Budgeting and Cost Analysis

Farline includes a full cost engine that tracks monetary spend across your project. By assigning a cost per unit to your workstreams and setting a budget, you can see exactly how much each scenario costs, which work items fall inside or outside the budget, and how different staffing choices affect total spend.

How Costs Work

Costs flow from three inputs:

Unit cost — the monetary value of one capacity unit per week for a workstream (e.g. unit_cost: 1500 means $1,500 per person per week)
Default unit cost — a project-level fallback applied to any workstream that doesn't define its own unit_cost
Budget — the total money available, set at the project level or overridden per scenario

Farline calculates the cost of each work item by multiplying the workstream's weekly cost by the time the item occupies. These costs accumulate across all work items to produce a total project cost for each scenario.

YAML Reference

Project-level fields

project_name: My Project
unit: people weeks
default_unit_cost: 1500    # fallback cost per capacity unit per week
currency: USD              # ISO 4217 code; defaults to USD
budget: 200000             # total budget for the project

Field	Description
`default_unit_cost`	Cost per capacity unit per week, applied to workstreams without their own `unit_cost`
`currency`	ISO 4217 currency code (e.g. `USD`, `GBP`, `EUR`). Displayed in charts and results.
`budget`	Project-level budget. Used unless a scenario defines its own `budget`.

Workstream-level field

workstreams:
  - name: Engineering
    capacity: 4
    unit_cost: 2000    # overrides default_unit_cost for this workstream
  - name: Design
    capacity: 2
    # no unit_cost — uses default_unit_cost from the project

Field	Description
`unit_cost`	Cost per capacity unit per week for this workstream. Overrides `default_unit_cost`.

Scenario-level budget override

scenarios:
  - scenario: Baseline
    start_date: "2026-04-01"
    budget: 150000    # overrides the project-level budget for this scenario only
    workstreams: ...

Worked Example

Here's a small project that demonstrates cost tracking:

project_name: Website Redesign
unit: people weeks
default_unit_cost: 1500
currency: USD
budget: 200000

scenarios:
  - scenario: Baseline
    start_date: "2026-04-01"
    workstreams:
      - name: Design
        capacity: 2
        unit_cost: 1200
      - name: Engineering
        capacity: 4
        # uses default_unit_cost: 1500
    work_items:
      - id: wi-1
        name: Visual Design
        workstream: Design
        size: 6
      - id: wi-2
        name: Build Components
        workstream: Engineering
        size: 12
        depends_on: [wi-1]
    milestones: []

How costs are calculated:

Design team: 2 capacity × $1,200/unit/week × (weeks active) = weekly spend
Engineering team: 4 capacity × $1,500/unit/week × (weeks active) = weekly spend
Total project cost = sum of all workstream spend over the full schedule

The Results tab shows the total monetary cost alongside elapsed time for each scenario, so you can compare both dimensions when evaluating trade-offs.

Budget, Cut Lines, and Funded vs. Unfunded Items

When a budget is set, Farline calculates a cut line — the week at which the cumulative spend exhausts the budget. Work items are then classified as:

Status	Meaning
Funded	Completes before the budget runs out
Partially funded	Started but not finished when the budget is exhausted
Unfunded	Hasn't started when the budget runs out

The cut line appears as a vertical red line on the Gantt chart. Unfunded items are shown in gray; partially funded items show a split bar (colored portion = funded work, gray portion = unfunded).

The Results tab reports funded and unfunded item counts for each scenario, helping you answer questions like: "With our current budget, how much scope actually gets delivered?"

Cost Charts

When costs are configured, the Results panel includes cost charts that visualise cumulative spend over time for each scenario. These charts help you:

See how quickly the budget is consumed
Compare cost trajectories between scenarios (e.g. larger team vs. smaller team)
Identify which scenario delivers the most scope per dollar

When multiple scenarios are configured, an overlay chart plots all cost curves on the same axes so you can directly compare trajectories.

AI Chat Commands

You can configure costs through the AI chat without editing YAML directly. Common commands:

What to say	Effect
`Set the default unit cost to $1,500 per week`	Sets `default_unit_cost` on the project
`Set Engineering unit cost to $2,000 per week`	Sets `unit_cost` on the Engineering workstream
`Set the budget to $200,000`	Sets `budget` on the project
`Set the currency to GBP`	Sets `currency` on the project
`What is the total cost of the Baseline scenario?`	AI reports the calculated cost

Tips

Set default_unit_cost first, then override individual workstreams that differ. This is less verbose than setting unit_cost on every workstream.
Use consistent units: if capacity is in people weeks, unit_cost should be cost per person per week.
Compare budget sensitivity: duplicate a scenario, reduce its budget, and see which items drop out — this shows you the minimum scope you can deliver within a tighter spend envelope.
Currency is display-only: changing currency doesn't convert numbers — it just changes the symbol shown in charts and results.

Using the AI Project Builder - Build projects through AI chat
Understanding the Forecast Results - Reading the Results tab
Visualizing Projects - Chart export options
Managing Workstreams and Dependencies - Capacity and team structure

Last updated: 2026-03-14

Budgeting and Cost Analysis

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