1. Based on Project - Allows users to set a fixed cost budget amount and budget hours for the entire project. Selecting this method also allows users to set a Revenue Budget.
2. Based on Phase - Allows users to set the cost budget amount, revenue budget amount, and hours per phase. The value can be entered when creating a phase. The project budget is calculated as a total of all the phases and phase hours.
3. Based on Task - Allows users to set the cost budget, revenue budget amount, and hours per task. The value can be entered when creating a task. The project budget is calculated as a total of all the tasks and task hours.
4. Based on User - Allows users to set the cost budget, revenue budget amount, and hours per user. The value can be entered when adding users to the project or by editing existing users added to the project.
   

• Based on Staff Hours - Users are assigned different rates, and project billing is based on the user rates of the members working on the project. You can set user rates when adding or editing users.
  
• Based on Project Hours - The billing is based on a fixed project rate. The total hours logged are multiplied with this rate to get the project cost.
  
• Fixed Price for Project - Clients are invoiced based on a fixed cost and this option is available only for portals integrated with Zoho Invoice/Books.
  
• Based on Task/Issue Hours - In task or issue based billing method clients are invoiced based on the Rate Per Hour set in task or issue. This billing method is used when your organization provides services which are independent of each other and hence each task/issue requires a different rate based on their purpose.

Budget Tracking Method

Budget tracking method allows you to track planned and actual costs for project budgets that are based on any module and the Billing Method is set as Fixed Cost for Project. The invoicing is done based on fixed cost.

1. Navigate to Projects and then click New Project.
   
2. Enter the project details.
   
3. Scroll to the budget section.
   
4. Select the Budget Type.
   
5. Select Fixed Cost for Project in the Billing Method section.
   
6. Select a tracking method under the Track Budget drop-down.
   

1. Click Projects in the left navigation panel and navigate to your project.
2. Hover over your project and click the Access Project option.
3. Click Dashboard from the top panel. 
4. Find the Budget Status widget.
5. Select Amount or Hours from the drop-down to view the budget report.
   
6. Budget is calculated automatically every six hours. Click the  button in Budget Status widget if you wish to calculate the latest budget.

• At Risk: (Actual < Budget) && (Forecasted (cost/hours) > Budget)
  
• Overrun: Actual (cost/hours) > Budget
  
• Surplus: Forecasted (cost/hours) <= Budget
  

You can view these tags either in the dashboard or filter your projects based on the tags.

• Rejected and non-billable log hours are not included while calculating Actual hours and Actual cost. 
  
• When team members log time for the task, it will automatically calculate the actual cost of the approved billable hours.
  

Places to View budget Inside Zoho Projects

View your project budget in the following locations,

• Project list page shows the consolidated budget for tasks and issues.
  
• Task and Phase list view shows the planned and actual cost or hours computation for the list of tasks and phases in your project.
  
• Task and task list detailed view provides the planned and actual calculation for that particular task.
  
• View the Budget Status graph on the Dashboard page of your project.
  
• You can view the budget forecast in your project list page, task, task list, and phases detail page, Budget Status graph, and in the overview section on the dashboard. 
  

You can track your project costs with budgets and deliver on time without hassles by managing the planned and actual cost. This allows more accurate planning for future projects, based on the available funds and team bandwidth.