A ready-to-use spreadsheet to track budgeted cost versus actual cost on every task of a job, watch the variance calculate itself, and tag each task to a billing milestone. Built for engineer-to-order, EPC, fabrication and construction work — where you quote a budget, spend against it task by task, and bill the customer by stage.
| WBS / Task | Budget | Actual | Var. | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Engineering | 1,20,000 | 1,18,500 | +1,500 | 100% |
| Procurement | 4,80,000 | 5,12,000 | −32,000 | 100% |
| Fabrication | 3,60,000 | 3,44,000 | +16,000 | 80% |
| Assembly | 1,45,000 | 96,000 | +49,000 | 45% |
| Inspection | 75,000 | 0 | +75,000 | 0% |
| TOTAL | 11,80,000 | 10,70,500 | +1,09,500 | — |
If you build things to order — a fabricated structure, an EPC package, a custom machine, a site — you don't sell from a price list. You quote a budget, then spend against it across engineering, procurement, fabrication, assembly and inspection. The problem is that by the time the last invoice lands, the job is already over, and you find out whether you made money or lost it only after it's too late to do anything.
This free project cost tracker fixes the simplest, most useful version of that problem in a spreadsheet. You list your work-breakdown tasks, type in what you budgeted for each and what you actually spent, and the sheet shows you the variance — Budget minus Actual — on every line and for the whole project. A positive number means you're under; a negative number is an overrun you can see coming. It's the same budget-versus-actual discipline a full project system gives you, boiled down to a file you can open in thirty seconds.
It also carries a Billing Milestone column, because ETO and project businesses rarely bill once at the end. You bill an advance, then material-at-site, then a progress or RA stage, then a final bill. Tagging each task to its milestone lets you see what work sits behind each bill — so cost tracking and milestone billing live on the same sheet instead of in two different people's heads.
Ungated .xlsx — no email, no sign-up. Delete the sample rows and start typing.
Ten columns, a frozen header row so it stays visible as you scroll, a pre-built variance formula on every row, and a totals row that sums the whole project. Here's what each column is for.
| Column | What you put in it |
|---|---|
| WBS / Task | The work-breakdown item — e.g. 1.0 Engineering, 2.0 Procurement, 3.0 Fabrication. Number them so the sheet reads as a structure, not a random list. |
| Description | A short line on what the task covers, so anyone opening the file understands the scope without asking. |
| Budgeted Cost | What you planned or quoted for the task — your estimate of material, labour and machine for that piece of work. |
| Actual Cost | What the task has actually cost so far. Update it as material is issued, labour is booked and bills come in. |
| Variance | Automatic. Pre-filled with the formula Budgeted − Actual on every row. Positive = under budget, negative = overrun. You never type it. |
| Resource | Who or what does the task — the design team, the fabrication shop, a subcontractor, a machine or crew. |
| Start | Planned start date of the task. |
| End | Planned finish date — together with Start it gives you the task's window. |
| % Complete | How far the task has progressed, from 0% to 100%. Read alongside cost, it tells you whether spend and progress are in step. |
| Billing Milestone | The stage this task rolls up to for invoicing — advance, material-at-site, a progress or RA milestone, or the final bill. |
Grab the .xlsx and open it in Excel, Google Sheets or LibreOffice. Delete the rows marked SAMPLE.
Enter each task with a description, the resource responsible and the planned start and end dates.
Type the budgeted cost you quoted, then update actual cost as spend comes in. Variance calculates itself.
Update % complete and tag each task to its billing milestone — advance, progress, RA or final.
The totals row sums budget, actual and variance so you see the project's over- or under-run at a glance.
That's the whole workflow. Keep one file per project, or copy a tab per job inside a single workbook. If you want the theory behind the columns — how a work-breakdown structure, a bill of resources and milestone billing actually fit together — the Fast Project Learn Hub has plain-English guides on WBS, project costing and RA/milestone billing that pair well with this sheet.
If you run one-off, engineered jobs rather than repeat catalogue production, this is your kind of cost sheet. Explore the industry pages for how the full software handles each.
Each bespoke order is its own budget. Track cost per task and bill by milestone instead of forcing a one-off into a catalogue BOM.
ETO softwareQuote a job, track plate, section and labour spend against the quote, and see the margin on the sheet before you raise the bill.
Fabrication softwareBreak an engineer-procure-construct package into a WBS, cost it against budget and bill by progress or RA milestone.
EPC softwareSite and tower work tracked by WBS, budget versus actual on material, labour and plant, and RA-milestone billing.
Construction softwareThe spreadsheet is a great start — but you still have to type actual cost in by hand, and it doesn't talk to your store, purchase or billing. Fast Project Management builds actual cost automatically from store issues and purchase against each task, rolls a per-task Bill of Resources up to an estimated cost against budget, and raises resource-itemised milestone and RA bills — so budget-versus-actual and billing stay live without re-keying. It's a Fast Technology product, built in Pune by Improsys, and runs cloud or on-premise.
Yes — a direct download with no email gate, sign-up or payment. Open the .xlsx and start using it, and reuse it for as many projects as you like.
WBS/Task, Description, Budgeted Cost, Actual Cost, Variance (auto formula), Resource, Start, End, % Complete and Billing Milestone — plus a totals row and a frozen header.
It's pre-filled with Budgeted minus Actual on every row, including the blank ones. Positive means under budget, negative means overrun — and it recalculates as you type.
Raising a bill for a defined stage — an advance, material-at-site, a progress or RA stage, or the final bill — rather than invoicing everything at the end. The milestone column tags each task to its stage.
Owners and project managers in engineer-to-order and custom manufacturing, fabrication and job-work, EPC, and construction — anyone who quotes a budget and bills by milestone.
When re-keying actual cost, or keeping cost and billing in sync by hand, starts eating your time. Fast Project Management links store, purchase and billing to each task so it stays live.
