Basecamp to-dos need planned and actual hour review, and Everhour keeps tracked time and budget signals connected.
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One click and you're timing. Start a timer, add an entry, edit the details. This is exactly how it feels in Everhour.
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Compare planned effort with time actually spent on a Basecamp project so each active to-do has an estimate, logged time tied to the right person and date, and a remaining or over-estimate number that tells you where the plan changed.
This view helps a project lead catch a budget problem while the work is still moving. A designer who has 6 estimated hours on a Basecamp to-do and 5.5 hours logged needs a different response than a development task estimated at 10 hours with 14 hours already recorded. The difference guides scope, staffing, and client conversations.
Basecamp supplies the work structure: projects, to-do lists, to-dos, assignees, due dates, and completion status. Everhour adds embedded time controls through the browser extension, then reports Basecamp project, list, to-do, task ID, and task status fields alongside logged time. The integration syncs all Basecamp projects across teams and workspaces, so naming and list discipline matter before reports become useful.
Start by assigning an estimate to work at the to-do level, then require time entries to land on the specific to-do instead of a broad project bucket. A variance report only works when the planned unit and actual unit match. A project-level budget can show the total ceiling, while the to-do estimate shows the local overrun that caused the ceiling to tighten.
Planned-versus-actual review is strongest before the budget is exhausted. Set hour or money budgets at the project level, then compare tracked time against estimates by list and to-do. A budget alert threshold should reflect the decision point: 50% can work for early discovery, 80% for scope triage, and a custom threshold for a fixed internal rule.
A negative variance should identify the cause before anyone treats it as poor performance. The estimate can be stale, the to-do can include hidden subtasks, or the logged work can belong to a different item. A reviewable report keeps the to-do name, list, task status, person, and date close enough for the manager to trace the variance.
A one-off check is enough when you need a quick read on a small project, a single week, or one client conversation. Export the current view, review the biggest differences, and update estimates before more work starts. That process breaks down when the same Basecamp projects need recurring budgets, threshold emails, protected logging rules, and reviewed time every cycle.
A managed workflow puts the recurring pieces in Everhour: hour or money budgets, admin-configured alert percentages, fixed-fee or time-and-materials rates, and timesheet approval before reports use the hours. Everhour Expenses can add reimbursable costs with receipts and decide whether expenses count toward the project budget, so the variance review covers labor and project spend.
This content is for general information only, may not be fully up to date, and is provided without any warranty or liability.
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Planned hours are the estimate attached to the work before it starts. Actual hours are the time people record against the project or to-do after work happens. The comparison shows variance: remaining hours when actual time is under the estimate, or over-estimate hours when logged time exceeds the plan.
Estimates belong on the smallest unit you expect to review. Project-level totals help with the budget ceiling, but to-do estimates explain which piece of work consumed the time. A task estimate also keeps the comparison readable when multiple people contribute to the same Basecamp project.
Start with variances that still leave room for action. A two-hour overrun on a nearly finished to-do matters less than a six-hour variance on work that is halfway done. A smaller variance also deserves review when it sits on a fixed-fee project, a blocked task, or a client-facing deliverable.
Threshold alerts turn variance review into an earlier decision. The right percentage depends on the contract and project pace. Use lower thresholds for discovery-heavy work where estimates change fast, and higher thresholds for predictable delivery where the manager mainly needs a warning before the project reaches its hour or money budget.
Actual hours look inflated when entries land on the wrong to-do, a broad project bucket, or a completed item that stayed open. Entries parked in the wrong place hide the real variance and make the estimate look worse than it is. Require task-level entries before using the report for budget decisions.
Everhour Expenses lets team members record reimbursable project expenses with receipt images or PDFs and controls whether those costs count toward fee-based project budgets. That keeps non-labor spend visible beside billable hours during a Basecamp budget review before invoice or profitability work starts.
Everhour Project Budgeting sends budget alert emails at percentages an admin chooses, including custom thresholds for each project. A team can use earlier alerts for discovery work and stricter alerts for fixed-fee projects, then protect the budget by stopping timers and preventing new time logging after the limit is exceeded.
Track time, receipts, and unit-based expenses beside Basecamp project work, then decide which costs count toward budgets and invoices. Everhour Expenses keeps project spend visible before overruns reach the client.
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