Expense fields contribute to one Total Expense.

Roles aggregate across fields

You can have multiple Budget fields, multiple Expense fields, and so on - they're all summed by role. Useful when you want to break a budget into categories (separate Marketing Budget and Engineering Budget fields, both with the Budget role).

Burn Rate needs a start date

Without a project start date, PrimeTask can't calculate elapsed days, so Burn Rate and Budget Runway don't appear. Set a start date from the Edit Project modal.

Currency fields can be rolled up from tasks and linked records

Currency fields with rollups aggregate values from child tasks or from linked contacts and companies. For example, a project's Revenue can roll up the sum of every customer's payment. Combined with currency roles, your task-level or per-customer amounts feed the project's totals automatically. See Rollups & Financial Tracking and Project Database.

The Cost Summary is read-only

The Cost Summary displays calculated metrics - you don't edit values from there. To change a value, edit the underlying currency field in the database view or the slide panel.

Financial data syncs with your team

Currency fields, roles, and values sync via File Sync or iCloud just like any other project data. Anyone with access to the Space sees the same financial picture.

Negative values are valid

Currency fields accept negative numbers - useful for refunds, credits, or write-offs. The calculations handle negatives correctly: a negative Expense reduces Total Spent, negative Revenue reduces total revenue.

Common questions

Where to go next