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Work in progress: these docs are being written and change often.

Estimates and rate cards

Price a project line by line, get the estimate approved, then compare it with the hours your team actually spent.

GAOwnerExecutiveTeam leadLast updated 5 October 2026

An estimate is the cost and time you expect a project to take, broken into line items. A rate card holds the hourly rates you charge one client for each role. This page is for the people who price work and the people who approve it.

Set up a rate card

Section titled “Set up a rate card”
  1. Open Rate Cards in the sidebar and choose New Rate Card.
  2. Pick the Client, name the card, and choose the Currency.
  3. Set Effective From, and Effective To if the rates end. Leave the end blank for no end date.
  4. Add a rate line for each role: the Role, the Hourly Rate, and optionally the Monthly Capacity (hours) you have agreed.
  5. Choose Activate when the card is ready. Only active rate cards can be used for billing.

A rate card shows as Future before its start date and Expired after its end date.

Create an estimate

Section titled “Create an estimate”
  1. Open a project and choose Add estimate, or open the Estimates page and choose New Estimate.
  2. Give it an Estimate Name and a short description.
  3. Add line items. Each one has a description, a category, the Estimated Hours and an Hourly Rate.
  4. Save. The estimate starts as Draft.

Get it approved

Section titled “Get it approved”
  1. Choose Submit on a draft estimate.
  2. Someone who can approve estimates chooses Approve or Reject.

Choose Analyze to get an AI review of the estimate, including whether the rates look reasonable and whether the lines match the scope. It is advice. It changes nothing in the estimate.

Compare versions

Section titled “Compare versions”

Every change to an estimate keeps the earlier version. Open the comparison, pick a From Version and another version, and see which lines were added, removed or modified.

Track actual hours and cost

Section titled “Track actual hours and cost”
  1. Open the estimate and choose Record Actual.
  2. Enter the Actual Hours, the line item it belongs to (or Overall / Not specific to a line), and the cost if you know it.
  3. The estimate shows Actual vs Estimated for each line, marked On Target or Over Estimate.

Who can see what

Section titled “Who can see what”
  • Estimates belong to your organization and its projects. Nobody outside your organization can see them.
  • Rates and costs are sensitive. Give the view permissions only to the roles that need them.
  • An AI tool connected to your account does not see pricing unless the person who connected it turns on pricing for that connection.
Section titled “Related pages”