# Track a project's budget

> List what a project has to buy, follow each purchase from estimate to payment, and see at a glance what it costs and what is left.

Source: https://priortasks.com/docs/projects/project-budget/
Last updated: 2026-11-05

The **Budget** tab is a cost sheet for a project: what you have to buy, what each thing should cost, what it really cost and where each purchase stands. It works in every project and on every plan.

## Open the Budget tab

Press **Add a view** after the project's tabs and choose **Budget**. On a phone, use the header menu. The tab stays once it holds a line.

## Add what you have to buy

Type a name in **Add something to buy…**, a quantity in **Qty** (it defaults to 1) and a **Unit price**, then press **Add**. The line is created with the status **To buy**, and the cursor stays in the name field for the next one.

Press a line to open it. You can set its category, supplier, a link to the product page, quote or invoice (it must start with http:// or https://), a note, an **Actual cost** once you know it, and a task of the project to tie it to.

## Follow a purchase

Each line has a status button. Pressing it moves the line to the next status: **To buy**, **Ordered**, **Received**, **Paid**, then back to **To buy**.

The summary at the top is built from these numbers:

- A line costs its **Actual cost** when you have entered one, and its estimate (quantity times unit price) until then. This holds in every status.
- **Expected cost** is the sum of every line: what is paid, what is ordered or received, and what is still to buy.
- A bar splits that total into **Paid**, **Ordered** (ordered and received lines) and **To buy**, with the amount under each.

Press **Set a budget** to give the project an envelope. Then the summary reads, for example, "of €2,000 · €760 left", or "€120 over budget" in red. The same **Budget settings** let you pick the currency: EUR, USD, GBP, CHF, CAD or AUD. A new budget starts with the one that fits your language and region.

Lines are grouped by category, with a total for each group. Lines without a category come last, under **Other**.

## Paste a list

Press **Paste a list** to add many lines at once. Paste rows from a spreadsheet (tabs, semicolons or commas, with or without a header row) or a plain shopping list such as "Servo motor x4 12.50". Prior reads it on your device as you type and shows how many items it found. Nothing is added until you press **Add N items**.

> [!pro] Reading quotes and invoices needs Pro
> With Pro, **Read with Prior AI** reads quotes, invoices and receipts instead. You need to be signed in and online. Without Pro, you see a one-line hint, and the plain reader still works. See [plans and pricing](https://priortasks.com/docs/account/plans-and-pricing/).

## Export

Press **Export CSV** to download the lines. The file uses semicolons and opens directly in Excel. Amounts are plain decimals in the budget's currency. Viewers of a shared project can export too.

## Good to know

- A budget holds up to 500 lines.
- Deleting a line shows an **Undo** link right away.
- In a shared project, editors change the budget and viewers read it. Two people editing different lines never overwrite each other.
- A budget has one currency, and amounts are what you type: Prior adds no tax.
- Prior AI and connected assistants can add, change and remove lines for you. See [Prior AI across the app](https://priortasks.com/docs/prior-ai/ai-across-prior/) and [the MCP tools](https://priortasks.com/docs/integrations/mcp-tools/).