Under Financial Management, users can configure and manage margins and markup percentages to ensure accurate financial calculations and profitability tracking within ActionAtlas.
In This Article:
Understanding Project Expenses
Project expenses in ActionAtlas represent the various cost categories for which you can define financial calculations. These expense types allow your organization to set standardized margins and markups that ensure consistent financial tracking across all projects.
Key Benefits of Project Expenses
- Standardized Financial Tracking - Maintain consistent profit calculations across all projects
- Customizable Categories - Create expense types that match your business model
- Flexible Calculation Methods - Choose between margins or markups based on your preference
- Accurate Profitability Reporting - Generate precise financial reports by expense category
Built-in Expense Categories
ActionAtlas comes with three pre-configured expense categories to help you get started quickly:
Team Members
Internal staff assigned to projects
Freelancers
External talent and contractors
Locations
Physical sites and venues
Note: These default categories cannot be deleted but can be customized to match your specific margin and markup requirements.
Adding Project Expenses
You can create custom expense categories to reflect your organization's unique cost structures:
Step-by-Step Guide:
- Navigate to Administration > Financial Management
- Click "Edit Expenses"
- Click "+ Add New Expense"
- Fill out the form with the following information:
- Expense name
- Margin percentage (optional)
- Markup percentage (optional)
- Description
- Click Save
Example of the Add New Expense form
Markup vs. Margin
ActionAtlas provides flexibility in how you calculate project profitability:
Markup
A percentage added to your cost to determine the selling price.
Example: With a $100 cost and 25% markup, the selling price would be $125.
Margin
The percentage of the selling price that is profit.
Example: With a $100 cost and 20% margin, the selling price would be $125.
Important: You can choose to fill out markups or margins only. Filling out both is not required. This allows companies to choose how they want to calculate project profitability within their team.
Project Status Effects
The way expense percentages are applied depends on the project status:
Draft Status Projects
- Margin and markup percentages are not locked
- When administrators update percentages, all draft projects will use the updated values
- Financial calculations remain dynamic
On-Hold or Active Projects
- Margin and markup percentages are snapshotted (locked)
- When a project status changes to On-Hold, the current percentages are captured
- Future changes to global percentage settings will not affect these projects
- This ensures consistent profitability calculations throughout the project lifecycle
Important: Once a project moves beyond Draft status, its financial settings are locked to maintain consistency. Make sure your expense percentages are correctly configured before changing a project's status.
Need Help?
Our support team is available to assist with questions about project expense configuration in ActionAtlas.
Contact Support