The Progress Tracker page in RunSmart helps you turn your forecasts into actionable budgets and see how your business is performing against them over time. By converting a scenario into a budget, you can compare your monthly budgeted figures with actual results as new data flows in from QuickBooks.
Converting a Scenario into a Budget
To start tracking progress, you’ll first need to convert one of your scenarios into a budget:
At the top of the Progress Tracker dashboard page, select a scenario from the dropdown list.
Click Convert to lock in that scenario’s forecasts as your budget.
Once converted, your budget cannot be edited. If you need to make changes, delete the budget, adjust your scenario, and reconvert it into a new budget.
When a budget is created, RunSmart captures a snapshot of your scenario and forecasts exactly as they are (including any modifications you made) and locks them in place for accurate comparison against actuals.
⚠️ Important: If you delete a budget, you’ll also permanently delete all progress tracking history associated with it. This action cannot be undone.
If you delete a budget, you’ll be asked to confirm first, and you’ll get one last chance to undo the deletion if needed.
👉 For now, you can only have one budget per project.
What You’ll See in Progress Tracker
Once a budget is created, you’ll see new cards appear that let you track performance across sales, cash flow, profit and loss, and key metrics.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Track budget vs. actual monthly results across important metrics like Gross Profit Margin, EBITDA Margin, and Net Margin.
Budget values are marked in black for clarity.
When hovering over a chart, tooltips show the actual, budgeted, and variance values (both dollar amount and percentage). Positive variances appear in green, negative variances in red.
Sales Forecast
See how your actual sales compare to your budgeted forecast.
A solid green line represent actuals, the dashed black line represents budgeted amounts.
Tooltips display variance in both numbers and percentages, color-coded red or green depending on performance.
Cash Flow
Compare actual cash in/out and ending balances against your budget.
Actual results appear as bars and lines, while budgeted amounts are marked in black.
Tooltips clearly show variances and highlight whether higher or lower results are favorable, depending on the metric.
Profit & Loss (P&L)
View budget vs. actual monthly results for income, costs, and profits.
Choose between line or bar chart views.
Tooltips show actuals, budgets, and variances with color-coding (green for favorable, red for unfavorable).
👉 Each chart includes an expand button so you can view a larger version for easier visibility.
Subpages
The Progress Tracker includes two subpages for deeper analysis and goal setting:
Budget vs. Actual Statements
View your P&L, Cash Flow, or Balance Sheet with columns showing:
Actuals
Budgeted amounts
Variance (dollar amount)
Variance (percentage)
Variances are color-coded green (favorable) or red (unfavorable).
Statements can be downloaded as Excel files for further analysis or sharing.
Goals & Milestones
Set business goals such as sales targets or expense reductions and track progress toward them.
Goals appear as annotations directly on your charts for easy visualization.
Sales goals are shown in green on the Sales Forecast chart.
Expense goals are shown in red on the P&L chart.
The goals table grid lets you add, edit, or delete goals with details like:
Goal name & description
Category (Sales or expense line items from your P&L)
Direction (Increase, Decrease, Maintain)
Amount & goal date
Goal achieved? (Yes, No, TBD – automatically tracked by RunSmart)
Each goal also stores when it was added and last updated, so you have a clear history.
Why Progress Tracking Matters
Progress tracking is about more than just creating a budget—it’s about making sure your plans line up with real-world results and adjusting as your business grows. The Progress Tracker in RunSmart helps you:
Measure performance – See how your actual results compare against your planned numbers each month.
Stay accountable – Locking a scenario into a budget ensures you’re tracking against a fixed plan, not shifting targets.
Identify gaps and wins – Variances highlight areas where you’re overperforming or falling short.
Stay goal-focused – Add sales or expense goals and see them visually alongside your financial results.
Access a clear record – Review budget vs. actual statements or export them to Excel for reference, reporting, or sharing.
✅ Tip: Since budgets are locked, make sure your scenario reflects the right assumptions before converting. If you need to update, simply delete the budget, adjust your scenario, and convert again.