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.
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.
An engagement with no end date has no expected curve, so there's no ahead/behind — it just tracks usage against the budget and shows a runway. Pacing needs a timeline.
If the budget is in dollars but no bill rate resolves for the work, ProjectPacer can't convert it into expected hours — so pacing is blocked until you set a rate. The engagement will say so and point you to the Billing step.