Guidelines

Master Budget

Project Budgets

Expense Tracker

Help your project team control costs and under budget for different tasks using this project budget template.

Summary of project costs

Be sure to include all project costs here (also called line items). This is going to be a high-level look at what you’re expecting things to cost and where the biggest chunks of the budget are going to be spent. Ideally, this section should outline everything listed below, direct and indirect costs, capital costs, etc., to give stakeholders a sense of what the finer points of the budget are going to look like.

Direct costs

These are actual costs directly related to the project. Direct costs include expenditures like your project team costs, tools, supplies, labor costs, or material costs. Basically, everything you need to do the work itself.

Indirect costs

Indirect costs are costs you need to be aware of, but aren’t connected directly to the project. This doesn’t mean they shouldn't be considered, but they’re mostly things like utilities, building maintenance, security, and administrative costs, etc. In other words, they’re business costs, more than project costs.

Capital costs

Odds are, capital costs aren’t going to be something you need to worry about if you’re working on projects like building software, but they can still exist in some projects, especially when you’re starting a new business. These are one-time expenses that typically come with things like purchasing land, buying company vehicles, or construction costs (if you happen to be working on a construction project).

Operating costs

Operation costs are the expenses related to running your business. They’re not often going to be a factor when running a project, but can be grouped into indirect costs, since the business is still spending the money on them.

Project delivery costs

Project delivery costs are how much money it takes to successfully deliver the project. This is typically where most of your time will be spent when budgeting because you’re putting together a summary of project delivery costs.

Project management costs

Project management costs are similar to project delivery costs, but are more centered on how much it costs to manage everything. This is all the time and energy that goes into making sure everything runs smoothly, stays within budget, and happens on schedule.

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