Runn does not have a native cost budget tracking feature. However, there are two workarounds depending on your needs. See below for setup instructions.
Option 1:
Use a custom field to track cost budget side by side with project cost
How does Runn calculate project cost?
Runn calculates project cost based on the Default Role Cost assigned to each role, which you can find under Manage > Roles. You can also set a custom cost-to-business for each individual person under their contract settings.
Set up a cost budget for a project
Create a project text custom field and name it something like
Cost Budgetfrom Manage > Custom FieldsFrom the project, set your project pricing model to Non-billable (this means no revenue or profit will be shown).
Edit Project Details > Add the cost budget value to the Cost Budget custom field
In Reports, add both the Cost Budget and Project Cost columns so you can view them side by side.
Note: This approach does not automatically calculate budget remaining. It's best suited for teams that just need cost visibility in one view.
Option 2:
Repurpose Runn's revenue and budget fields to track cost budget remaining
If tracking budget remaining is important to you, you can repurpose Runn's revenue functionality:
From a specific project, click Edit Budget
Set the project rate to reflect your cost rate per role (note: rates can only be defined by role, not by individual person).
Set the project pricing model to Time & Materials.
Enter your project budget.
With this specific setup:
Project cost is captured as Project Revenue
Budget Remaining = Budget − Project Revenue
This gives you live budget remaining tracking based on cost.
To prevent margin skewing: Set the Default Role Cost for all roles to $0 (under Manage > Roles) and each person's cost to business to $0 in their contract. This ensures the margin always displays as 100%, keeping cost and revenue figures aligned.
Which option should I use?
Each option has its pros and cons. Here are things to consider:
| Option 1 | Option 2 |
Best for | 👀 Simple cost visibility | ✅ Live budget remaining tracking |
Considerations | ❌ Cost budget remaining is not calculated automatically | Need to keep in mind that Project Cost is referred to as "Project Revenue" in Runn |
Cost defined by | Role or person | Role only |