---
title: "About the Budget tracker"
slug: "about-the-budget-tracker"
updated: 2026-07-07T18:21:57Z
published: 2026-07-07T18:21:57Z
canonical: "help.wrapbook.com/about-the-budget-tracker"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.wrapbook.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# About the Budget tracker

> [!NOTE]
> This help article is related to Cost tracking
> 
> In Wrapbook, production accountants and administrators can manage budgets using either Cost tracking or the [Production Accounting Suite](/v1/docs/about-production-accounting).

## Overview

The *Budget* *tracker* compares actual spending against your project’s production budget in real time. It integrates payroll, purchase orders, and petty cash expenses in one unified dashboard, providing instant visibility into project costs.

## Access the Budget tracker

> [!NOTE]
> The Budget tracker is permission based
> 
> To access the Budget tracker in Wrapbook, your account must have one of the following [roles](/v1/docs/permissions-and-access-control) enabled:
> 
> - Role: *Company Admin, Company Manager, Project Coordinator, Project Assistant*
> - Custom role with: *Accounting & Cost Tracking* / *Budgets (Cost Tracking) - either Full access, View & Import, View only*

To access the *Budget tracker:*

1. In the left-side navigation, click the dropdown menu
2. In the dropdown menu, select the name of the project that you want to see the budget tracking for
3. In the project dashboard’s *Budget* overview, click **View budget**

## Budget tracker views

There are two views in the Budget tracker:

- *Summary* view provides a higher-level overview where you navigate through sections
- *Summary + lines* gives you more direct access to individual line items

## Budget tracker totals

Above the Budget tracker table, are project budget totals for:

- *Actuals*: total costs incurred for this project. This includes timecards, expenses, purchase orders and petty cash
- *Awarded*: total budget awarded for this project
- *Overages*: any costs above what was originally budgeted. You can also quickly access a project’s overages by clicking **Actualize** in the left-side navigation, and then clicking **Overages.**
- *Total*: total budget awarded plus any overage

## Track variance

You can track variances by comparing the actual variance (spend vs total budget) and working variance (budget vs working).

- If the project is under budget, the variances will appear in green with a (-)
- If the project is over budget, it will be in red with a (+)

The *Period Variance* column shows the difference between current and previous period's Estimated Final Cost (EFC) amounts, calculated as (Current Period EFC) - (Previous Period EFC)Budget tracker actions

## Budget tracker options

From the budget tracker you can do the following:

- [Import a project budget](/v1/docs/import-a-project-budget)
- [View and update a project budget](/v1/docs/view-and-update-a-project-budget)
- [Add a project budget overage](/v1/docs/add-a-project-budget-overage)
- [Add fringes to a project budget](/v1/docs/add-fringes-to-a-project-budget)
- [Add fees to a project budget](/v1/docs/add-fees-to-a-project-budget)
- [Export a project budget](/v1/docs/export-a-project-budget)
- [Lock a project budget](/v1/docs/lock-a-project-budget)

If an employee needs to purchase cash items on behalf of the project, they are issued a cash advance, or petty cash, to use for this purpose. They are responsible for providing receipts for any purchases and for returning any unspent cash up to the full amount of the advance upon completion.Purchasing cards have nearly eliminated the need for petty cash.

Production costs that exceed the amount in the final approved budget.

In production accounting, the difference between the actual costs of production and the estimated budgeted costs.

Estimated Final Cost: A number that updates based on acutal costs incurred against the budget