The hours are in Redmine, the budget is in a spreadsheet. Whether a project is still on track is known only to whoever puts both side by side. That happens rarely and usually too late.
The Reporting plugin converts spent time into amounts and compares it against the budget. Time is still booked on the issue, exactly as before.
How it works day to day
- Store hourly rates. Per user and project, each with a date. The date decides from when a rate applies, so older entries keep the old rate.
- Set the budget. Per project as a total budget, monthly, quarterly or yearly. Alternatively based on hours or days.
- Book time. Nothing changes for the team. Effort is recorded on the issue as before.
- Control billing. A custom field on the time entry decides which hours are billable and which are not.
- Evaluate. Consumption against budget, broken down by project, person and period, as a dashboard block or as an export.
What changes
- The budget status is available at any time instead of once a month.
- Changing an hourly rate does not distort older entries, because the rate carries a valid-from date.
- Billable and internal time stay separate without maintaining two systems.
Who may see hourly rates is controlled by the view budget permission. Without it, a project member sees effort but no amounts.
Which functions the Redmine Reporting plugin brings along and what it costs is described on the product page.