Project profitability shows whether a project makes money: revenue invoiced for it, the cost of approved labor, supplier bills and expenses linked to it, and the resulting profit, margin and budget variance. Use it per project, or use the Projects & Timesheet reports to compare projects.
Where to find it
| Screen | How to open it | URL |
|---|---|---|
| Project financial workspace | Projects rail → choose a project → Selected project → Accounting & profitability | /project-finance/{id}?tab=financials |
| Project profitability page | Accounting & profitability → Profitability | /project-finance/{id}/profitability |
| Project reports | Reports → Projects & Timesheet | /reports/projects/… |
The Project profitability page needs the Projects, Project revenue and Project profitability plan features. Amounts need the View project financial summaries permission; without it, financial values are hidden with "Permission is required to view project financials."
What counts as revenue and cost
| Figure | Includes | Excludes |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | Non-draft standard invoice lines linked to the project. | Retainer (advance) invoices; unbilled time. |
| Labor cost | Internally approved time entries at the member's cost rate. | Draft or submitted time. |
| External cost | Non-draft project-linked bills and posted project-linked expenses. | Drafts. |
| Pending cost | Submitted (not yet approved) labor, draft bills and draft expenses. Shown separately, not deducted. | — |
| Profit | Revenue − (labor cost + external cost). | Pending cost. |
| Margin | Profit ÷ revenue. Shown only when revenue is above zero. | — |
| Budget / Budget variance | The project's planned budget, and planned − actual cost, in the budget's currency. | — |
Customer approval of time changes billing readiness, not revenue. Once time is approved internally, its labor cost stays in project cost.
Read the Project profitability page
The page title is Project profitability ("Project-level P&L sourced from standard invoice revenue, approved labor, and posted project-linked AP spend."). Buttons at the top-right: Open in SolaProjects and Back to project.
Summary
| Tile | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Revenue, Cost, Profit, Margin | Totals for single-currency projects. |
| Billable (total) / Already billed / Ready to bill / Pending approval / Blocked by customer approval | Billing candidates from time entries, project bills, expenses and invoice lines. Read-only; nothing is changed. |
| Retainers funded / Retainers available | Advances received for the project and the amount still available to apply (View project retainers →). |
Profitability breakdown
One row per currency ("Revenue, labor cost, external cost, profit, margin, and budget variance stay project-scoped and currency-safe."):
Currency, Revenue, Labor cost, External cost, Pending cost, Budget, Budget variance, Profit, Margin.
Amounts in different currencies are never added together. A project with AED and USD invoices shows two rows. If nothing is linked yet, the page shows No profitability data with "Link invoice lines to the project and approve time entries to generate a real project P&L."
Financial actuals on the project overview
The project's Overview tab has a Financial actuals panel with Invoiced, Supplier bills and Direct expenses in the organization base currency (converted at the posting exchange rates). If the organization has no base currency yet, it shows "Set the organization base currency to display financial amounts."
The Accounting & profitability tab holds the shortcuts to Profitability and to new project documents (see Projects in SolaCount).
Financial workspace and outstanding balances
The project page in SolaCount (Project finance) also has a Financial workspace card ("Posted accounting activity from SolaCount. Amounts remain separated by currency; base-currency totals use posting exchange rates."). It needs View project financial summaries; without it you see "Permission is required to view project financials."
| Tile | What it counts |
|---|---|
| Total invoiced | Standard invoices linked to the project that are not draft, void or cancelled (retainer invoices excluded), per currency. |
| Total collected | Posted customer payment allocations to those invoices. |
| Outstanding receivables | Invoiced minus collected minus credit notes applied to those invoices. |
| Supplier billed | Bills linked to the project that are not draft, void or cancelled, per currency. |
| Supplier paid | Posted supplier payment allocations to those bills. |
| Outstanding payables | Bills minus payments minus debit notes applied to those bills, plus the unpaid part of posted project expenses (an expense is a payable until it is paid). |
| Direct expenses | Posted, partly paid and paid expenses linked to the project. |
| Journal adjustments | Debits minus credits of journal lines tagged with the project, in base currency. |
Below the tiles, Base-currency totals repeats invoiced, supplier billed and direct expenses in your base currency, and Recent financial activity lists the latest documents.
Since 12 October 2026 the outstanding figures follow these rules, so they agree with the customer and supplier balances:
- Only credit and debit notes that are posted and actually applied to a project document reduce its balance. A note that is unapplied, refunded in cash, draft, void or cancelled is not settlement. Notes of another customer or supplier, or another organization, are never counted.
- Outstanding receivables cannot go below zero on the portfolio view, and a document in a foreign currency is reduced in its own currency (amounts of different currencies are never added together).
- Unpaid project expenses are included in payables, so a project that was paid for by expense (no bill) still shows what remains to pay.
Posted project financials (portfolio)
The Projects list page shows a Posted project financials card in your base currency with Revenue, Costs and Profit for the projects you can see. It states its scope: "Only posted project-tagged revenue and expense/COGS lines are included. Tax and capital purchases are excluded. Unassigned costs and unposted labor estimates are not allocated; complete project costing is not established." The numbers come from posted journal lines tagged with the project (revenue accounts less expense and cost-of-goods accounts), the same source as the monthly trend, rather than from document totals; receivables on the portfolio view use the gross invoiced amount minus collected and applied credits, and payables the unpaid supplier cost plus unpaid expenses.
Example (AED). Marina Tower has a posted invoice of AED 52,500 (50,000 + 2,500 VAT) and a posted supplier bill of AED 21,000 (20,000 + 1,000 VAT), both tagged to the project, plus a posted expense of AED 630 (600 + 30 VAT) that is unpaid. The customer has paid AED 30,000, and a credit note of AED 5,250 (5,000 + 250 VAT) has been applied to the invoice. The bill has been paid AED 10,000 and a debit note of AED 2,100 has been applied to it.
| Tile | Calculation | AED |
|---|---|---|
| Total invoiced | Invoice total | 52,500.00 |
| Total collected | Payments allocated | 30,000.00 |
| Outstanding receivables | 52,500 - 30,000 - 5,250 credit applied | 17,250.00 |
| Supplier billed / paid | 21,000 / 10,000 | 21,000.00 / 10,000.00 |
| Outstanding payables | (21,000 - 10,000 - 2,100 debit note applied) + (630 expense - 0 paid) | 9,530.00 |
| Direct expenses | Posted expense total | 630.00 |
On the Posted project financials card, revenue is the project-tagged revenue lines (50,000.00 from the invoice, less any project-tagged credit-note lines) and cost is the project-tagged expense lines (20,000.00 from the bill plus 600.00 from the expense; the VAT is excluded), so profit before credit notes is 29,400.00. If the credit note had only been issued but not applied to the invoice, the invoice's outstanding balance would stay AED 22,500.00 (52,500 - 30,000) until the credit is applied.
Project reports
Reports → Projects & Timesheet (and Reports → Budgets → Project Budget Control Report). Each report has filters for Project (All projects), From, To and, for time reports, approval and billing status, plus Apply filters, Reset filters and Export CSV.
| Report | Columns |
|---|---|
| Timesheet Details | Entry date, Project, Task, Member, Hours, Billable amount, Labor cost, Approval status, Billing status. Totals: entries, hours, billable, labor cost. |
| Timesheet Profitability Summary | Project, Entries, Hours, Billable amount, Labor cost, Profit. |
| Project Summary | Project, Customer, Manager, Status, Period, Revenue, Cost, Profit, Ready to bill. |
| Project details | Project, Customer, Manager, Billing type, Status, Progress, Contract value, Budget amount, Period. |
| Projects Cost Summary | Project, Approved cost, Pending cost, Labor cost, Bill cost, Expense cost. |
| Projects Revenue Summary | Project, Currency, Revenue. |
| Projects Performance Summary | Project, Revenue, Cost, Profit, Margin, Budget variance. |
| Project Budget Control Report | For one project: Category, Source, Planned, Actual amount, Pending, Committed, Remaining amount, Used %, Status. |
Worked example
"Marina Tower Fit-out" (Al Noor Trading LLC, AED), planned budget 120,000.00 AED.
| Item | Amount (AED) |
|---|---|
| Posted invoice lines linked to the project (excluding VAT) | 150,000.00 |
| Approved labor (time at cost rates) | 38,000.00 |
| Posted subcontractor bills (excluding VAT) | 52,000.00 |
| Posted project expenses | 6,000.00 |
| Draft bill (pending) | 9,000.00 |
Profitability row (AED): Revenue 150,000.00 · Labor cost 38,000.00 · External cost 58,000.00 · Pending cost 9,000.00 · Budget 120,000.00 · Budget variance 24,000.00 (120,000 − 96,000) · Profit 54,000.00 · Margin 36%.
VAT (for example 7,500.00 AED output VAT on the invoices) is not revenue and is not included.
Rules, limits and permissions
- View project financial summaries to see amounts; View budgets for budget figures.
- Plan features: Projects, Project revenue, Project profitability (and Budgeting for budget reports).
- Only documents linked to the project count. Link documents with the Project field (see Projects in SolaCount).
- Figures are read-only.
Tips and common problems
- Revenue looks too low. Retainer invoices are excluded by design; check that standard invoice lines have the project selected.
- Labor cost is zero. Time is not approved yet, or members have no cost rate.
- Margin is empty. There is no revenue yet; margin is calculated only when revenue is above zero.