Projects

Overview#

The Budget page works in periods that reset: a monthly grocery budget starts again on the first. That does not suit a renovation that runs for fourteen months with one overall figure. A project gives that job a single total over its whole span, counts everything filed under its category and the subcategories below it, and can set aside amounts for individual subcategories, such as the kitchen or the electrics.

Setting Up a Project#

A project is built on a category, so start with a category for the job, for example Renovation, with a subcategory for each part of it: Kitchen, Bathroom, Electrics and so on.

1. Navigate to Projects
2. Click New Project
3. Fill in the details:

4. Leave Leave these categories out of monthly budgets ticked unless you also want the category on the monthly Budget page (see Projects and Monthly Budgets)
5. Click Save

Subcategory Amounts#

Once you pick a category, its subcategories are listed with an amount box each. Fill in the ones you want to track and leave the rest blank. The form shows how much of the total is still unallocated as you type, and warns you if the amounts add up to more than the total.

You can give an amount to a subcategory or to the subcategories below it, not to both. For example, Kitchen or Kitchen > Appliances can have an amount, but not both at once, because the appliances spending would otherwise be counted against two amounts.

Reading a Project#

Each project on the Projects page shows:

• how much has been spent out of the total, and how much is left or how far over it is
• a progress bar using the same colours as the Budget page
• with an end date, how much of the time has gone next to how much has been spent, e.g. "40% of the time gone, 55% spent"
• whether it is Upcoming (not started), Active or Finished (past its end date). Finished projects are listed separately below the others

Click a project to open its breakdown. There is a row for each subcategory with its amount, spent and remaining, a row for anything filed directly under the project's own category, and an Unallocated row. View transactions opens the transaction list filtered to the project's categories and dates, so the list matches the figures (see the note under Sharing a Project for the one exception).

Note: Spending is worked out the same way as on the Budget page. Refunds are taken off, the parts of a split transaction count in their own categories, and accounts or categories marked Exclude from reports are left out.

Projects and Monthly Budgets#

A big project bill in a category with a monthly budget would show as far over budget on the Budget page. When you create a project, Leave these categories out of monthly budgets ticks Exclude from budgeting on its category, which covers its subcategories too. The spending still counts in reports and on the dashboard. You can untick the flag on the category at any time, for example once the project has finished.

Sharing a Project#

Projects can be shared with other Nextcloud users from the Sharing page, like savings goals. Everyone sees the same figures, worked out from the owner's categories.

For a group project, share the project's category as well. Anything the others file under that category, from their own accounts, then counts towards the project. With Read & Write they can also change the name, total, dates and subcategory amounts. The category and deleting the project stay with the owner.

Note: View transactions only lists transactions in accounts you can see. The figures also count what anyone you share the project's categories with files under them from their own accounts, so on a shared project the list can come to less than the total shown, whether the project is yours or someone else's.

Deleting#

Open the project and click Delete. Its category, subcategories and transactions are not changed. A category that a project, or one of its subcategory amounts, uses cannot be deleted until the project is changed or deleted.

Related Features#

• Budget -- Monthly budgets per category
• Categories -- The category tree a project is built on
• Sharing -- Sharing projects and categories with other Nextcloud users
• Shared Expenses -- Splitting what each person owes