Edition: All
User-Level: User and Above
Permissions (Enterprise Only): Manage Projects (security group) - Access Project Breakdown, Project Financials.
Viewing budget lines and the aggregated Budget Total and Units columns requires read access to the budget; creating, editing, and deleting budget lines additionally requires edit access to the project and stage.
Project Breakdown now supports full budget line management. You can view, create, edit, and delete budget lines directly on a Stage, with totals and rate-dependent fields kept up to date automatically, without switching to the legacy Budget screen.
Key Updates
View budget lines nested under each Stage, with rate, units, value, and budget total shown for every line.
Create a new budget line directly on a Stage from Project Breakdown.
Edit a budget line's Task, Budget Rate, Units/Value, and Staff inline in the table.
Delete a budget line, with confirmation before it's removed.
See rolled-up Budget Total and Units on every Stage row, kept current automatically.
Add a new budget line to a Stage using "Insert Budget", grouped with the table's other insert actions.
Edit a Stage's Budget Date inline to recalculate every open budget line using the rates that apply on the new date.
A Budget Rate must be selected before a line's other fields unlock, so a line can't be saved without one.
Viewing Budget Lines
Stages with budget lines show an expand indicator next to the Stage name. Stages with no budget show no indicator.
Click the expand indicator to load that Stage's budget lines. Lines load only when you expand a Stage, so the page stays fast even on large projects.
Each budget line shows the following columns, left to right: Task, Budget Rate, Type, Category, Units/Value, Rate Value/Markup, and Budget Total.
Type and Category - shown as chips describing the rate applied to the line (for example Staff, Inspection, Lump Sum, or Contingency). Both are derived automatically from the rate and can't be set or edited independently.
Example: Priya opens Project Breakdown for a fit-out project and expands the Site survey stage. She sees a budget line underneath it, each showing its Task, Rate, Type, Units, and Budget Total, so she can check what's been budgeted without switching to the legacy Budget screen.
Creating a Budget Line
Select "Insert Budget" from the table's insert actions (next to Insert Stage), or use the insert control under an expanded Stage.
Select a Budget Rate. This is mandatory - the rest of the line's fields stay locked until a rate is chosen, and the rate field is highlighted with a tooltip reading "Select a rate to unlock budget fields".
Complete the Task, Units/Value, and Staff fields.
If the project is in planning mode and the Stage has both a Start and End date set - creating a budget line also creates a matching resourcing estimate, so the work appears in resource planning.
If the project is in delivery mode, or the Stage has no dates set - only the budget line is created, with no resourcing impact.
Business edition organisations don't support resourcing, so budget lines there always behave as they would in delivery mode.
Editing a Budget Line
Click a cell to edit it in place, the same way you edit other fields on Project Breakdown.
Budget Rate - changing it recalculates the line's total and any dependent fields, including which staff are available to assign.
Task - only tasks belonging to the same Stage can be selected.
Units/Value - behaves according to whichever type currently applies to the line (units-based or fixed value); changing it recalculates the total.
Staff - only staff configured to charge at the line's current rate are shown, so a budget line's rate can't end up assigned to someone who isn't set up to charge at it.
A failed save reverts the cell to its previous value. None of these fields are editable once the budget line has been invoiced, or once its Stage is locked.
Splitting a Budget Line
Split a budget line into two lines without changing the original total. Use it to move part of a budget to another staff member, task, or amount.
Open the ellipsis menu on a saved budget line's row and select "Split Budget".
Enter the amount to split off. The fields shown depend on the line's rate type (see below).
Check the live preview, which shows both resulting lines as you type.
Select "Split" to save. The original line is reduced and the new line is created in one step.
Fields by rate type
Staff / Inspection - Task, Staff, and Units.
Cash Expense / Supplier / Supplier Item - a dollar Value.
Travel Expense / Office Expense - Units.
Lump Sum - a dollar Value. You can also pick a different rate for the new line. The fields then change to match that rate type (for example, choosing a Staff rate shows Task, Staff, and Units, and calculates the value from the staff member's rate).
Only Lump Sum lines let you change the rate on the new line. For every other rate type, the new line keeps the original line's rate, and the Rate field is locked.
Rules
You can split off any amount up to the full line. Splitting the full amount moves the whole line to the new line.
An amount of 0, or more than the line holds, shows a warning and Split stays disabled.
Stage, Phase, and project Budget Totals don't change, and the Stage's fee is unchanged.
Markup on an expense rate is applied once, to the new line's value.
Any rate variation set on the Stage is applied to the new line.
Unsaved (draft) lines and Contingency lines can't be split - "Split Budget" isn't shown on them.
If the Stage status is Proposal or Active - "Split Budget" is available, in both planning and delivery mode.
If the Stage status is On Hold, Pending Invoice, Complete, or Unsuccessful - "Split Budget" isn't shown.
If the project is in planning mode - when you split a Staff line, the resourcing hours move with the units. When you split a Lump Sum line onto a Staff rate, a resourcing estimate is created for the new line.
If the project is in delivery mode - the split doesn't change resourcing.
Example: Priya has a $10,000 Lump Sum line on the Design development stage. She splits off $6,000 onto a Staff rate for Sam (30 units), then splits $1,000 from the remaining lump sum onto the Meals expense rate. The Stage now has three lines - $3,000 Lump Sum, $6,000 Staff, and $1,000 Meals - and the Stage total stays at $10,000.
Deleting a Budget Line
Open the ellipsis menu on the budget line's row and select "Delete".
Confirm the deletion.
The line is removed immediately; if the delete fails, it's restored. Deleting a budget line never deletes the Task it was linked to, but it does delete any resourcing estimate tied to it. Once the last budget line on a Stage is deleted, the Stage no longer shows an expand indicator.
If the Stage or Project status is Unsuccessful or Complete - the budget line can't be deleted.
If the project is archived - the budget line can't be deleted.
If the Stage status is Proposal, Active, Pending Invoice, or On Hold - deletion is allowed, matching today's behaviour on the legacy Budget screen.
Users without edit access to the budget don't see the ellipsis menu on budget lines. Users with "Add and Edit My Stages" can only delete budget lines on Stages they manage.
Clearing a Budget
Remove every budget line on a Stage, or across the whole project, in one action instead of deleting lines one at a time. Tasks linked to the cleared lines are kept.
Clear one Stage
Open the ellipsis menu on the Stage row and select "Clear Budget" (directly above Delete).
Confirm in the dialog, which names the Stage being cleared.
A "Budget cleared" message confirms it's done. The Stage's lines are removed and its totals update.
"Clear Budget" only appears on Stage rows that have budget lines. It isn't shown on Phase rows.
Clear every eligible Stage in the project
Open the ellipsis menu at the top of the Project Breakdown table and select "Clear Budget".
Confirm in the dialog.
Every Stage with a Proposal or Active status is cleared. Stages with any other status keep their budget lines.
Which Stages can be cleared
Only Stages whose status type is Proposal or Active. This includes your organisation's custom statuses of those types.
On a Stage with any other status, "Clear Budget" is greyed out with the tooltip "Budget can only be cleared while the stage is Proposal or Active."
At table level, "Clear Budget" is greyed out when no Stage is eligible, or when the project is Complete.
Clear Budget is a bulk action, so it can't be used on Pending Invoice or On Hold Stages. To remove lines from those Stages, delete them one at a time - see Deleting a Budget Line.
Cancelling the dialog makes no changes.
If the project is in planning mode - the Stage's fee is set to 0 and its resourcing estimates are removed.
If the project is in delivery mode - the Stage's fee and resourcing estimates are kept. Resourcing hours are recalculated.
Example: Priya's delivery-mode project has four Stages: two Active, one Pending Invoice, and one Complete. She selects "Clear Budget" from the table menu. The two Active Stages are cleared, the other two keep their lines, and the project Budget Total drops from $9,440 to $4,720.
Stage-Level Budget Actions
Every Stage row shows aggregated Budget Total and Units columns, rolled up from all of that Stage's budget lines.
Use "Insert Budget", grouped with the table's other insert actions alongside Insert Stage, to open a new budget line to complete on that Stage.
Editing the Budget Date on the Stage row recalculates every open budget line on that Stage using the rates that apply on the new date, since rate values can vary by date.
Use "Clear Budget" on the Stage row menu to remove all of that Stage's budget lines.
The Stage and Phase row menus are now grouped with dividers, and "Duplicate" reads "Duplicate Stage" or "Duplicate Phase". Delete actions show in red.
Example: Priya moves a Stage's Budget Date from March to June because the work has been rescheduled. Every open budget line under that Stage recalculates using June's rate values, and the Stage's Budget Total updates to match.
Budget Totals and Recalculation
Each Stage row shows a rolled-up Budget Total across all of its budget lines, without needing to expand the Stage.
Phase rows and the Project Breakdown table footer show the same rolled-up Budget Total, aggregated from every Stage beneath them.
Stage, Phase, and table-footer Budget Totals update automatically after every create, edit, or delete - no page reload required.
Applying a project template now calculates budget totals synchronously, so the totals returned immediately after applying a template are always current.
Numeric range filters are available on Budget Total columns.
Permissions
Manage Projects (security group): Access Project Breakdown, Project Financials - required to see budget lines and totals at all.
Read access to budget - required to view budget lines, and to see the aggregated Budget Total and Units columns on the Stage row.
Edit access to budget - required to create, edit, split, or delete budget lines, and to use "Insert Budget".
Clear Budget - requires View budget and Edit budget, plus either "Add and Edit All Stages", or "Add and Edit My Stages" on a Stage you manage. Without these, "Clear Budget" isn't shown.
"Add and Edit My Stages" only - you can split, delete, and clear budget lines on Stages you manage, but not on other Stages. At table level, "Clear Budget" only clears the Stages you manage.