Project Burn Rate Calculator

This calculator measures how fast a project is actually spending money and projects that pace forward. Weekly Burn Rate is Spent to Date divided by Elapsed Weeks -- a plain average of the pace run so far. Because Elapsed Weeks sits in the denominator, the same Spent to Date reported after 6 weeks instead of 16 roughly triples the computed rate, and every other figure on this page is derived from that single Weekly Burn Rate number. Projected Total Spend multiplies that historical rate by Total Project Weeks, on the assumption spend continues at the same pace for the rest of the schedule -- a real limitation, since most projects do not spend at a constant weekly rate. Staffing often ramps up mid-project, late-stage testing and fixes can cost more per week than early planning, and one-time purchases spike a single week's number without changing the underlying trend.

Budget Variance compares that straight-line projection against Total Budget, flagging an overrun before it happens rather than after. Allowable Burn Rate answers a different question -- given what remains in the budget and the weeks still remaining, what weekly rate keeps the project on budget from this point forward, independent of the pace run so far. Cost Per Person divides the current Weekly Burn Rate evenly across Team Size; it is an average share of spend, not a tracked figure for any individual team member, contractor, or line item. Weeks Until Budget Depleted divides Remaining Budget by Weekly Burn Rate; it shows -1 rather than 0 when nothing has been spent yet, since a literal 0 would misleadingly read as "already out of money" for a project that hasn't started spending -- 0 is reserved for the genuine case where Spent to Date has caught up to or passed Total Budget. Schedule Health is Elapsed Weeks as a percentage of Total Project Weeks -- a pacing figure, not a judgment on budget performance, which Budget Health tracks separately.