The Project Effectiveness export helps you evaluate the profitability of your projects - both overall and specifically on work, production and media costs (income streams). You can track margin at the level of individual budget items, and drill into exactly where a project's profit came from.
Where to find Project Effectiveness Export
Go to Projects -> Export (top right) -> Project Effectiveness.
Some line items may show negative values - for example, if a budget item's hours were overspent. However, a project can still be profitable overall even with overspent hours, if it gained enough on external costs (production/media commissions). This report gives you the full picture needed to judge that.
This makes the export especially useful for bigger-picture decisions — for example, comparing whether it's more profitable to keep three smaller clients versus one large one.
Note: Only approved expenses are pulled into this export. The export downloads exactly what you currently have filtered on the Projects screen. The report is real-time and always reflects the project's status as of today - there's no option to select a date range or view results for a past period.
The Project Effectiveness export provides a complete financial breakdown of every project, item by item - planned budget vs actual spend, invoicing, labour costs, expenses, and gross profit. It's the fastest way to see exactly where a project stands financially.
Column reference
General project information
Legal entity – The legal entity the project is billed under.
Team – The team assigned to the project.
Project Manager – The project's assigned manager.
Client – The client the project belongs to.
Brand – The brand the project belongs to.
Project code – The project's unique code.
Project name
Project categories
Billing category – e.g. Billable, Non-billable.
Project status – e.g. Active, Finished, Archived.
Budget item details
Budget item – The name of the individual budget item.
Budget item category – e.g. Our work, Production, Media.
Budget item status – "Closed" means the budget item was closed by the Project Manager and no further expenses are expected on it.
Invoiced amount (No VAT) – The invoiced amount of the budget item, excluding VAT.
Invoiced vs. Budget – The amount still remaining to be invoiced (the difference between the total budget and the invoiced amount).
Invoice number – The invoice number(s) the budget item was invoiced under. If invoiced across multiple invoices, numbers are separated by ",".
Date of supply – The date of supply from the assigned invoice(s). Multiple dates are separated by ",".
Supply month – The month of the date of supply.
Issue month – The month the invoice(s) were issued.
Project Start date – As entered in the project edit form.
Expected Project End Date – As entered in the project edit form.
Project Completion date – The date the project's status changed to Finished.
Progress – Progress of the Work budget item, shown as a percentage.
Work
Work Budget – Total budget allocated to the Work budget item.
Work Invoiced – Invoiced amount of the Work budget item (no VAT).
Work Spent – Tracked time × client hourly rate per position, plus any work expenses not tied to time tracking.
Work Spent (Billable) – Work Spent calculated only from billable tasks.
Work Spent (Non-Billable) – Work Spent calculated only from non-billable tasks.
Work Labor Cost – Tracked time × internal hourly rate per person.
Work Actual Expenses – Expenses assigned to the budget item, regardless of time tracking.
Work Efficiency – Work Invoiced minus Work Spent.
Work Actual Profit – Work Invoiced minus (Work Labor Cost + Work Actual Expenses).
Production
Production - Invoiced – Invoiced amount of the Production budget item (no VAT).
Production - Budgeted Buy Price – The expected agency cost to obtain the items (not shown in client-facing exports). Defaults to Client Price if not filled in.
Production - Budgeted Client Price – The price shown to the client before expense fees are added.
Production - Budgeted Client Commission – The fee declared and shown to the client.
Production - Budgeted Total Client Price (With Commission) – Budgeted Client Price + Budgeted Client Commission.
Production - Budgeted Profit Estimate – Budgeted Total Client Price minus Budgeted Buy Price.
Production - Actual Expenses – Sum of expenses assigned to the budget item, excluding expenses with "Draft" or "For approval" status.
Production - Budget vs Actual Expenses – Budgeted Total Client Price minus Actual Expenses.
Production - Actual Profit – Production Invoiced minus Production Actual Expenses.
Production - Adjusted Cost Ratio – (Production Invoiced ÷ Production Total Client Price) × Production Buy Price.
Media
Same structure as Production above (Invoiced, Budgeted Buy Price, Budgeted Client Price, Budgeted Client Commission, Budgeted Total Client Price, Budgeted Profit Estimate, Actual Expenses, Budget vs Actual Expenses, Actual Profit, Adjusted Cost Ratio).
Totals
Total Expenses – Work Actual Expenses + Production Actual Expenses + Media Actual Expenses.
Profit (Total) – Work Actual Profit + Production Actual Profit + Media Actual Profit.
Estimated Gross Income – Work Budget + Production Budgeted Profit Estimate + Media Budgeted Profit Estimate.