The Project Dashboard in Runn gives you a complete, real-time overview of an individual project’s financials, progress, team, and performance. It’s your go-to place to track budgets, costs, revenue, milestones, and more - all in one central view.
This guide will walk you through each section of the dashboard so you know exactly what to look for and how to use the data to manage your projects effectively.
IMPORTANT
Metrics Definitions
Read more about how Runn accounts for scheduled vs. actual hours, placeholders, and tentative projects in the Runn Metrics Glossary.
⚠️ Ensure no missing actuals
Missing actuals may affect the accuracy of your reports. Check the Completed Timesheets Report first to ensure there are NO missing actuals.
Accessing the Project Dashboard
From the Project Planner > Identify the project
Click on the Project Name
Dashboard Panels
You can click on the tabs to jump to the different panels on the Project Dashboard to look for the information you need:
Dashboard Toolbar and Metric Toggles
At the top of the Project Dashboard, you’ll find several quick-access buttons and view options that help you explore different parts of your project:
Toolbar Buttons
Open in Planner – Opens the project directly in the Planner view so you can adjust scheduled hours or project team members.
Budget – Takes you to the Budget page where you can review or edit project budgets.
Activity – Displays the project’s activity log, such as changes to allocations, milestones, and notes.
Timesheets – Opens the Timesheets for this project, showing all logged hours and missing entries.
Notes – Use Project Notes to capture anything that doesn’t quite fit into structured data, or tag another user to discuss this project.
Metric Toggles
On the right-hand side, you’ll see toggle buttons that let you switch between different metrics across the dashboard:
Hours – Displays figures based on hours
Days – Shows information aggregated by days instead of hours
Cost – Switches the dashboard to show cost-based data.
💡 Tip: Use these toggles to quickly analyze your project from different angles — for example, switch from Hours to Cost to see the financial implications of Hours.
Snapshot
At the top of the dashboard, the Snapshot provides quick, high-level totals for the project. Use this section to see at a glance whether your project is staying within budget.
Metric Selected | Description |
Hours |
|
Days |
|
Cost |
|
Completed Timesheets
This section helps you confirm whether your team has logged actual hours to their timesheets.
A smiley face 😊 indicates timesheets are completed for that week.
A red ❌ indicates missing timesheets.
❗If there are missing actuals, the metrics will be inaccurate. Please ensure there are no missing actuals regularly. Check out here to learn more about missing actuals.
Project Performance
The project performance chart is a useful tool that allows you to quickly track your project's progress relative to the budget. It also provides an early warning if adjustments to your plans or budget might be necessary, helping to keep everything on course.
Click on the Metric Toggles at the top right to select the metric that is relevant to you.
Hover your cursor along the lines to view the cumulative metric up to a specific date.
In the example below, the estimated revenue to 1 Jul 2025 is $345,349.
Lines you'll see:
Actuals (blue/red solid line) – Hours/ Days / Cost based on Actual Hours logged.
Scheduled (blue/red dotted line) – Hours/ Days / Cost based on Scheduled Hours.
Projected (light blue dot) – Hours/ Days / Cost based on Total Hours for the entire project
Budget (green horizontal line) – The Project Budget you allocated to the Project. Only visible when Hours or Days is selected.
Project Team
This table lists every person and placeholder assigned to the project and their associated metrics. Click on the Metric Toggles at the top right to select the metric that is relevant to you.
Project Role or Workstream of each project team member
Hourly Cost - per person based on the cost to business on their contract. Visible only when Cost is selected
Hours/ Days/ Project Cost - Metrics based on workload per project role, workstream or person.
Past - Metrics based on workload incurred before today
Future - Metrics based on workload from today onwards
Total - Total metrics over the life of the project
Budget per Project Role – Role Budget you've entered in Budget. Only visible if Hours or Days is selected.
Other Costs - Cost you've entered in the Other Expenses tab on Budget
Group by Project Role or Workstream
By default, the project team members are grouped by project roles. If you would like to group by Workstreams, click on the Project Role button on the top left to choose Workstream instead:
Expand or Collapse the list of people and placeholders
By default, each project team member is displayed. You can click on the Collapse all button on the top left to view the metrics at the Project Role or Workstream level quickly:
Remove people with no workload from the project
If the person does not have any hours associated with the project (i.e. 0 hours), you can also remove them from the project by clicking on the 3-dot icon next to their name:
Variance
The Variance tab compares actuals to what was scheduled, helping you keep track of the accuracy of your future planning.
Use the Variance tab to:
Identify team members or roles who are working more or less than the planned workload
Spot missing actuals
Review shortfalls that may affect revenue recognition or project delivery.
Discuss resourcing adjustments in your next project or client review meeting.
Click on the Metric Toggles at the top right to select the metric that is relevant to you.
Chart: Actual vs Scheduled (Variance)
At the top of the Variance tab, a bar chart visualizes the difference between actuals and scheduled work over time. By default, you will see the current week. Scroll to the left for past metrics and scroll to the right for the future.
Here’s how to read the Chart:
Dark Blue bars (Actuals) – Metric based on Actual Total Hours added to timesheets.
Light blue bars (Scheduled) – Metric based on Scheduled Total Hours on the Planner for comparison with Actuals
Pink bars (Missing Actuals) – When there are partial timesheet entries with missing actuals, a pink bar indicates the Actual Total Hours logged and that it is incomplete (assumed hours are excluded)
Grey bars (Scheduled Only) – Future Scheduled Total Hours that hasn’t occurred yet.
You can change the time scale using the toggle in the top right corner:
Day – View daily differences.
Week – Aggregates by week (default).
Month – View long-term variance trends.
💡 Tip: Hover over a bar to see exact scheduled vs. actual values for that period.
Table: Variance Breakdown by Role and Person
Below the chart, the variance table breaks down the data by role and person, showing where actuals diverged from the plan.
By default, it displays the cumulative metrics up to last Friday.
Columns include:
Role – The assigned project role (e.g., Business Analyst, Technical Lead).
Workstream – The associated workstream.
Actuals – Metrics based on the actual hours logged.
Scheduled – Metrics based on the scheduled hours added to the planner
Difference – The variance between scheduled and actuals (a negative number indicates actuals are less than scheduled)
Variance breakdown by Workstream is not supported at the moment.
View Variance of a Selected Period
Clicking on a bar in the chart to filter the table below to the selected date range, making it easier to focus on specific weeks or months. The bar will turn orange, indicating that the metrics in the table reflect the selected period:
Click on the reset button to return to the default time period.
Expand or Collapse the list of people
By default, each project team member is displayed. You can click on the arrow button on the top left to view the metrics at the Project Role level quickly:
Milestones
Milestones track important events or deadlines in your project. Each milestone displays:
Name
Date
Notes
You can click on the New Milestone button to add new milestones to the project.
Phases
Phases break down your project into manageable parts, and helps you track Phase-based financials. Each phase shows:
Phase Name
Date (Start and End Dates)
Total Hours/ Total Days - based on the Metric Toggle selected.
People Cost
This helps you see which phases are most resource-heavy.
You can click on the New Phase button to add new phases to the project.
Project Details
At the bottom of the dashboard, you’ll find:
Project ID
Project Dates - based on the first and last assignment/phase/milestone dates
Pricing Model
Primary Team
Status
Tags
External Reference
Project Custom Fields
You can click on the Edit Details button to make changes to the project details.
Best Practices for Using the Project Dashboard
Review the Snapshot weekly to monitor financial health.
Check the Completed Timesheets section every Monday to make sure nothing is missing.
Track Phases and Milestones to keep your team aligned with deadlines.
Keep Project Details updated for accurate reporting.
✅ With the Project Dashboard, you have everything you need to monitor project health, identify risks early, and keep your team and stakeholders aligned.
Still have questions? Reach out to us via the in-app chatbox or email us at help@runn.io