Project and Task Budget in PRO-dela: Expense and Balance Control

Budget in PRO-dela is an expense limit that can be set for a project or an individual task, and then compared with actual spending: how much has been spent, how much remains, and whether you have exceeded the limits. The expense amount is calculated automatically from time tracking and fixed costs for tasks, not entered manually. If a task does not have its own budget, the system uses the project budget and clearly shows in the interface that the limit is borrowed, not belonging to the task itself.

Below is a breakdown of how the two budget levels work, where expense figures come from, what happens when currencies are mixed, why the balance never goes negative, and what permissions are needed to view or change the budget.

Project Budget and Task Budget — Two Independent Levels

In PRO-dela, a budget is a separate entity that is always linked either to a project or to a specific task, but never to both at once. This makes the system easier to read: the project budget covers the entire project, while the task budget covers a single unit of work within it.

Multiple budget entries can be created for one project or one task — for example, if the limit is allocated in tranches or relates to different expense items. Each entry has an amount, currency, and description explaining what it covers. The total budget for a project or task is the sum of all related entries.

On the project page, the budget is placed in a separate tab: existing entries, summary statistics, and a form for creating a new budget are visible there — if the user has the right to do so.

Where the Expense Amount Comes From

PRO-dela does not ask you to manually enter "how much was spent" — expenses are calculated from two sources already recorded in the task itself: time tracking and fixed monetary costs. The cost of worked time is determined by the rate and payment type saved at the time of recording, or if they were not recorded, by the employee's current rate in the project. Fixed costs are added to the task as a separate line when the expense is not tied to hours.

For details on how time and expenses are recorded for a task, see the article "Time and Expense Tracking for Tasks". The important point here is that both amounts are automatically summed into budget expenses, so the limit and actuals are always compared on the same data, without manual reconciliation in spreadsheets.

If a Task Has No Budget: Limit Is Taken from the Project

Not every task needs its own budget. If no budget entries have been created for a specific task, PRO-dela uses the project budget as its effective limit — so expenses are not counted "into nowhere."

The source of the limit is not hidden: the interface separately shows whether the amount belongs to this task's budget or is a borrowed project limit. This distinction is important when several tasks in a project live without their own budget — otherwise, it would be easy to confuse a private limit with a common one.

The summary for the entire project is structured differently: it adds the project's own budgets and the budgets of all its tasks into one overall picture. This is an aggregate for the entire project, not the same effective limit shown on a specific task — it is important not to confuse these two views.

Currency Mixing: Expenses Are Not Compressed into One Number

Each budget and each expense entry has its own currency. As long as only one currency is used in a project or task, PRO-dela shows a single total: budget, expenses, balance, and usage percentage as one number.

As soon as entries in different currencies come into play, the platform does not try to add them into one sum and does not convert at the exchange rate. Top-level totals are intentionally left empty in this case, and instead a breakdown by each currency is shown separately — with its own budget, expenses, and balance. This is a deliberate limitation: a single number obtained by simply adding, for example, rubles and dollars, would simply be incorrect.

Balance Does Not Go Negative — How to Read Overspending

The budget balance in PRO-dela is always non-negative: if expenses exceed the limit, the "balance" field shows zero, not a negative number. This is a deliberate calculation behavior, not a rounding error.

The fact of overspending itself is not hidden. The budget usage percentage shows a value above 100%, and the indicator and progress bar switch to a warning or alert color when expenses approach or exceed the limit. Overspending should be monitored by the usage percentage, not by the zeroed balance.

Statistics and Dashboards for Budgets

In addition to the cards on the project and task themselves, PRO-dela has a separate statistics section with two tabs. The first is task statistics: summary, charts, and a table of tasks visible to the user, with export to CSV and PDF. The second is expense statistics: time, its cost, fixed task costs, and a combined total with export to CSV.

For a project, a detailed breakdown of expenses by task is also available — which task has "taken" how many hours and fixed costs from the overall budget. Both statistics are calculated within the active company: switch companies and you see the figures for that company, not a combined picture across all companies.

Who Can View and Change the Budget

Access to budgets is managed by separate permissions, not by general project access: budget.view.all opens all budget entries of the project, budget.view.own — only those created by the user themselves, and budget.create, budget.update, and budget.delete handle creation, editing, and deletion. The permission is determined by the participant's role in a specific project, so in the same project, an invited client may not have access to the budget, while a manager may.

This separation is especially useful when external participants are invited to the project: more details on roles and permissions can be found in the article "Roles and Team Members". The budget itself remains a management tool for controlling limits within the project, not accounting or tax records.

How to Add a Budget to a Project

1. Open the desired project and go to the "Budget" tab — it is visible only if you have permission to view budgets.
2. Create a budget entry: specify the amount, currency, and, if needed, a description — for the entire project or for a specific task.
3. If a specific task does not need its own limit, no additional action is required — it will automatically use the project budget.
4. Compare expenses as the team records time and fixed costs in tasks.
5. For an overall picture of the project, open the expense statistics — it shows the same data broken down by all tasks and periods.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I set a budget for both a project and an individual task at the same time?

Yes. These are independent entries: the task budget is used as its own effective limit, while the project budget participates in the overall summary for the entire project together with the budgets of all tasks.

What happens if some expenses are in rubles and others in a different currency?

The total amount will not be calculated as a single number. PRO-dela will show a separate breakdown by each currency — with its own budget, expenses, and balance, without automatic conversion at the exchange rate.

Can the budget balance become negative in case of overspending?

No, the balance field does not drop below zero. Overspending is visible through the budget usage percentage and the color of the indicator, not through a negative balance.

Who sees the project budget — only the company owner?

No, access is determined by the participant's permissions in the project: budget.view.all, budget.view.own, and separate permissions for creation, modification, and deletion can be assigned independently of the owner role.

Register in PRO-dela to set up your first budget on a real project and see how task expenses are calculated automatically, while the balance always honestly shows how much limit remains.