# Live Margins Live Margins is the real-time financial panel in the project sidebar. It adapts to wherever you are in the project — showing a financial overview of the estimate when you're building or reviewing it, and live budget expense tracking when you're in the budget. Open it using the sidebar button in the top-right corner of the project. For the full financial view with a unified breakdown across estimate and budget, use the [Project Finance](./Project-Finance.md) page. --- ## The Three Total Boxes Because PAI tracks two cost tracks — in-house staff labor and out-of-pocket spend — Live Margins presents three total boxes so you can see each track on its own and the two combined: - **Combined Totals** — the blended picture: in-house and out-of-pocket together. This is the true cost and true margin of the project. - **In-House Totals** — internal staff labor only, in both dollars and hours. - **OOP box** — out-of-pocket only. Its label tracks context: **OOP Estimate Totals** in an estimate, **OOP Budget Totals** in a budget. The internal dollars in the Combined and In-House boxes are gated by the **View Staff Rates** permission — see [Without View Staff Rates](#without-view-staff-rates) below. --- ## In Estimate Context When you're in an estimate, each box shows external revenue, internal cost, and the margin between them: **Combined Totals** — **External**, **Internal**, and **Margin** ($ and %) across both tracks. What you're billing, what it truly costs, and what you stand to make. **In-House Totals** — the same **External**, **Internal**, and **Margin** for in-house lines only, plus the hours that back them: - **Hours Estimated** — total hours across in-house lines - **Hours Assigned** — hours that have a staff member assigned - **Hours Remaining** — estimated minus assigned **OOP Estimate Totals** — **External**, **Internal**, and **Margin** ($ and %) for out-of-pocket lines: the revenue and profit on external spend. ### Out-of-pocket rollup Below the boxes and the breakdown, the **OOP Totals** section shows how out-of-pocket spend rolls up to its grand total. This rollup is **out-of-pocket only** — its Grand Total matches the OOP Estimate Totals box, not the Combined total. In-house labor is not included here. - **Subtotal** — sum of all out-of-pocket line item subtotals before modifiers - **Discount** — any discount applied at the estimate level - **Discounted Subtotal** — subtotal after discount - **Job Fees** — total of all markup amounts; individual markups appear as labeled pills before the Job Fees aggregate row - **Grand Total** — final out-of-pocket total inclusive of all modifiers --- ## In Budget Context In the budget, the boxes shift from projection to live cost tracking. Rather than revenue and margin, each box now reads as **Internal** (the approved baseline from the estimate), **Working Total** (live spend so far), and **Job Expense Variance** (Internal minus Working Total — how much budget remains). There's no External or Margin here; the budget is about measuring what you spend against what you planned to spend. **Combined Totals** — the blended baseline and live spend across both tracks: **Internal**, **Working Total**, and **Job Expense Variance**. The honest read on whether total project cost is tracking to plan. **In-House Totals** — internal labor, tracked in both dollars and hours. There's no External or Margin here — just cost against the baseline: - **Internal** — the approved in-house baseline from the estimate - **Working Total** — in-house cost booked so far - **Job Expense Variance** — Internal minus Working Total - **Hours Estimated**, **Hours Assigned**, **Hours Remaining** **OOP Budget Totals** — out-of-pocket expense tracking through the status lifecycle: - **Internal** — total approved out-of-pocket expenses from the estimate (the baseline) - **Projected Job Expenses** — expenses in Draft status; planned but not yet committed - **Committed Job Expenses** — expenses in Confirmed, Posted, Requested, or Rejected status; money committed but not yet paid - **Incurred Job Expenses** — expenses in Approved, Payment Scheduled, or Paid status; money approved for payment or already paid - **Working Total** — Projected + Committed + Incurred - **Job Expense Variance** — difference between the approved Internal total and the Working Total; how much budget remains --- ## The Breakdown Calculates Out-of-Pocket Only Below the total boxes, switch between **Categories**, **Departments**, and **Items** to see where money is accumulating. This breakdown calculates **out-of-pocket only** — it's the detailed view of external spend by cost type. In-house labor is summarized in the In-House Totals box rather than itemized here. In estimate context each grouping shows External, Internal, and Margin; in budget context each shows Internal Total, Working Total, and Job Expense Variance. --- ## Without View Staff Rates Users without the **View Staff Rates** permission see the same three boxes, but every in-house internal dollar figure is hidden — the numbers that would reveal what internal labor costs. In the **Combined** and **In-House** boxes, the internal cost and anything derived from it (margin in an estimate; internal, working total, and variance in a budget) is suppressed, while the in-house **hours** (Estimated, Assigned, Remaining) stay fully visible. The **OOP box** and the out-of-pocket breakdown are unaffected and shown in full. In short, these users can see and manage every external and logistical number — including all in-house hours — without seeing what internal labor costs the organization. See [Users and Permissions](../01-Organization-Setup/Users-and-Permissions.md#view-staff-rates). --- ## Reading the Numbers **Job Expense Variance tells you where the out-of-pocket budget stands.** A positive variance means you're under the approved internal budget; negative means you've exceeded it. The breakdown by category or department shows exactly where the variance is coming from. **Working Total is your most honest operating figure.** It includes every out-of-pocket expense regardless of payment stage — projected costs not yet committed, commitments not yet paid, and money already out the door. Nothing is excluded until a line is removed from the budget entirely. **Combined Totals is where in-house labor changes the story.** A project can look healthy on out-of-pocket margin alone and tighten considerably once internal labor is counted. The Combined box is the number to act on, because it's the one that reflects what the project actually costs to deliver. For Working Margin and the full cross-view of estimate vs. budget performance, see [Project Finance](./Project-Finance.md).