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Project Budgets
Project Budget Template
Help your project team control costs and under budget for different tasks using this project budget template.
This template was built with Coda, the all-in-one doc that brings words, data, and teams together. Play with the template below or copy the doc to save your edits.
Category
Task
Owner(s)
Budget
Actuals
Variance
Land Managment
Main architect
$15,000
$15,100
$(100)
Blueprint drafts
$2,000
$1,375
$625
Assistant architect
$8,000
$9,000
$(1,000)
$25,000
Sum
$25,475
Sum
$(475)
Sum
Generativity
Initial design scoping
$3,000
$3,500
$(500)
Software for design
$2,000
$2,495
$(495)
Cabinet designer
$10,000
$7,750
$2,250
$15,000
Sum
$13,745
Sum
$1,255
Sum
Add Here
Bricks for walls
$4,500
$5,000
$(500)
Concrete
$10,000
$12,000
$(2,000)
Surveyor
$4,000
$3,750
$250
$18,500
Sum
$20,750
Sum
$(2,250)
Sum
$58,500
Sum
$59,970
Sum
$(1,470)
Sum
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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After you copy this template, you can start utilizing this free project budget template for your projects and business.
How to use this project budget template in Coda
Step 1: Fill out basic project details
On the page, you’ll see some fields at the top of the page for you to fill out. These are just high-level meta data about your project. You can also rename this page so that the name matches the name of your project. The Last edited date automatically updates based on when someone has made an edit to this template.
Step 2: Add or edit categories for your tasks
If your project has high-level categories or phases, you should edit them in the table. These categories show up in the table. The Description column gives people a sense of what each of your task category or phases means. When your categories are set up, click on the Add an ... button depending on which category you want to start adding tasks to in the main table.
Step 3: Fill out project budget columns
The table is the main table to fill out the budget for each line item (enter a dollar value in the blue Budget column). Each task you add here can have a Labor, Materials, and Other Fixed Costs. These are the “actuals” for the task and are typically entered after you’ve established the budget for the task and have done the research on the costs associated with a task.
If you want to add some additional columns for things like Capital costs or Project delivery costs mentioned above, this template is totally customizable. The only thing to make sure of is to edit the formula in the Actuals column. This column takes all the data you entered in Labor, Materials, and Other Fixed Costs and calculates the actual costs.
Step 4: View budget vs. actuals summary
On the page, you’ll get a bird’s eye view of your project budget, summary, and variance. The two charts below the summary show you a visual of your budget vs. actuals by project category and project task.
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