Hi everyone,

I'm currently setting up a project in Zoho Projects and working on implementing a budgeting structure.

I’ve already enabled cost tracking based on hours logged to tasks, but I’m looking to expand this to estimate total actual costs, based on two key parameters:

1. Hours spent, with each user having a predefined hourly cost

2. External costs – such as materials, subcontractors, travel, and other project-related expenses

Ideally, I'd like to be able to assign cost rates to each user and track additional costs that aren't tied directly to time logs. I would like to avoid Zoho Expense, it's not what I'm looking to use here.

This kind of cost estimation is fairly common in project management, but I haven't found a straightforward way to implement both aspects within Zoho Projects. Has anyone tackled this before or found a good workaround. Preferably in Zoho Projects, but Creator or something similar would also be great.

Any ideas or guidance would be greatly appreciated!