Cost management

Overview

Cost features build on time entries logged against cards (start/stop or manual duration). Each entry can carry snapshotted rates when the system records financials; when a snapshot is missing, Saku uses the current board and organisation settings to work out effective rates at query time.

There are two separate ideas people often mix up:

• Your Saku subscription (Free, Pro, Max): what you pay Saku. See Billing → Plans.
• Project economics: billable and cost figures for your client work, configured in team and board settings. This guide is about the second.

Plans and access

Capabilities depend on the team's plan and your role on the board.

Board admin sees everything the team plan allows (including internal figures on Max). Editors see billable amounts on Pro+; internal and margin only if the board setting show internal cost to editors is on. Viewers and board-only collaborators never see internal cost or margin; guests may see an estimated billable summary per card only when customer bill preview is enabled on the board.

Time tracking and costs

Basic time logging (timer or manual entry on a card) is included on every plan, including Free. Pro Project economics and cost reporting: billable and internal rollups, effective hourly rates, and currency-based cost calculations. These unlock on Pro and Max (internal and margin on Max). Those logged minutes drive hours in cost views; when financial logic runs, Saku multiplies duration by the effective hourly rate (bill and, on Max, internal) to produce amounts in your chosen currency (stored internally as minor units, e.g. cents for euro).

If no rates apply yet, totals may be empty until an admin sets organisation or board defaults, or per-person rates. The Costs tab and billing settings may show notes when figures still come from organisation-level defaults. You can override on the board without disabling org defaults.

Currency

On Pro+, team owners and admins can set the organisation's default currency for costs in Settings → open the team → Costs. The app offers a curated set of major world currencies (ISO 4217). If you do nothing, the default remains Euro (EUR) for backwards compatibility.

Each board can optionally override currency in Board settings → Rates & billing; leaving it inherited keeps the organisation currency.

Important: changing currency does not convert existing stored amounts. Set the currency you intend to use before heavy use so historical figures stay meaningful.

Organisation costs

In Settings, open your team and choose Costs Pro. Owners and admins can configure:

• Default currency for cost display and exports (Pro+).
• Organisation-wide default bill rate per hour (Pro+), used when neither board nor per-person overrides fill in a bill rate.
• Organisation-wide default internal cost per hour and per-member internal rates Max.
• Per-member bill rates for full team members (Pro+), shown with avatars, name, and email.

These defaults apply automatically across boards in the organisation. You do not need to "turn on" org costs per board. Individual boards can still override rates or currency where needed (see below).

Uploading an organisation logo (team General settings) improves PDF cost reports: the export can include your logo when the file is reachable; it is optional but recommended.

Board billing and overrides

Open a board → Board settings → Billing Pro. Here you can:

• Toggle project economics and related options (visibility, customer preview, internal visibility for editors, budgets on Max).
• Set board default bill (and internal on Max) rates.
• Set per-member bill and internal rates for people on this board, with avatars in the member table.
• Optionally set a board currency override, or leave it to inherit from the organisation.

When effective rates still come from the organisation, the UI explains that you are using organisation-level costs and points you here to override on this board.

Board-only collaborators are not team members; they do not have organisation per-member rates. They follow this board's defaults and board member rates only.

How rates are chosen

For each of bill and internal (when applicable), Saku resolves an effective hourly rate in this order until it finds a value:

1. Board: rate set for that person on this board.
2. Board default from billing settings.
3. Organisation: rate set for that person in team Costs.
4. Organisation default for bill or internal in team Costs.

Separately, each time entry can store snapshotted bill and internal rates. When present, those snapshots take precedence over the live resolution above for that entry, which is useful for stable reporting after rates change.

Where you see costs

• Board → Insights → Costs: rollups for the board, date range, member breakdown with avatars where shown, links into billing settings.
• Card modal → Costs: quick view for that card when economics is enabled, with a path to rates & billing.
• Board settings → Rates & billing: full configuration and member rate table.

Direct expenses on cardsPro

On Pro and Max, you can log one-off purchases against a card (for example domains, licences, or pass-through spend): item name, optional supplier, amount, date, optional notes, and an optional receipt file. Mark a line as bill to client when the same amount should appear in billable direct totals as well as your company cost roll-up (where your role allows internal figures).

These lines are separate from time-based margin and internal budgets. They appear in the Costs tab, in activity, and as extra rows in CSV and PDF exports on Max. On the board Costs tab you pick a card when adding an expense; from a card's Costs tab the expense is tied to that card automatically.

Analytics and dashboard

Analytics → Costs report Pro (/insights/costs) aggregates billable (and internal/margin on Max) across teams and boards you can access, with date presets and filters. Currency display follows your effective settings.

The dashboard can include a Financial snapshot card (customisable section) with a month-to-date billable summary and a link to the full report.

Team settings Analytics Pro includes billable snapshot for the open team (Pro+) and internal/margin on Max.

Spreadsheets (CSV export)

On Max, users who can see the relevant financial data can export a comma-separated (CSV) file from the board Costs area and from the organisation-level Costs report where provided. CSV columns use your effective currency in the header naming (not a hard-coded "EUR" label).

Open the export in Excel, Google Sheets, or any spreadsheet tool for further analysis, pivot tables, or attaching to client records.

PDF cost reports

On Max, the board Costs area offers a Cost report (PDF), named deliberately as a report, not a legal invoice. Choose a layout before download, for example:

• Per card, detailed: each card with time rows per person (dates, duration, rates used, billable and internal as your permissions allow), then card subtotals.
• Per card, summary: one line per card with hours and totals.
• Per user (timesheet): chronological entries across cards, like a timesheet.
• Per user, summary: one line per person with hours and totals.

PDFs use the Degular typeface, your organisation logo when available, and a fixed footer: Saku mark, Powered by Saku, www.saku.ie | [email protected] on the left, and generated date and time on the right.

Estimates vs invoicing

Figures in Saku Costs are estimates for planning and transparency unless your own contract or process says otherwise. They are not tax invoices by themselves. Use CSV or PDF cost reports as supporting detail, or issue formal client invoices from Invoicing.

Customer bill preview (optional board setting) can show board-only collaborators an estimated billable summary per card; it remains an estimate, not a tax invoice.

Privacy and sensitive data

Hourly rates and cost figures are business-sensitive. Restrict board access and roles so only appropriate people see bill and internal numbers. Do not rely on Saku to hide internal rates from viewers or external collaborators if they should not see them; use roles and board settings as intended.

For more on how billable and internal figures work in the product, see Project economics on our website.