Project budgets
Set an optional money or effort-hours cap, choose a warning threshold, and get an alert when consumption crosses it.
A budget cap keeps a project from quietly running over. Cap it by money or by hours, choose when you want to be warned, and Hoursmith alerts you when consumption crosses the line.
- Role
- OwnerAdminManager
Budgets are manage-tier. Budget progress and money tiles are hidden from Members, who see hours only.
Where to find it
On the project form (Projects → New project, or a project's Edit page), use the Budget cap control.
Set a budget cap
For Hourly and Non-billable projects, the Budget cap control has three choices — pick one:
- No cap — no budget tracking.
- Amount — a money budget.
- Hours — an hours budget.
A project budget is either an amount or hours — not both at once.
Fixed-fee projects
A fixed fee is the project's contract price, not its budget. Fixed-fee projects can therefore use only an optional hours cap to monitor delivery effort; they cannot use an amount cap. The hours cap does not change the fee or the amount available to invoice.
Choose a warning threshold
When you set a cap (Amount or Hours), a Warn me at dropdown appears:
- 80% of budget (default)
- 90%
- 100%
How warnings work
Consumption is tracked live
The budget recalculates on every time-entry change, so progress stays current as your team logs time.
You get a one-time alert
Crossing your Warn me at threshold — or hitting 100% — fires a one-time in-app notification.
It re-arms if you drop back
If consumption drops below the threshold (for example, after editing or deleting time), the warning re-arms and can fire again later.
What happens next
You'll see budget progress on the project's detail page (manage-tier only). Use it alongside project profitability to keep work on track.
Tips
- Set the threshold to 90% or 100% if you don't want an early heads-up at 80%.