Overview:
Forecasting in Workbench is the best way to analyse the cost to complete figures for your projects on a monthly basis while identifying overruns and savings. This module provides the ability to view your contract from a top-down perspective, starting at the Job level then expanding to the Work Centres, Cost Categories (only when using Resource Forecasting) and Activities. There are quick links to view budgets, individual transactions, POs/WOs, and adjustments that will automatically filter the results based on the line you click, allowing rapid analysis of ongoing projects and identification of abnormalities.
To use
Screen Guide:
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For specific setup and details see Resource Forecasting. Category column and level, Resource Forecast column, and buttons Forecast Labour and Forecast Plant are the additional items in the screen only visible in this mode.
After a Forecast Period is created, the button is replaced with Refresh Forecast, which creates a new snapshot overwriting the previously generated data (but not Uncommitted/Risk Adjustments).
- Resource Forecasting not enabled: Clicking on a Work Centre will expand the grid to show all used Activities for the selected Job/Work Centre combination.
- Resource Forecasting enabled: Clicking on a Work Centre will expand the grid to show all Cost Categories and all used Activities for the selected Job/Work Centre combination.
This figure represents how much the system expects you to spend after accounting for actual and committed costs already in the system based on how much you budgeted to spend. The balance of budget method can be modified in Contract Work Centres for each Job Work Centre, and can be one of the following: By Work Centre (all calculations are done at the Work Centre level and ignores individual activities), By Cost Category (all calculations are done at the Work Centre/Cost Category level and ignores individual activities), By Activity (the most in-depth balancing method), or None (all balancing is done manually via adjustments, or you expect no more costs to come for the Work Centre). It is not recommended to change between By Work Centre, By Cost Category or By Activity after creating forecasts for a contract as you will encounter data issues, however changing to None can be done.
- Uncommitted Adjustments are manually entered positive or negative adjustments to the calculation of the Forecast Final Cost. Depending on whether you click on this field at the Work Centre level or Activity level, you will be presented with all adjustments in the Work Centre or adjustments only for an individual Activity. Here is an example of the pop up that appears when you click on the Work Centre Uncommitted Adjustments field:
- Here you can see previous and current adjustments. You can create additional adjustments by clicking on "New Line" and completing the line details. Note that adjustments are not transactions - they are expectations of expenditure, either positive or negative, to influence the Forecast Final Cost. Adjustments are based on the project manager's knowledge, expectations, and intuition, since actual costs and commitments are already present in the table.
- The Forecast Movement Summary provides a history of past Forecast Periods
- For convenience, you can use the Prev and Next buttons to navigate to the previous or next adjustment rather than having to close and reenter the screen.
- Remember to Save your adjustments before exiting this screen.
- Risk Adjustments are in essence identical to Uncommitted Adjustments and follow the same procedure above. This field is provided to help you keep risk separate from other adjustments, or for you to use in whatever way you find useful. Some clients choose to use Uncommitted Adjustments for positive values and Risk Adjustments for negative values so that their totals can be easily viewed from the Forecast interface.
- Forecast
Next Steps:
Once the forecast is approved and the Cost to Complete is set, you can create a Contract Cashflow to spread costs over the duration of your project. You can also produce margin reports via the Print button, or view the margin values in the Contract Summary tab on demand.
Depending on your claiming schedule, you can utilise the data to determine your Contract Claim amounts to your client.
Related Pages:
IN PROGRESS...
Resource Forecasting is optional in the monthly Contract Forecasting. This feature assists forecasting out the details of Labour and Equipment requirements to deliver the job.
This extension to forecasting allows you to plan out your Labour "Manning" and equipment requirement and project it out over the construction programme. This can be done for both internal and external resources.
The outputs of this feature are visibility of manpower or equipment required per week for a project and the expected costs. This will then feed into the Forecast and be incorporated into the Forecast Final cost calculation.
Screen Guide:
A quick guide to enable Resource forecasting attached below:
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Next Steps:
FAQs:
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Process Flow: