Project Costing
Build up a project's total cost from labour hours, materials, subcontractors and overhead, then compare it to the agreed price to see the margin, cost variance and earned value.
Data verified · July 2026
What if I don't have a separate budgeted cost for the project?
Leave budgeted cost and percentage complete at their defaults — the calculator will still compute total cost, profit and margin against the project price; only the cost variance and earned value require a budget figure.
Source: CIMA — Job, batch and contract costing topic guide; ACCA Management Accounting (MA), project and contract costing methods. · updated 2026
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Everything about Project Costing
📋Overview+
Project costing pulls together labour (hours times rate), direct materials, subcontractor costs and other direct costs into a total direct cost, then adds an overhead recovery based on a chosen overhead rate. Comparing the total cost to the agreed project price gives the profit and margin, while comparing it to a separate budget and percentage complete gives a cost variance and earned value — useful for tracking a project's financial health while it is still in progress.
💡 Best practices
- Track percentage complete against milestones or measurable output, not against time elapsed — time-based estimates routinely overstate real progress on projects that stall.
- A cost variance that keeps growing project over project usually points to underestimating either labour hours or the overhead rate at the quoting stage, not a one-off issue.
- Revisit the overhead rate periodically against actual overhead spend — a rate set years ago rarely still reflects current costs.
🔢 Concrete example
120 labour hours at £35/hour, £8,000 materials and £3,000 subcontractor cost, 15% overhead, against a £30,000 project price: a healthy margin with room for the overhead recovery.
📖User guide+
How to use this calculator
- 1
Enter the labour hours worked and the labour rate per hour.
- 2
Enter materials, subcontractor and other direct costs.
- 3
Enter the overhead rate to apply, and the agreed project price.
- 4
If tracking an in-progress project, enter the budgeted cost and percentage complete for the variance and earned value.
📚Glossary+
- Earned value
- The budgeted cost of work actually performed to date, calculated as the budgeted cost multiplied by the percentage of the project complete — used to compare planned progress to actual cost incurred.
- Overhead recovery rate
- The percentage applied to direct costs to recover a fair share of indirect overheads (office costs, equipment, supervision) not directly traceable to a single project.
ℹ️Sources & updates+
Last data update
July 7, 2026
Sources and references
CIMA — Job, batch and contract costing topic guide; ACCA Management Accounting (MA), project and contract costing methods.
The data in this calculator is updated regularly to reflect the latest official rates. When in doubt, consult the official sources listed above.
FAQ — Project Costing
What if I don't have a separate budgeted cost for the project?+
Leave budgeted cost and percentage complete at their defaults — the calculator will still compute total cost, profit and margin against the project price; only the cost variance and earned value require a budget figure.
Is the overhead rate applied to labour only or to all direct costs?+
The overhead rate is applied to the combined direct costs (labour, materials, subcontractors and other direct costs) to give a single overhead recovery figure added to the total cost.