Burden rates help Project Insight calculate the internal labor cost of project work. A burden rate represents what a person’s time costs the organization. When that person is assigned work or logs time on a project, Project Insight can use the burden rate to calculate labor cost.

The basic formula is:

Rate x Hours = Labor Cost

Burden rates are useful when teams need to understand the true cost of project labor, compare planned labor cost to actual labor cost, and evaluate whether project work is financially aligned with the value it delivers.

Where Do I Add Burden Rates?

Burden rates are added on a user’s profile. You need to be a System Administrator or User Administrator to add burden rates.

This Resource Info article explains how to add burden rates to a user profile.

Who Can See Burden Rates?

Burden rate visibility is controlled by role and permission settings.

System roles such as Project Report Viewers and PMO Managers can see burden rates on projects, tasks, and time entries they can access. Project Managers can see burden rates on projects where they are the Project Manager.

How Are Burden Rates Used?

Project Insight can use burden rates in two main ways: to estimate planned labor cost before work begins and to calculate actual labor cost from time entries after work is performed.

Work Time

Work time is the estimated or budgeted labor cost for each task. Project Insight calculates this by multiplying the task’s work hours by the burden rate for the person assigned to the task.

If one person is assigned to the task, Project Insight calculates the labor cost for that assignment.

Single Assignment

If more than one person is assigned to the task, Project Insight calculates the cost for each assigned person and reflects the weighted average cost on the task.

Multiple Assignments

See the Work Estimate Rate Flow article for more information about how rates are applied to planned work on tasks.

Actual Time

Actual time is based on users’ time entries. Project Insight calculates actual labor cost using this formula:

Actual Hours x Burden Rate = Actual Labor Cost

This calculation is applied to each time entry added by each user. As time is logged, Project Insight can help teams compare planned labor cost against actual labor cost.

See the Time Entry Rate Flow article for more information about how burden rates are applied to time entries.

What If I Do Not Want People To See Users’ Hourly Wages?

A common concern is that users may see another person’s hourly wage. Burden rates can help with this because they do not have to equal someone’s exact wage. Many financial teams calculate burden rates using broader labor cost assumptions, such as salary, benefits, overhead, or blended internal cost rates.

The article How to Keep People from Seeing Users' Hourly Wage explains common ways financial teams calculate and protect burden rate information.

Why Do Burden Rates Matter?

Burden rates help teams understand the cost of the labor required to complete project work. When planned work and actual time are connected to burden rates, teams can see whether a project is using more labor than expected, whether costs are changing, and whether the project remains financially aligned with the original plan.

In short, burden rates help Project Insight connect people’s time to project cost visibility.