Projects → Project Reports has three reports for managers:
- Profitability — cost, billing and margin for each project.
- Open & overdue tasks — who has what open, and what is late.
- Material usage — stock allocated to tasks against what was actually used.
The figures come from the documents linked to tasks (expenditures, vendor bills, stock consumptions and invoices), so they always agree with your accounts.
The Projects module only appears when your subscription plan includes Projects. These reports also need the Project Reports permission.
Before you start
- Costs and invoices only count once they are linked to a task. See Task costs, vendors and linked documents.
Steps
- Open Projects → Project Reports.
- Click the tab for the report you want.
- Narrow it down with the filters under the tabs. Every report has a date range; the other filters depend on the report (see below). The totals on the right of the filter row follow the filters.
- Click a project or task in the report to open it.
- To print or save as PDF, click Print / PDF and use the browser's print dialog (choose Save as PDF as the printer). The printout carries the report title and the date range, without the menu or filters.
- To take the figures into a spreadsheet, click Excel or CSV. The file contains the same rows and totals as the screen, with numbers kept as numbers so you can add them up.
The date range
Period offers the same presets as the list screens (Today, This week, This month to date, Last month, This fiscal year …). Pick All to remove the date limit. Editing From or To by hand switches the period to Custom.
What the dates apply to differs by report, because the three reports are about different things:
| Report | The range keeps… |
|---|---|
| Profitability | projects whose start-to-due window overlaps the range. A project with no dates is always kept. |
| Open & overdue tasks | tasks due in the range. With a range set, tasks with no due date are left out. |
| Material usage | allocations on tasks due in the range (an allocation has no date of its own). |
Profitability
One row per project, with totals at the bottom. Filter by Status, by Type (projects, jobs, or both) and by Customer.
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Cost | Money actually spent: expenditures, vendor bills and stock consumed. |
| On order | Vendor job orders not yet billed. Expect this to become cost. |
| Billed | Invoiced to the customer. |
| Received | Paid by the customer against those invoices. |
| Unbilled | The planned bill (billable service lines on the tasks) less what has been billed. Never below zero. |
| Margin | Billed minus cost. Red when negative. |
| Margin % | Margin as a share of billed. Blank (—) until something is billed. |
Open & overdue tasks
Every task that is not Done or Cancelled, grouped by assignee. The chips above the table give each person's open count and, in red, how many are overdue. Narrow it by Assignee or Project, or tick Overdue only to see just the late ones. Overdue rows are tinted.
Columns: Task, Project, Status, Priority, Due (red when overdue), Late (days) and Done %.
Material usage
One row per stock allocation on a task. Filter by Project.
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Allocated | What was set aside for the task. |
| Consumed | What was actually used. |
| Remaining | Still to use. Shows released for allocations that no longer hold stock. |
| Over / (under) | Used more than allocated (red) or less (in brackets). |
| Planned cost | Allocated quantity at the planned cost rate. |
Released allocations are greyed out.
Tips
- Check Unbilled and On order together before quoting a final margin. One is money still to come in, the other is cost still to come.
- Use Open & overdue tasks in your weekly meeting to balance workload.
- Large Over figures in Material usage usually mean the job was under-estimated, or stock was used without an allocation.
Common problems
- I cannot open Project Reports → you need the Project Reports permission.
- A project shows no cost → its expenditures and bills are not linked to a task. Open the task and use Link existing.
- Margin % shows — → nothing has been billed on that project yet.
- A person's tasks are missing from Open & overdue tasks → those tasks are Done or Cancelled, or are assigned to someone else.
- Material usage says "No allocations." → no stock has been allocated to any task yet.
- A task I expected is missing from Open & overdue tasks or Material usage → it has no due date and a date range is set. Change Period to All.
- The printout is blank or shows the menu → close the print dialog, wait for the report to finish loading, and click Print / PDF again.
- Excel is greyed out → the report has no rows, or is still loading.