Plan availability: project features (project tracking, timesheets, project budgets, profitability) depend on your subscription. If you don't see the Projects section, or a project report appears locked, your plan may not include those features — see Subscriptions & billing, or ask your workspace owner.
SolaProjects and SolaBooks share one workspace. This page covers the finance side of projects: how project costs and revenue flow into your books, how logged time becomes billable, and where to see whether a job made money. For project management itself (tasks, members, scheduling) see the SolaProjects documentation.
How it works, end to end
- A project exists in your workspace, connected to a customer.
- You tag documents to the project. An invoice line, bill, expense, mileage claim, or journal line can carry a project — much like a dimension. Tagged revenue and cost roll up into that project's totals; untagged amounts sit in general overhead and never appear in project results.
- The team logs time. Hours are logged against the project, optionally billable at a rate — see Timesheets. Approved billable time can be pulled straight onto an invoice.
- A budget keeps the job honest. Set a project budget and the Project Budget Control view compares it live against actual cost and revenue — see Budgets.
- Profitability shows the result. The project's Profitability view is a live per-project P&L: revenue billed, costs incurred (bills, expenses, mileage, time at cost rates), and the margin — see Project profitability.
| Project activity | Finance effect |
|---|---|
| Time logged on the project | Becomes billable time, surfaced for invoicing; counts as cost at the person's cost rate |
| Bills / expenses / mileage tagged to the project | Counted as project cost |
| Invoices tagged to the project | Counted as project revenue |
| Project budget | Compared live against actual cost and revenue |
Tagging documents to a project
- Pick the project on the document (or per line, where lines can differ). Make tagging a team habit — reports only see what's tagged.
- Tag before posting where possible: posted documents lock their accounting fields.
- Non-billable work still matters — it counts as project cost even though it produces no revenue.
Billing project work
- Time and materials: pull approved, not-yet-invoiced time entries onto an invoice; each becomes a line with its hours and rate, and is marked Invoiced so it can't be billed twice.
- Fixed price: invoice normally and tag the invoice to the project — revenue rolls up the same way.
- Reimbursable expenses: tag the expense to the project, then add it to the customer's invoice.
Project finance reports
The Projects & Timesheet group under Reports includes a per-project summary, cost and revenue summaries across projects, timesheet details and timesheet profitability, and the Project Budget Control Report. If a report appears locked, that feature isn't on your plan.
Behaviour and rules
- Tagging drives everything. A cost or revenue line only appears in a project's totals if it carries that project.
- Posted documents only. Drafts are excluded from profitability and budget-vs-actual.
- Billing is deliberate. Approved time becomes an invoice only when someone pulls it onto one — nothing auto-bills. Review drafts before posting.
Common problems
- "The project shows no revenue but we delivered the work." Revenue means billed and posted. Raise the invoice, tag it to the project, and post it.
- "Costs look too low." Untagged bills, expenses, or time. Check recent documents for missing project tags.
- "I can't see project features at all." They depend on your plan — and some also need to be switched on for your organization. Ask your workspace owner or administrator.
Related
- Timesheets — log billable and non-billable hours against the project.
- Project profitability — the live per-project P&L.
- Budgets — project budgets and the Project Budget Control Report.
- Invoices, Sales receipts — bill the customer for project work.
- Bills, Expenses, Mileage — tag costs to the project.
- Dimensions & custom fields — additional tagging beyond projects.
- Customer portal — customer-side time approvals.
- Reports — the Projects & Timesheet report group.