Plan, actual and forecast in one view
Planned budget, logged hours, projected end state. Per project, phase or task, down to the single entry.
Project controlling software: plan, actual and forecast current to the day.
Project leads and leadership see at any moment whether a project is on plan, how the margin is developing and when the budget tips. From logged hours, flat rates and travel expenses, with no Excel bridge. Part of project management in teamspace.
Keep the overview
Three questions a time book cannot answer
Good project controlling is the difference between steering and chasing. With project management in teamspace you keep an eye on the questions that count in daily work:
- Are my projects running to plan?
- Which projects are slipping?
- Which projects are over budget?
teamspace answers these and many more, from the progress and the status of each project. When something runs off plan, the software flags it on its own, instead of you finding out at the month-end close.
Feature set
What project controlling software has to do
Margin as soon as hours are logged
Fee volume less the valued hours, travel expenses and material. Per client, contract type or project, not a snapshot from last month.
Early warning instead of after-the-fact
Warning levels flag when a project crosses its budget threshold or the margin falls below a line. Room to react before the client complains.
From overview to cause
From the red margin to the single hour
A figure that stands out in the portfolio leads in a few clicks to the entry that caused it. Through project, phase and work package, with no hour lists to search.
Portfolio 12 projects · May 2026 Margin
Migration service
PRJ-009
Customer portal · relaunch
PRJ-014
CRM rollout
PRJ-021
Project Customer portal · relaunch · PRJ-014 Margin
Concept
completed
Delivery
phase running
Test & sign-off
planned
Phase Delivery · 240 h plan Margin
Frontend
6 packages
API integration
3 packages
Infrastructure
2 packages
Work package API integration · WP-1408 Margin
Plan
estimated
Actual
logged
Entry WP-1408 · to the cause Margin
Interface rework
K. Lange · 14 May
From the portfolio to the single hour: every figure is traceable.
Plan vs actual
Plan and actual side by side, per phase
The most important lever in controlling is the comparison at phase level. For each phase, teamspace places the planned hours, the logged and approved hours and the forecast to phase end side by side. Three drift patterns become visible early this way, instead of only at the close.
- Early overrun in the concept phase, often a sign of unclear requirements.
- Creeping drift in delivery, which stays under the radar for a long time without a daily view.
- Buffer consumption in the closing phase, when the phases before it were not controlled cleanly.
Margin
The margin stands as soon as hours are logged
teamspace calculates the margin continuously: from internal hourly rates, logged hours and incurred cost. The result sits in the Analysis tab, not in a spreadsheet someone fills in at the quarter close.
The view switches with the question:
- by client, to see which customer carries the load
- by contract type, fixed price next to time and material
- by project, down to the single phase
15 minutes
We look at your plan logic.
In 15 to 30 minutes we go through your phase structure, your margin structure and your thresholds. You get a clear first read on whether teamspace fits your setup.
“We mostly work with the budget column.”
Earned value
The forecast projects the rest
The forecast is not a gut estimate but a calculation. teamspace sets the planned cost, the value already completed and the actual cost in proportion and projects the remainder of the project from them. So you can see early whether a project will land within its time and cost frame.
- Plan and cost variance at a glance
- Time and cost efficiency, whether the effort really creates value
- projected project remainder, refreshed with every entry
From project start to forecast
- 1
Set up project plan and budget
Phases, work packages, planned hours and internal rates. Templates from earlier projects speed up the build.
- 2
Log hours and cost
The team logs time on a phase or task; travel expenses and material come in through the installable web app (PWA). One entry feeds payroll and the project view.
- 3
Plan vs actual, current to the day
The dashboard shows day by day which phase is on plan, which is overrunning and where the margin is drifting. No weekly snapshot.
- 4
Forecast from earned value
From planned cost, completed value and actual cost, teamspace projects the project remainder, current to the day with each new entry.
- 5
Steer and correct
Warning levels flag the drift; the project lead steps in before it can no longer be recovered.
Warning levels
The status flags before it gets tight
teamspace works with three warning levels on the traffic-light method: notice, warning and critical warning, in green, amber and red. For each key metric you set the threshold, as a fixed value or as a percentage.
When a project crosses a threshold, the notice goes out automatically, by email on request. Every milestone also has an advance-warning date, so a looming delay is on the radar early.
More from project management
Use cases that dock straight on
Project controlling shares its data with these areas, with no one maintaining anything twice.
Earned value analysis
Steer progress and cost together, with earned value and efficiency.
Learn moreProject billing
Approved hours become the invoice, fixed price and time-and-material side by side.
Learn moreCapacity planning
Utilisation per person and team, forecast to quarter end.
Learn moreMulti-project management
Steer several projects in parallel, surface resource conflicts early.
Learn moreWork breakdown structure
Main project, subproject, work package, phase and milestone, freely combined.
Learn moreProject time tracking
Log time on a phase or task, the source of every controlling figure.
Learn moreFunctions around project controlling
Plan and actual
- Planned hours per phase and person
- Planned expenses and material cost
- Actual hours with project history
- Travel and material cost per entry
- Fixed price and time-and-material side by side
Forecast and margin
- Margin calculated automatically
- Projected project remainder
- Plan and cost variance
- Time and cost efficiency
- Margin per client and contract type
Steering
- Warning levels on budget and margin
- Milestone trend analysis with advance-warning date
- Dashboard current to the day
- Drilldown from the overview to the entry
- Excel export of the project structure
Part of project management
Project controlling sits inside project management
Plan, actual and forecast are not an add-on module but the steering view on the projects you already run in teamspace. From the work breakdown structure through billing to capacity planning, in one overview.
See project managementControlling day to day
Controlling as a daily view, not a monthly ritual
Project controlling software places plan, actual and forecast of a project side by side and shows whether it is running within its time and cost frame. The difference between a time book and real controlling is not more figures but when they arrive: on the day of the entry instead of at the month-end.
teamspace bundles the common methods on one data set. Plan vs actual sets planned and consumed hours, labour cost, external cost and revenue against each other. The margin shows how profitably a project is running, continuously and with no manual rework. The earned value analysis projects the project remainder from the completed value. The traffic-light method translates deviations into green, amber and red. And the milestone trend analysis turns the milestones re-set across the project reports into a trend line that shows early whether a date is slipping.
Because all of this works on the hours and cost already logged, every metric is traceable down to the single entry. Whoever wants to steer does not have to gather data first, they see it.
Related modules
Three modules dock straight onto the project.
Project controlling lives off the data of the hour, the invoice and the order. Here are the shortest routes there.
Time tracking
Hours land on the work package and are the basis for plan vs actual, margin and billing.
- Log on project, phase or ticket
- Billable or internal kept apart
- Approvals stay traceable
Invoicing software
Completed project work becomes the invoice, with hourly rates, flat rates and billing rules.
- Partial, progress and final invoices
- ZUGFeRD and XRechnung
- Hand-off to DATEV
CRM software
The accepted quote becomes the project. Order and customer file stay linked to the project.
- Quote, order and project linked
- Customer file on the live project
- Shared data, no double upkeep
Intro call
Let's talk 30 minutes about your project steering.
You show us your phases and thresholds, we show how teamspace turns them into a daily view.
Frequently asked questions about project controlling software
What is project controlling?
Project controlling covers all the work that monitors how a project runs and keeps schedule, cost and quality within the frame. Metrics such as plan vs actual, the margin and earned value are evaluated continuously for this.
What sets project controlling apart from project management?
Project management steers delivery: what gets done, when and by whom. Project controlling steers the economics: how the project stands financially and on schedule. teamspace ties both views together, with no need to maintain the data twice.
Which methods does teamspace cover?
Plan vs actual, margin, earned value analysis, the traffic-light method with three warning levels and the milestone trend analysis. All work on the same logged hours and cost.
How does the forecast come about?
From the planned cost, the value already completed and the actual cost, teamspace projects the project remainder. The forecast updates as soon as new hours are logged.
Which metrics does the earned value analysis cover?
The earned value analysis works out the plan and cost variance as well as time and cost efficiency, and projects the project remainder. More on the earned value analysis page.
Can we set thresholds for warnings?
Yes. Per project you can set a threshold for budget consumption and the margin, as a fixed value or as a percentage. On breach, teamspace flags the level notice, warning or critical, by email on request.
How do we steer several projects at once?
The multi-project overview shows all running projects with status and progress; from there the drilldown leads to the single entry. More on multi-project management software.
How does controlling connect to the invoice?
The hours and cost that flow into controlling are the same figures the project billing is built from. Two views, one capture.
Where is the controlling data stored?
All data is processed in certified data centres in Frankfurt am Main, exclusively within the EU. teamspace is made in Germany, hosted in an ISO 27001 certified data centre in Frankfurt and GDPR-compliant. The contracting party is 5 POINT AG, based in Darmstadt.