Overview:
Resource Forecasting
To use
Screen Guide:
Wh
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:
Resource Forecastingis 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.
Quick Setup Guide:
A quick guide to enable Resource forecasting attached below:
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Screen Guide:
Steps to create Labour Forecast and Plant Forecast:
Once the Forecast has been created for the selected period the Labour Forecast and Plant Forecast buttons take you to their respective forecasting screens. By clicking on these buttons and then saving, your Plant Forecast and Labour Forecast will be created.
The combined Costs from Labour and Plant Forecasts will feed into the main Forecast and be reflected in the column Resource Forecast. Drilling into the Labour or Plant Forecast from the main forecast using the hyperlinks in blue under the Resource Forecast column, allows you to only see that section of the job in the Resource Forecast screen. Notice the filters used at the top right of the screen.
Once the Forecast has been approved, the Labour and Plant Forecast buttons are disabled, and can only navigate to them through the hyperlinks.
External and Internal resources can be included in both Resource Forecasts.
Screen Guide for Labour and Plant Forecact screens:
Forecast displays 12 weeks by default. And the blue arrows at the top next to ‘Display From’, allow for navigating forwards or backwards to the future weeks. The Future column will display the number of weeks that have been used in this forecast. You can forecast several month in the future if required. All forecasted weeks (even when not visible on the current screen) will be reflected in the Labour/Plant Qty and Labour/Plant Totals columns respectively.
After saving the Labour Forecast or Plant Forecast, and going back to the main Forecast screen, the Resource Forecast value will be updated and will reduce/increase the Balance of Budget.
Columns:
Forecast From displays the year/period this forecast has been created for.
Display From is used to navigate through the future weeks of the project.
The blue arrows allow you to see further weeks in the screen. And importantly, the Future column shows if any values has been entered in future weeks that are not visible in the current displayed period.
Job, Work Centre, Activity are the same defined in the budget for this job. Only sections of the project that have 'By Cost Category' balance of budget type are shown.
Labour:
Employee Class will be available only for Time activities, and can be used for internal resources.
Rate will be derived from the Employee Class if selected, otherwise it can be manually entered.
Plant:
Plant Group allows you to narrow down the selection of the Plant Item
Plant Item can be selected to forecast the use of a specific Plant Item, which will enable the list of Rate Codes for this particular Plant Item and derive its Rate.
Qty/Wk defines the resource unit you will be using to forecast in the future weeks. See table Resource Definition Examples and Tips for Labour Forecasting below for clarification.
Comments use this field to clarify what has been defined in the Qty/Wk column. When an employee Class has been selected, you can specify your employee’s name here.
Budget Qty is populated with the quantity from the corresponding Budget line.
Budget is populated with the budget $ to spend on the project defined in the budget (down to Activity Code or employee class if used).
Actual Totals is the cost value for those actual hours that have been spent in the project so far up to the Forecast Period.
Labour Qty/Plant Qty are the quantity of hours that have been forecasted.
Labour Totals/Plant Totals are the total $ amounts for hours that have been forecasted.
Variance Qty is the calculation of Budget Qty - Actual Qty - Labour/Plant Qty
Variance is the calculation of Budget - Actual $ - Labour/Plant Totals
Week columns Are the weeks in the future where you will be forecasting your resources.
Internal displays a running total of quantities on the first line and value on the second line. Note that lines with Employee class / Plant Rate will fall into this running total.
External displays a running total of quantities on the first line and value on the second line. Note that lines with no Employee class or no Plant Rate will fall into this section, regardless of the activity type.
Forecast Labour:
Works in conjunction with a monthly forecast and within the Month/Period snapshot. Labour Forecast allows you to forecast at weekly intervals. Why weekly? because when trying to manage man hours or people resources, the standard is a weekly calculation.
When expanding the Job in the screen, only sections of the project that have 'By Cost Category' balance of budget type, are shown. Each line can be expanded or drill down to Activity level, or Employee Class level in those cases where internal labour is being used. When External Labour is being used, no Employee Class will be selected. The Work Centres and Activities are the ones corresponding to those used in the Budget.
Use the New Line link to add a new line. When adding new line in the Labour Forecast:
When the activity is a Time type of activity, it will be used for internal employees, who are linked to an Employee Class. In this cases an Employee Class can be selected and the Rate will default from that Employee Class.
When the activity is a Purchase type of activity, the Rate has to be manually entered. Lines with activity type Time and no employee class, or lines with activity type Purchase, these lines are considered external resources.
Populate how many hours per week this resource will be needed, and add some comments to explain what that resource is: whether is Hours per week for 1 operator, or 4 operators for example. Note that the Hrs/Wk quantity can be defined per resource or for the sum of resources by employee class; so it is important to add comments. The calculation for the Labour Cost column is: Rate * Hrs/Wk * Sum of Weeks
Resource Definition Examples:
| Employee Class | Rate | Hrs/Wk | Comments | Week 1 | Week 2 | Labour Total |
Option 1 | Site Manager | 60 | 40 | Fred Smith the foreman. | 1 | 1 | 4800 |
Option 1 | Site Manager | 60 | 40 | Roger Lawson the foreman. | 1 | 1 | 4800 |
Option 2 | Site Manager | 60 | 40 | Fred Smith and Roger Lawson. | 2 | 2 | 9600 |
Option 3 | Site Manager | 60 | 80 | Fred Smith and Roger Lawson. | 1 | 1 | 9600 |
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LABOUR FORECAST TIPS
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Forecast Plant:
It is very similar to Labour Forecast, with the difference that you can select specific plant items.
Internal and external equipment can be used. Plant Group selection will narrow your Plant Items selection. Plant Rate Codes will be displayed for the specific Plant Item selected. And this Plant Rate Code will populate the Rate. When a Plant item is selected, this will be included in the Internal totals at the bottom. To forecast external plant, a manual rate can be entered, and the totals will become part of the External totals at the bottom.
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PLANT FORECAST TIPS
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Next Steps:
Sharperlight has all the Resource Forecast information to be able to create a custom report displaying the specific information you need.
FAQs:
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Process Flow: