How Project Costing Works in Project Insight – Project Insight Help Center

Project costing in Project Insight helps teams understand what project work costs, what can be billed, and how those values affect project financial performance.

Costing is different from budgeting. Budgeting helps you set and monitor the financial plan. Costing helps you understand the labor, non-labor, billable, and profitability details behind the work.

Use this guide to understand how Project Insight supports labor costs, non-labor costs, billable values, project profit, financial visibility, and cost classification.

What Is Project Costing In Project Insight?

Project costing is the process of tracking the cost of the work required to complete a project. In Project Insight, project costs can include labor, work expenses, non-labor costs, billable expenses, and other financial values tied to tasks, time entries, expenses, and reports.

Project Insight helps teams connect cost information to project execution so project managers, PMOs, finance teams, and leadership can better understand whether the work is financially aligned with the original plan.

Best For

Use project costing when your team needs to:

Understand the true labor cost of project work
Track non-labor costs such as materials, travel, software, hardware, or purchases
Compare planned costs to actual costs
Track billable and non-billable project values
Understand project profit
Control who can see sensitive financial information
Classify costs for finance reporting, including CapEx when needed

Start With The Costing Area You Need.

If your team needs to...	Use...	This helps you...
Calculate the internal cost of people’s time	Burden rates	Track labor cost using rate x hours
Plan non-labor costs on tasks	Work Expense and Work Billable Expense	Track expected costs and billable amounts before execution
Break non-labor costs into quantity and rate details	Work Expense Details	Build up task-level cost and billable totals from detailed rows
Measure project profitability	Project profit calculations	Compare revenue against cost at different points in the project lifecycle
Control access to financial data	Financial visibility rules	Protect actual cost, billable values, and sensitive rate information
Classify costs for finance reporting	CapEx task flagging	Identify tasks that should be treated as capital expenditure

How Does Project Insight Calculate Labor Costs?

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

The basic formula is:

Rate x Hours = Labor Cost

For planned work, Project Insight can use assigned work hours and the user’s burden rate to estimate labor cost before work begins. For actual work, Project Insight can use time entries and the user’s burden rate to calculate actual labor cost as the project is executed.

This helps teams understand not only how much time a project requires, but what that time costs the organization.

How Does Project Insight Track Non-Labor Costs?

Labor is only one part of project cost. Projects can also include non-labor costs such as software, hardware, travel, supplies, equipment, materials, contractor costs, or other project-related purchases.

Project Insight lets teams track planned and actual non-labor values using task-level work expense fields and expense entries.

What You Are Tracking	Project Insight Field	Where It Is Entered
Planned non-labor cost	Work Expense	Task
Actual non-labor cost	Actual Expense	Expense entry
Planned non-labor revenue	Work Billable Expense	Task
Actual billable amount	Billable Expense	Expense entry
Invoiced amount	Invoice Records	Invoice record

This gives teams a clearer way to compare what they expected to spend, what they actually spent, what they expected to charge, and what was ultimately invoiced.

How Do You Add More Detail To Work Expenses?

Sometimes a task needs more cost detail without creating multiple tasks. For example, one task may represent a deliverable, purchase, or project activity, but the cost behind that task may include several items, quantities, rates, or billable amounts.

Work Expense and Work Billable Expense details let teams build up task-level totals from more detailed rows. These rows can include line number, name, expense code, quantity, cost rate, billable rate, total, and billable total.

Use detailed work expense rows when you need to:

Break one task-level non-labor amount into multiple detail rows
Track quantity, cost rate, and billable rate
Use expense codes for better reporting
Connect planned non-labor details to proposal line items
Support invoice record line items later in the workflow

How Does Project Insight Calculate Project Profit?

If your company charges customers for projects, Project Insight can help measure project profit by comparing project revenue against project costs.

Profit values are available on project reports and can be used to understand planned profit, target profit, forecasted profit, and actual profit. Different profit calculations are useful at different points in the project lifecycle.

Profit Measurement	Common Use
Profit - Target	Shows the profit target entered at the overall project level.
Profit - Planned	Shows expected profit based on the project plan.
Profit - Project	Shows planned profit based on the project schedule, often for time and materials projects.
Profit - Forecasted	Shows expected profit once the project is in execution mode.
Profit - Forecasted CPI	Shows forecasted profit while factoring in cost performance index.
Profit - Actual	Shows actual profit after work is complete.

These calculations help teams compare the financial plan to project execution and understand whether the project is performing as expected.

Who Can See Project Cost And Billable Information?

Costing information can be sensitive. Project Insight uses role-based visibility rules to control who can see actual hours, billable hours, work cost, actual cost, billable price, and other financial values.

Team members may see their own work and actual hours, while Project Managers, PMO Managers, Time / Expense / Invoice Managers, Project Report Viewers, and other system roles may have broader visibility depending on configuration.

If someone fits into multiple roles, they receive the greatest level of visibility available to them.

How Does CapEx Classification Fit Into Project Costing?

Some organizations need to identify certain project tasks as capital expenditures, or CapEx, so finance teams can treat those costs appropriately for accounting and reporting purposes.

In Project Insight, teams can flag tasks as CapEx using a task custom field. Once the field is available on the task list, users can mark the appropriate tasks and report on CapEx and non-CapEx work.

Use CapEx task classification when you need to:

Identify which tasks should be treated as capital expenditure
Support finance reporting requirements
Separate CapEx and non-CapEx work in task reports
Align project cost data with finance and accounting needs

How Does Costing Connect To Billing And Invoicing?

Costing helps teams understand what the work costs. Billing and invoicing help teams understand what the customer is charged. These are connected, but they are not the same workflow.

Project Insight invoice records can connect approved time, expenses, and billing data. This helps teams compare what was worked, what was billable, and what was invoiced.

Related article: Invoice Records

How Does Costing Connect To Budgeting?

Budgeting sets the financial target. Costing shows what the work requires and what the work actually costs.

Together, budgeting and costing help teams answer questions like:

What did we expect the project to cost?
What does the planned work cost?
What has the work actually cost so far?
What is billable?
What has been invoiced?
Are we making or losing money?
Which parts of the project are changing the financial picture?

For budgeting setup, budget reporting, planned value, earned value, and forecasting, review the related budgeting articles in the Project Budgeting section.

Common Questions

What Is The Difference Between Budgeting And Costing?

Budgeting defines the financial plan or target for the project. Costing tracks the labor, non-labor, billable, and actual values that show what the work costs and how the project is performing financially.

Can Project Insight Track Labor Costs?

Yes. Project Insight can calculate labor cost using burden rates and time or work hours.

Can Project Insight Track Non-Labor Costs?

Yes. Project Insight can track non-labor costs using Work Expense, Actual Expense, Work Billable Expense, Billable Expense, and related task or expense details.

Can Project Insight Track Project Profit?

Yes. Project Insight includes project profit calculations that compare revenue against cost at different points in the project lifecycle.

Can Project Insight Protect Sensitive Cost Information?

Yes. Project Insight uses role-based financial visibility rules to control who can see actual hours, billable hours, work cost, actual cost, billable price, and other sensitive financial values.

In Short

Project costing in Project Insight helps teams understand the financial reality behind project work.

By connecting labor costs, non-labor costs, billable values, profit calculations, visibility rules, and cost classifications, Project Insight helps teams see what work costs, what can be billed, and how project execution affects financial performance.