Client budgets

A client budget sets a spending cap for a single client and tracks real usage against it, warning chosen team members before the cap is reached — useful for retainers and fixed-scope engagements where you need to catch overruns early.

• Available on the Elite plan, with the Budget app activated in Settings & Apps.
• Company Admins and Company Owners activate the app for the whole company.
• View a client’s budgets — any team member with access to that client.
• Create, edit, or delete a budget — needs Client Admin permission on that client.

The Budget app must be activated first — a Company Admin or Owner does this once in Settings & Apps → Budget → Activate, which adds a Budgets tab under Financials on every client. Each budget belongs to one client and lives on that client’s profile.

Path: Clients → [client name] → Financials → Budgets → Add budget

Fill in the budget details:

• Title — a descriptive name (for example, Q2 2026 monthly retainer).
• Budget — the cap: the total amount (before VAT) in the client’s currency.
• Budget for — what the budget tracks: all invoices, specific contracts, topics, or projects.
• Period — Fixed for a one-off budget with an end date, or Recurring to renew automatically.
• From / Until — the date range. Until is required for a fixed budget; for a recurring budget you can leave it empty for an open-ended budget.
• Recurrence type — for recurring budgets, choose Monthly, Quarterly, or Yearly.
• Send warning to — the members or teams who receive warnings.
• When reaching — the warning threshold as a percentage (default 90%).
• Notification / Email — how warnings are delivered: in-app, email, or both.

Then click Save.

A budget tracks either the money you’ve invoiced or the cost of the time your team has tracked. You choose which under Budget for when you create the budget.

Money you’ve invoiced:

• All invoices — every invoice for the client in the period, except voided ones. This also counts invoices that are still being prepared (not yet sent), so usage can rise before you send anything.
• Contracts — the same invoice totals, but only for the contracts you select. Contract budgets always recur, and you can only choose contracts whose billing period matches the budget’s recurrence.

Both require the Billing app.

Cost of tracked work:

• Topics — the cost of time tracked on the client’s tasks, calculated as tracked hours × each member’s billable rate. Optionally limit it to specific topics.
• Projects — the same hours × rate calculation, scoped to specific projects. Requires the Projects app.

For Topics and Projects, all tracked time counts (billable and non-billable), and each hour is valued at that member’s billable rate — falling back to the company default rate. A member with no rate set adds nothing to usage. The budget dialog shows your company default rate and how many members have an individual rate (“Members: X/Y”); set missing rates on each member’s agreement (see the Flextime agreement).

A budget covers either a single fixed period or repeats on a schedule. You choose this under Period.

• Fixed — one period with a start and end date (both required). When the end date passes, the budget is archived.
• Recurring — repeats monthly, quarterly, or yearly. When a period ends, Uku archives it as its own row and opens a fresh period with the same cap — ideal for ongoing retainers. Leaving Until empty makes it open-ended, renewing until you stop it.

You can remove any budget — fixed or recurring — by opening it and clicking Delete budget. To change the cap, warning threshold, or recipients, open the budget, edit the fields, and save.

Uku can alert chosen team members as a budget approaches its cap, so overruns don’t go unnoticed.

• Choose the recipients under Send warning to (members or teams) and set the threshold under When reaching (default 90%).
• When usage crosses the threshold, the Remaining budget, Percent, and Warning cells turn red in the list, and recipients receive an in-app notification, an email, or both — depending on the Notification / Email options.
• Each budget warns once per period. A recurring budget resets this every new period, so you’re alerted again each cycle.

Budget usage is recalculated in the background, so the figures are current within a short delay rather than instant. For an immediate refresh, open the client’s Financials → Budgets and click Calculate budgets.

The Budgets tab lists every budget for the client — both active and archived. Each row shows the Period and Title, the Budget for (what it tracks) and the Budget cap, plus usage: Remaining budget, Percent used, and the Warning threshold — these three turn red when usage crosses the warning threshold. Status is Active (green) or Archived (grey).

Click a column header to sort, or a row to open and edit the budget. Archived budgets stay in the list. To remove a budget, open it and click Delete budget.

The Budget app must be activated in Settings & Apps, and it needs the Elite plan. If the app is active and the tab is still missing, confirm you have access to that client.

Several things can cause this: usage hasn’t actually crossed the When reaching threshold yet; the budget already sent its one alert for this period (it warns once per period); no one is selected under Send warning to; or the chosen Notification / Email channel is off. Note that clicking Calculate budgets refreshes the figures but never sends warnings — only the background recalculation does, so allow a little time after usage crosses the threshold.

These budgets value time at each member’s billable rate, so a member with no rate set adds nothing. Open the budget dialog to see how many members have a rate (“Members: X/Y”) and set missing rates on each member’s agreement. Confirm the right topics or projects are selected, then click Calculate budgets to refresh.

All invoices counts every invoice for the client except voided ones — including invoices still being prepared. Contracts counts only the contracts you selected. Confirm the Budget for type and, for contracts, the linked contracts, then click Calculate budgets.

Confirm Period is Recurring (not Fixed) and that the recurrence type and start date are set. A fixed budget covers only its date range and never renews.