Project metrics guide

The summary bar at the top of the project detailed view, also called the project summary bar, provides a real-time, high-level pulse check of your project's financial and time-based health. By centralizing your revenue, cost, and profit indicators, Scoro helps you monitor budget progress and spot over-servicing before it impacts your bottom line.

This article provides a comprehensive overview of all the project summary bar metrics, which projects they’re available for, how they’re calculated, and how a project’s revenue model may affect them.

Time metrics

Total logged hours

• Available for: One-off and retainer projects
• What it means: Tracks the overall volume of labor spent on the project based on done time entries and past calendar events linked with the project. For retainer projects, this metric indicates how many hours you have already serviced the client during the period you’re viewing.
• How it’s calculated: Counts all completed time entries and past calendar events linked to the project.
  • If billable time is enabled on your site, both billable and non-billable hours are considered in the calculation.
  • The progress percentage below the total logged hours value shows the percentage of the time budget used to date, calculated as follows: (Total logged hours / Budgeted hours) x 100
  • Manually adjusting the hours for a specific retainer period automatically updates its progress percentage calculation.
• Indicator changes:
  • Value turns red once the total logged hours exceed the time budget.
  • If the project has no time budget specified, the progress percentage will show ‘0% of total’.
• How you can use this metric:
  • Compare planned versus actual time resources to spot inefficiency or underestimation early.
  • For retainer projects, check this value to see how many hours have already been serviced during the active period.

Billable hours

• Available for: One-off and retainer projects if billable time is enabled on the site
• What it means: Total billable time logged to date based on done time entries and past calendar events linked with the project.
• How it’s calculated: Sums all completed time entries and past calendar events designated as billable.
  • Formula: Done billable time entries + Past billable calendar events
• How you can use this metric: Monitor this value to assess resource utilization and ensure the team is not spending too much effort on unchargeable administrative or support tasks.

Non-billable hours

• Available for: One-off and retainer projects if billable time is enabled on the site
• What it means: Total non-billable time logged to date based on done time entries and past calendar events linked with the project.
  • For internal projects, time entries and events are always non-billable, so this metric shows the total done time entries and past events. 
• How it’s calculated: Sums all completed time entries and past calendar events designated as non-billable.
  • Formula: Done non-billable time entries + Past non-billable calendar events
• How you can use this metric: Keep an eye on high non-billable hours, as they often signal scoping issues, delivery bottlenecks, or excessive administrative overhead.

Remaining hours / Remaining billable hours

• Available for: One-off and retainer projects
• What it means: Shows how much buffer time is left within your time budget.
• Metric name variations:
  • Remaining billable hours – if billable time is enabled on the site
  • Remaining hours – if billable time is enabled on the site
• How it’s calculated:
  • If billable time is enabled: Remaining billable hours = Time budget - Completed billable hours logged on the project.
  • If billable time is disabled: Remaining billable hours = Time budget - Total completed hours logged on the project.
• Percentage calculation: Remaining Hours (%) = (Remaining hours or Remaining billable hours / Budgeted hours) x 100
• Indicator changes:
  • A negative value indicates you have exceeded your time budget.
  • Value turns red once logged hours or logged billable hours exceed the time budget. 
• How you can use this metric: Use this remaining time buffer to schedule upcoming tasks, balance team workloads, and ensure the project does not overshoot its commercial boundaries.

Monetary metrics

Earned revenue

• Available for: One-off projects with the Time & Material capped and Time & Material uncapped revenue models. The metric is visible only for users whose permission set includes the following permissions:
  • View project income and cost
  • Permission to see the Bills and Expenses row in the Budget section (required for projects with the Count pass-through cost as revenue / Deduct bills and expenses toggle enabled in the budget settings)
  • Permissions to see the Invoices row in the Budget section
• What it means: Tracks how much revenue you have earned based on the actual work you have delivered to the client, completely independent of total planning budgets.
  • For projects with the Count pass-through cost as revenue toggle enabled in the budget settings, estimated outsourced costs (bills and expenses) are also included in the earned revenue calculation.
• How it’s calculated: Calculates completed work using the assigned billing rates using this base formula: (Done hours) x (Selling rate).
  • If billable time is enabled on your site, the calculation includes only billable hours.
  • For projects with the Count pass-through cost as revenue toggle enabled in the budget settings, external costs are also considered in the calculation, resulting in this formula: (Done hours x Selling rate) + Sum of bills + Sum of expenses
• Indicator changes: Values are rounded; decimal values are shown only if the value is less than 100.
• How you can use this metric: Monitor this metric to evaluate real-time progress and verify if the value of actual delivery aligns with your billing expectations.

Used budget

• Available for: Retainers and one-off projects with a ‘Fixed fee’ revenue model. The metric is visible only for users whose permission set includes the following permissions:
  • View project income and cost
  • Permission to see the Bills and Expenses row in the Budget section (required for projects with the Count pass-through cost as revenue / Deduct bills and expenses toggle enabled in the budget settings)
  • Permissions to see the Invoices row in the Budget section
• What it means: Tracks how much budget is used up for the project based on the work completed. 
  • For retainer projects with the Deduct bills and expenses toggle and one-off projects with the Count pass-through cost as revenue toggle enabled in the budget settings, any bills and expenses linked to the period are also included in the earned revenue calculation.
• How it’s calculated: Calculates completed work against the project budget based on this base formula: (Done hours) x (Selling rate)
  • If billable time is enabled on your site, the calculation includes only billable hours.
  • If the Deduct bills and expenses or Count pass-through cost as revenue toggles are enabled in the budget settings, the calculation considers external costs using this formula: (Done hours x Selling rate) + Sum of bills + Sum of expenses
  • The progress percentage indicates the percentage of the monetary budget you have already depleted for the filtered period, calculated with this formula: (Done hours x Selling rate) / Period budget
• Indicator changes:
  • Value turns red once the project’s budget is exceeded.
  • Values are rounded; decimal values are shown only for values less than 100.
• How you can use this metric: Compare this with the physical completion of project milestones to see if you are burning through your budget faster than expected.

Remaining budget

• Available for: Retainer projects. The metric is visible only for users whose permission set includes the following permissions:
  • View project income and cost
  • Permission to see the Bills and Expenses row in the Budget section (required for projects with the Count pass-through cost as revenue / Deduct bills and expenses toggle enabled in the budget settings)
  • Permissions to see the Invoices row in the Budget section
• What it means: Shows how much budget is left for the project or the filtered retainer period in your selected display currency.
• How it’s calculated: Subtracts the calculated delivery value (and any recharged external costs) from the total project or period budget using this base formula: Total budget - (Done hours in the period x Selling rate).
  • If billable time is enabled on your site, the formula includes only done billable hours.
  • If the Deduct bills and expenses (for retainers) or Count pass-through cost as revenue (for one-off projects) toggle is enabled in the project’s budget settings, bills and expenses are subtracted from the budget using this formula: Total budget - (Done hours in the period x Selling rate) - Sum of bills - Sum of expenses.
  • Manually adjusting the default budget for a specific retainer period automatically updates the calculation.
• Indicator changes:
  • Value turns red once the project’s budget is exceeded.
  • Values are rounded; decimal values are shown only if the remaining budget per period is less than 100.
• How you can use this metric: Review this balance before scheduling additional project scope or adding extra resources to check if there is sufficient financial headroom.

Actual cost

• Available for: One-off, retainer, and internal projects, visible only if the user has permission to see labor costs and project income/costs
• What it means: Tracks the total financial cost of the resources expended on the project (or a retainer period) so far.
• How it’s calculated: Sums all internal labor costs from done time entries and past events to date, as well as outsourced external costs linked to the project. The following formulas are applied:
  • Actual cost = Labor cost + External cost
  • Labor cost = Logged hours x User’s labor rate
  • External cost = Sum of outsourced bills and expenses linked directly to the project
• How you can use this metric: Use this to calculate real-time profitability and analyze your team's resource expense ratio.

Forecasted cost at completion

• Available for: One-off, retainer, and internal projects
• What it means: Estimates what the project will cost your organization once all planned work is completed.
• How it’s calculated:
  • If the project has a cost budget: Projected total cost at project completion, anchored to the cost budget
  • If the project doesn’t have a cost budget: All actual costs incurred to date + Future costs from planned time entries, tasks, bookings, and outsourced costs.
  • How to avoid double-counting in cost forecasting: Forecasted cost is calculated based on bookings, tasks, and time entries. To ensure that Scoro treats bookings and their associated tasks as the same work and doesn’t double-count costs, the assignees on bookings and tasks must match exactly (the same assigned user or role placeholder).
  • Determining which costs are shown: Scoro compares the cumulative cost of booked hours and the cumulative cost of tasks at the user level every day to determine which is higher. Whichever is higher at any point in time is reported in the chart. Learn more.
• Indicator changes: The value turns red once the forecasted cost at completion exceeds the cost budget.
• How you can use this metric: Monitor this estimate regularly to predict final profitability and intercept cost overruns before they actually occur.

Forecasted earned revenue at completion

• Available for: One-off and retainer projects
• What it means: The raw value of all completed, planned, and scheduled work, ignoring budget limits. Shows what your team’s effort is worth on paper.
• How it’s calculated: Combines raw actual delivery with the raw value of all future planned phases.
  • Formula: Earned revenue to date + Value of future planned or scheduled work
• Indicator changes:
  • For projects with a Fixed fee or Time & Material capped revenue model, the value turns red once it exceeds the project budget.
  • The value remains neutral for projects with the Time & Material uncapped revenue model because all effort is billable.
• How you can use this metric: Compare it against the Forecasted revenue at completion metric to see whether your team is over-servicing the client and leaving potential revenue on the table.

Forecasted revenue at completion

• Available for: One-off and retainer projects
• What it means: Projects the total recognizable revenue to bill your client upon completion, respecting your actual commercial agreement.
• How it’s calculated: Evaluates actual completed work plus planned work, respecting the rules of the revenue model selected for the project:
  • Fixed fee: Locked directly to the total budget.
  • Time & Material capped: Caps at the budget ceiling once earned revenue reaches it. 
  • Time & Material uncapped: Tracks all work dynamically with no budget ceiling. Equals the forecasted earned revenue at completion.
• Indicator changes: Value shows as N/A if the budget is missing on projects with the ‘Fixed fee’ or ‘Time & Material capped’ revenue model. On projects with the ‘Time & Material uncapped’ revenue model, value is shown accordingly because there is no ceiling to compute against.
• How you can use this metric: Treat this as your primary top-line projection to track overall project health against initial contractual goals.

Forecasted profit margin

• Available for: One-off and retainer projects
• What it means: Estimates the percentage of revenue that will remain as profit after all projected costs and expenses are deducted.
• How it’s calculated: Measures expected profit against expected top-line revenue at completion.
  • Formula: Forecasted profit margin = ((Forecasted revenue at completion - Forecasted cost at completion) / Forecasted revenue at completion) x 100
• How you can use this metric: Use this metric to evaluate long-term business viability and ensure projects hit your firm's target margins.

Progress metrics

Remaining days

• Available for: One-off and retainer projects
• What it means: Number of remaining days in the entire one-off project or in the retainer period you’re viewing.
• How it’s calculated: Counts the days from today until the end of the one-off project or retainer period:
  • If the Include weekends in workweek setting under Settings > Work and projects > Projects is enabled, weekends are included in the remaining days. If the setting is disabled, only workdays are counted as remaining days.
• Indicator changes: The value turns red if there are no remaining days in the entire one-off project or retainer period.
• How you can use this metric: Keep an eye on the remaining days to ensure timely delivery. Compare the remaining days with logged hours to assess whether the team is on track to complete the required work.

Overdue tasks

• Available for: One-off, retainer, and internal projects
• What it means: The number of overdue tasks in a one-off or internal project, or a retainer period.
• How it’s calculated: Counts the number of tasks in the project or period that have a due date before today.
  • Formula: Sum of incomplete tasks with a due date before today
• Indicator changes: The value turns red if there’s at least one overdue task.
• How you can use this metric: Make sure to take action to ensure the overdue tasks are completed and won't cause any delays.