Project Budget Burn Alert Setup

What is a project budget burn alert?

A project budget burn alert is an automated notification that fires when a project's costs reach a defined percentage of the total budget — typically 80%. It gives you time to act before the budget is fully consumed and the project is in the red.

Most agencies find out about budget overruns after they happen. The monthly invoice reconciliation shows the hours logged exceeded the budget. By then, the conversation with the client is reactive and uncomfortable.

An 80% alert flips that. When costs hit 80% of budget, you still have 20% left to work with. Enough time to scope a change order, reassign tasks, or simply have an honest conversation before the deadline.

How budget burn is calculated

Budget Guardian calculates costs from logged hours, not estimates. Every time a team member stops a timer, Melororium multiplies the hours logged by their hourly rate. That cost is added to the project's running total.

**Cost = employee rate × logged hours**

The burn chart shows cumulative costs day by day. A flat line means nothing is being logged. A steep line means intensive work — or someone accidentally left a timer running. The chart makes both visible at a glance.

Setting up budget alerts

The Budget Guardian configuration lives in any project's Budget tab. Enter the total budget, set the alert threshold (default: 80%), and configure which channels receive the notification.

**Alert channels:**

• In-app notification — visible immediately in the notification bell
• Slack webhook — posts to your channel of choice
• Email via Resend — sent to project admins

A second alert fires at 100% — when the project is in overrun. The 80% alert is advisory. The 100% alert is urgent.

Per-project override

Global alert settings apply as defaults across all projects. For a project with tighter margins, you can override the threshold to 70% or even 60%. Higher-margin projects can raise the threshold to 90%. The per-project alertConfig field handles this without touching global settings.

Reading the burn chart

The burn chart shows cumulative costs from project start to today against the total budget line (shown in red). When the curve is tracking well below the budget line, the project is healthy. When it starts bending upward toward the line ahead of schedule, that's the signal to investigate.

Combined with the profit margin KPI (budget minus costs, divided by budget), the burn chart gives an immediate read on project financial health without opening a spreadsheet.

Which plan includes Budget Guardian?

Agency plan at $59/mo for teams of up to 10 users. Studio at $119/mo for teams of up to 25 users.