Budget Tracker

Running over budget is one of the most common ways freelancers leave money on the table — or worse, finish a project at a loss. Stintly's Budget Tracker gives you a real-time view of where every active job stands against its estimate, so you can catch problems early and act before it's too late.

What the Budget Tracker Shows

Open the Budget Tracker from your Dashboard → Budget Overview. The screen displays a card for every active job that has a budget set. Each card shows:

• Budget vs. spent progress bar — a horizontal bar that fills as costs accumulate; color-coded by status
• Hours worked vs. estimated hours — a second bar tracking time alongside money, so you can spot if a fixed-price job is consuming more hours than planned even before the dollar budget is hit
• Job status indicator — a colored badge showing whether the job is On Track, At Risk, or Over Budget
• Exact figures — spent amount and total budget displayed numerically so you can see the precise gap at a glance

At the top of the screen, three summary pills give you an instant portfolio snapshot:

The count inside each pill tells you exactly how many of your current jobs fall into each category. Tap any job card to open that job's detail view for a deeper look at what's driving the spend.

Setting Budgets on Jobs

Budget tracking only works if you add budget information when creating a job. Go to Jobs → + New Job (or edit an existing job) and fill in the budget fields:

• Budget — the total dollar amount you've agreed to deliver the project for, or the maximum you're willing to spend
• Estimated hours — how many hours you expect the work to take; this is used to calculate the hours progress bar alongside the dollar budget
• Rate type — choose Hourly, Fixed, or Retainer depending on how you're billing the client
• Rate amount — your hourly rate (for hourly jobs) or the agreed fixed fee; used to convert time entries into dollar costs automatically

If you're taking on a fixed-price project, set the Budget to the total contract value and Rate type to Fixed. Stintly will still track hours against your estimated hours so you can see if the job is consuming more time than planned, even though the client pays a flat fee.

Tip: Always fill in both the Budget and Estimated Hours fields. Budget tells you if you're spending too much money; Estimated Hours tells you if you're spending too much time. Both matter for profitability.

Reading the Budget Dashboard

Each job card has two progress bars stacked vertically. The top bar tracks dollars spent vs. budget. The bottom bar tracks hours worked vs. estimated hours.

Costs that count toward the budget include:

• Time entries — hours logged against the job multiplied by your rate; this is usually the largest component
• Materials costs — physical supplies or subcontractor costs logged under the job
• Expenses — any expense record linked to the job (travel, software, tools, etc.)

Stintly adds all three automatically, so the progress bar reflects the true all-in cost of delivering the project — not just your time.

Understanding Status Colors

Stintly uses three status levels to communicate urgency at a glance:

• On Track (green) — spending is within normal range relative to the budget. The job is progressing without concern. Keep working.
• At Risk (amber) — spending is approaching the budget limit. You haven't exceeded it yet, but you're close enough that it's worth reviewing scope and hours remaining. This is the early warning signal.
• Over Budget (red) — total costs have exceeded the agreed budget. Immediate attention is needed. Either scope has crept, hours ran long, or unexpected expenses were added.

The thresholds for At Risk vs. On Track are calibrated so you get a warning while there's still room to act — not after the project is already a loss.

Taking Action on At-Risk Jobs

An amber or red status is a signal, not a verdict. When you see a job flagged At Risk or Over Budget, here are the most effective responses:

1. Open the job detail — tap the card to see a full breakdown of time entries, materials, and expenses. Identify which category is driving overages.
2. Check for scope creep — review your task list and recent time entries. Are you doing work that wasn't in the original agreement? If so, document it immediately.
3. Have a scope conversation — if work has expanded beyond the original brief, raise a change order or a revised estimate with your client before completing the additional work. Use Stintly's estimate feature to formalize the new scope.
4. Adjust your remaining hours — if the project must stay at its original price, tighten your time management for the remaining work. Update your estimated hours to reflect what's actually left.
5. Track closely until completion — log time daily on at-risk jobs rather than catching up weekly. Frequent logging keeps the numbers accurate and prevents surprises at project close.

A client conversation about scope is always better when it happens before you finish the work. Stintly's early warning system gives you the data to have that conversation at the right moment.

Tips for Effective Budget Tracking

The Budget Tracker is only as useful as the data behind it. These habits make it work reliably:

• Set budgets on every job, not just large ones — small projects can slip over budget just as easily as large ones, and the habit of budgeting all work builds accurate historical data for future estimates
• Check the Budget Overview weekly — a weekly review of At Risk and Over Budget counts takes two minutes and ensures nothing quietly spirals before you notice
• Log time daily or at the end of each session — the budget dashboard is only accurate if your time entries are current; logging in real time or at day's end is far more reliable than reconstructing a week of work on Friday
• Link all expenses to their job — when you log a business expense related to a project, always assign it to the relevant job so the dollar progress bar reflects your true cost
• Use historical data to estimate better — after you close a completed job, look at actual hours vs. estimated hours in the job detail. If you consistently underestimate by 20%, build that buffer into future quotes from the start
• Add materials costs as you incur them — don't wait until invoice time to log materials; adding them immediately keeps the budget view accurate throughout the job lifecycle

Want to go deeper? Learn how to set up jobs with clients or explore profitability reports to see which clients and project types earn the most.