Projects

You’ve got multiple clients, multiple projects, multiple things going on. At the end of the month, you know you made money — but which projects made money? Which ones ate up more time than they were worth? Projects in Pluvel let you tag transactions to specific jobs, clients, or initiatives. Then you can see profitability at a glance.

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Setting Up Projects

Go to Finance → Accounting → Projects and click New Project. Give it:

• Name — “Acme Rebrand”, “Q1 Marketing Campaign”, “Client: Johnson Corp”
• Customer (optional) — Link it to a customer if it’s client work
• Budget (optional) — Set a spending limit if you have one
• Date range (optional) — When the project starts and ends

That’s it. Projects are lightweight by design.

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Assigning Transactions

Once a project exists, you can tag transactions to it: When categorizing — Every transaction can have a project in addition to a category. “Office Supplies” (category) for “Website Redesign” (project). On invoices — When you create an invoice, assign it to a project. The revenue goes to that project. On bills — Vendor bills can be tagged too. That contractor you hired for a specific client? Their invoice counts against that project. On time entries — If you track time, assign hours to projects. We’ll calculate labor cost based on pay rates.

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Project Profitability

This is where it gets useful. Go to any project and you’ll see: If you quoted $10,000 for a project, spent$3,000 on contractors, and logged 40 hours at an internal cost of $50/hour, your gross profit is$5,000 (50% margin).

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Why This Matters

Know your winners. Some projects look great but barely break even when you add up the hours. Others seem small but are highly profitable. This helps you see which is which. Price better next time. If every web project takes 30% more hours than you quote, you’ll know to adjust your estimates. Have informed conversations. When a client asks for a discount, you’ll know whether you can afford it.

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Project Views

List view — All projects with status, revenue, profit. Sort and filter as needed. Dashboard view — Active projects with progress bars showing budget vs. actual. Timeline view — Projects plotted by date. See what’s starting, ending, overlapping.

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Budget Tracking

If you set a budget on a project, Pluvel tracks spending against it:

• Current spend vs. budget
• Alerts when you hit 80% or 100%
• Projected total based on spending pace

Useful for fixed-price work where scope creep means lost margin.

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Project Status

Projects can be: Mark projects complete when they’re done. Archived projects don’t show in dropdowns but are still visible in reports.

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Reporting

Find project-specific reports in Reports → Projects:

• Project profitability — All projects compared side by side
• Project detail — Deep dive into one project’s finances
• Time by project — Hours logged per project
• Budget vs. actual — For projects with budgets

You can also filter most other reports by project. Want a P&L just for one client? Filter by project.

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Sub-Projects

For complex work, create sub-projects:

• Acme Rebrand
  • Phase 1: Discovery
  • Phase 2: Design
  • Phase 3: Development

Tag transactions to sub-projects, and the parent project totals everything up. Useful for phased work or multiple deliverables under one contract.

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Tips

Don’t over-complicate it. Not every expense needs a project. Use projects for work where you actually want to track profitability — usually client work or major initiatives. Tag consistently. Projects only work if you tag things. Build it into your workflow — when you categorize a transaction, also assign the project. Review regularly. Check project profitability monthly. Catching an over-budget project early is better than discovering it when you invoice.