Pacing & velocity
See whether an engagement is ahead or behind plan — the burn-up chart, pace, velocity, and runway.
Once an engagement has a budget and a timeline, ProjectPacer tells you whether you're on track — not just how much you've used, but whether you're using it at the right speed.
Two ways to see your engagements
The Engagements list has a view switch in the top bar:
- Compact — a slim row per engagement: name, a budget bar, and the pace read-out. Best for scanning a long list.
- Detail — a full status card per engagement, handy for teams with a handful of active ones. Each card shows budget used with a pace line (where budget use should be today, based on how much of the timeline has elapsed), the pace verdict, the timeline position (Week N of M, or Month N of M past ~18 weeks) with the start–end dates, hours or dollars remaining, velocity vs. goal, and a small burn-up sparkline. Milestone-billed engagements also show milestones delivered.
Your choice is remembered on this device. Every number on a Detail card is the same pacing math explained below — just surfaced for the whole list at once. Use the Metrics button (in Detail) to choose which optional stats — remaining, velocity, milestones, burn-up, effective rate, last activity, contributors — show on every card, up to five at once. Timeline, budget used, and the pace verdict always show.
The expected pacing curve
When you set up a non-recurring engagement, you pick how the work is expected to spread over the timeline:
- Even — steady from start to finish.
- Front-loaded — heavier early.
- Back-loaded — heavier late.
- Custom — enter your own phases (weeks + hours/dollars each).
That curve becomes the dashed target line on the burn-up chart. Your actual usage is the solid line — above it you're ahead, below it you're behind.
What the numbers mean
How far ahead or behind the expected curve you are, right now. Within a small tolerance band it reads on pace; otherwise over or under.
Your recent hours-per-week, next to the velocity goal — the pace you'd need to hit your target by the end.
For ongoing engagements, how long the budget lasts at your current pace; for timed ones, when you'll hit the target if nothing changes.
You can set the target % you're pacing against (100 / 90 / 80 / custom) on the engagement — useful when you deliberately want to leave headroom.
Re-pacing an engagement
Real life doesn't hold to the plan. When a client goes quiet or wants a push, Adjust pace on the Engagement tab sets a new hours-a-week for any stretch and lets the rest of the plan rebalance, so you still land on your target. Every change is dated and noted.
Pause, ease, or boost an engagement for any span, with Rebalance and a target you set.
Where every engagement's pace stacks against the hours you have.