Once you’ve created a budget in BusyBusy, the actual hours, costs, and progress values update automatically as work is tracked in the system. You never need to manually enter actuals — BusyBusy fills them in for you based on employee time, equipment time, and progress entries.
Understanding where these numbers come from helps you verify your budgets and ensure your team’s tracking aligns with your expectations.
Where Labor Actuals Come From
Labor Actuals are calculated from employee time cards.
BusyBusy automatically updates:
Actual Labor Hours
Actual Labor Costs (if enabled)
These values come from:
Time employees record to the project
Cost codes selected on their time cards
Each employee’s hourly rate
Actuals update in real time when new time entries are submitted.
Where Equipment Actuals Come From
If your company tracks equipment time, Equipment Actuals populate automatically based on:
Hours logged to the project for each piece of equipment
The hourly cost rate assigned to that equipment
BusyBusy will fill:
Equipment Hours Actuals
Equipment Cost Actuals
These will appear as soon as equipment time is tracked.
Where Progress Value Comes From (Premium)
If you’ve enabled the Progress column under Budgeting and the user has View Expenses permission:
Progress Actuals come from progress entries submitted by employees or supervisors.
Team members record progress at the end of their shift from the Dashboard → Progress screen.
As progress is logged, your budget updates to show how much of the project is complete compared to planned hours or costs.
Progress values reflect real work completed and help clarify your projected timeline and earned value.
Nothing Needs to Be Entered to Budget Manually
BusyBusy automatically collects actuals from:
Employee time cards
Equipment usage
Progress entries (Premium)
Best Practices
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Tip
If actuals or progress don’t appear as expected, double-check that:
The project and cost code match the budget
Time or equipment was tracked to the correct project
Progress entries were submitted for the correct cost code
The user viewing the budget has View Expenses permission (required for Progress Value)