14 September 2025 - Quick Overview of Project and Budget Changes // How we migrated your data

We have rolled out some powerful upgrades in our Project and Budget space. These changes are relevant for anyone who creates and manages projects, budgets and timecodes.

In this article you will find two sections, which you can skip to by clicking the headings below:

• Quick Overview of Project and Budget Changes
  To learn more about our new features.
• How We Migrated your Data
  For more info about your existing projects in the new setup.

Quick Overview of Project and Budget Changes

To help you navigate the changes, we have created a guide so you can see what the workflow looked like previously compared with what it looks like now.

This is a quick overview to help you get your bearings in our biggest changes! For a more detailed list of all changes in update: check out Changes to Budgeting and Pricing in Projectworks: What You Need to Know.

Projects, Budgets and Timecodes

In Projectworks a Project contains Budgets and nested Timecodes, here are the main changes to learn about:

• Pricing Methods are now set at the Budget/Timecode level

• Building Budgets from Hours x Rate (Placeholder AND Person)

• Budgeted/Expected Hours have merged into Allocated Hours
  
  

Resourcing

Resourcing involves reserving a portion of a person or placeholder’s capacity and allows you to monitor their overall workload, as well as indicate future effort required on a project.

• Shadow Resources are now called Placeholders

Pricing Methods are now set at the Budget/Timecode level

Previously:
When creating a Project, you would select a Pricing Method which would apply to all budgets Project-wide.

• Budget level – Fee-based pricing

• Timecode level – Fee-based pricing

• Timecode level – Hourly-based pricing (hours x rate)

Now:
Pricing Methods are set at the Budget and Timecode level. You won’t be asked to set them when you first create a project, you will set them when you create the budgets within that Project.

You can assign budgets and timecodes that are

• Top-Down
  Top-Down Budgets and Timecodes have a set fee, not related to an hours x rate calculation.
  
  or

• Bottom-Up (not available for expense-based budgets).
  Bottom-Up Budgets use the combined total of each timecode’s fees within that budget.
  Bottom-Up Timecodes are built via hours x rates calculations.

To learn more, visit our Setting up project pricing help article.

Quick reference guide to changes

 

Building Budgets from Hours x Rate (Placeholder AND Person)

Previously:
Budget values of timecodes could only be calculated by setting hours and rates against roles.

 

Now:
You can still do this, and a new option has been added. You can build your fees on timecodes by using specific people as well as placeholders for roles if you don’t have a named person.

Budgeted/Expected Hours merged to Allocated Hours

Previously:
It was possible for budgeted hours and expected hours to have different values. 

Budgeted hours contributed to building the budget value.
Expected hours communicated the amount of time that person should spend working on that timecode.

It was possible to restrict a person from logging more time than the expected hours set for them.

Now:
We have merged the concept of Budgeted hours and Expected hours to become Allocated hours. Functionality to restrict users from logging time beyond their “Allocated hours” remains.

Note: If you were using the Expected Hours field to communicate an expected effort to a person that was a different quantity to the Budgeted Hours field; we have two suggested workflows you could use to continue this within the new Allocated hours field. One workflow involves building the timecode Bottom-Up to calculate the fee, and then switching it to Top-Down and adjusting the Allocated hours to be the expected effort for your team member. The other workflow involves creating a placeholder alongside your named person to hold the balance of their budgeted hours.

Shadow Resources are now called Placeholders

Previously:

In resourcing plans, un-named roles were referred to as Shadow Resources. This made it possible to allocate capacity before a specific person was identified, and later replace that Shadow Resource with the assigned individual.

Now:
There is no change to the functionality for resourcing, “shadow resources” have simply been renamed to “Placeholders”.

 

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How we migrated your data

Pricing in your existing projects has been migrated to the new Budget structure. Budgets can now be built using Top-Down, Bottom-Up, or a mix of both methods.

Contents:

• What Changed
• Data migration of pricing method
• Data migration of timecode allocations
• FAQs

What changed

• No more project-level pricing method.
  Pricing is no longer set at the overall Project level. Instead, fee types are defined per Budget and (when relevant) per Timecode for finer control and clarity.

• More granular, flexible pricing.
  Each Budget can use Top-Down, Bottom-Up, or a mix (e.g., some timecodes fixed fee, others hours × rates).

Data migration of pricing method

1. Budget-Level Fee
Previously: 

Now: All Budgets of Type Time = Top-Down

2. Timecode-Level Fee
Previously:

Now: 
All Budgets of Type Time = Bottom-Up
All Timecodes under those Budgets = Top-Down

3. Timecode Level Hourly based pricing (Hour * Rate)

Previously:

Now:
All Budgets of Type Time = Bottom-Up
All Timecodes under those Budgets = Bottom-Up

For projects that used Timecode-Level Hourly based Pricing (Hour * Rate)

1) Field simplification

We’ve streamlined the fields you’ll see for People and Roles on timecodes:

• Was: Budgeted Hrs, Budgeted $, Expected Hrs, Expected $

• Now: Allocated Hrs and Allocated $

This reduces duplication and keeps planning and pricing aligned.

2) Allocation adjustments (when $ values don’t match)

If Budgeted $ and Expected $ differed for specific roles in a timecode:

• We add Placeholders with Allocated $ to reconcile the difference where feasible.

• The timecode fee type is updated from Bottom-Up to Top-Down:

  • The Budgeted $ value is locked at the timecode level.

  • Expected Hours are preserved as Allocated Hours in the breakdown.

  • Key metrics (e.g., budget burn) continue to work as before.

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Data migration of timecode allocations

1.Budgeted $ = Expected $

Previously: 
Where the Budgeted $ was equal to the Expected $

Now:
One set of data fields for Allocated Hrs and $, consolidated from Budgeted/Expected Hrs and $

2.Budgeted $ > Expected $

Previously: 
Where Budgeted $ was greater than Expected $.

Now: 
Timecode fee type switched from "Bottom-Up" to "Top-Down". A placeholder for that role is added to make up the difference between Budgeted and Expected $, preserving the Expected Hrs (now called Allocated Hrs) for named persons.

3. Budgeted $ < Expected $

Previously: 
Where Budgeted $ was less than Expected $.

Now: 
Timecode fee type switched from "Bottom-Up" to "Top-Down" with the Budgeted $, preserving the Expected Hours (now called Allocated Hrs) in the breakdown. 

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FAQs

How do I know which pricing method my budget uses now?

Go to the Budgets tab of your project: the Pricing method is shown at the budget level (Top-Down or Bottom-Up). For Bottom-Up budgets, each timecode will indicate whether it’s Top-Down (fee entered manually) or Bottom-Up (fee auto-calculated from people/placeholder hours × rates).

Can I change the method after migration?
Yes. You can switch a budget or timecode’s pricing method going forward. If you change methods, review the timecode breakdown to ensure hours/rates and fixed fees reflect your intent.

Will my reports still make sense?
Yes. We preserved the data needed for core metrics (e.g., budget burn). Where differences existed between historical Budgeted $ and Expected $, we added placeholders and converted timecode fee types to maintain consistency.

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