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).

• Job lists all Jobs contained within the current contract. The values in the grid show the sum totals for the particular Job. Clicking on a Job will expand the grid to show all Contract Work Centres for the selected Job that have data. You cannot drill down into the Job level fields in the grid, but after expanding a Job you will be able to click on the blue links to drill into the data.
• Work Centre becomes visible after a Job is expanded. The values in the grid show the sum totals for the entire Work Centre under the selected Job.
  • 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.                               
• Category level is visible after a Job/Work Centre combination is expanded. This is only visible when Resource Forecasting is enabled.
• Activity level is visible after a Job/Work Centre combination is expanded. Only used activities (a budget or transaction already exists for it) will be shown. This is the lowest level of the Work Breakdown structure.
• Current Budget displays the total Contract Budget figure for the Job/Work Centre/Activity combination or Job/Work Centre/Category/Activity combination. Clicking on this field will open a window displaying the individual budget headers that constitute the displayed value; clicking the Internal Ref field in the popup will navigate you to that specific Contract Budget.
• Actual Cost is made of all Job Transactions for the selected line (Timesheets, Plant Issues, Adjustments, AP Invoices, etc.). Clicking on this field will navigate you to the Job Enquiry Transactions screen with the Year/Period, Job, Work Centre, and Activity already filtered (depending on the level you clicked on). Essentially this shows you all the transactions that constitute the Actual Cost field, enabling critical analysis and auditability. If you notice discrepancies, it is important that they are corrected before clicking Refresh Forecast to bring the changes into the forecast snapshot.
• Resource Forecast provides a total of the Labour Forecast + Plant Forecast which match the Work Breakdown structure of the selected line. This column is only enabled when using Budget type 'By Cost Category'. These costs are defined like an internal commitment and are included in the calculation of Balance of Budget.
• Expected Commitment provides a total for all incomplete Purchase Orders and Work Orders that have open/expected lines which match the Work Breakdown structure of the selected line. POs/WOs that have consumed their expected commitments will disappear from this field and will, assuming they were processed and not cancelled, move to the Actual Cost column in the form of an AP Invoice. Clicking this field will open a new tab with the Job Enquiry Orders screen with the Year/Period, Job, Work Centre, and Activity already filtered (depending on the level you clicked on). It is important to monitor your project's POs/WOs to ensure that all open amounts are still valid, as the forecast will continue to expect that amount to arrive until it is either cancelled or comes in the form of an actual invoice or claim.
• Balance of Budget is a calculation as follows: 
  • Resource Forecasting not enabled: Current Budget - (Actual Cost + Expected Commitment) = Balance of Budget.
  • Resource Forecasting enabled:       Current Budget - (Actual Cost + Resource Forecast + Expected Commitment) = Balance of Budget.
    
    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.