Forecasting in Financials

Project Forecasting 

Projects by their very nature, require us to forecast and make predictions and estimates.   Unfortunately, many project estimates are more like “guesstimates” as they are not underpinned by realistic assumptions.  

The purpose of the Project Forecasting module in Cora PPM is to allow project teams who have been granted Project Forecast access to view all costs of projects, as well as potential revenue, and to forecast future costs so as to provide an accurate prediction of costs into the future.

Project Forecasting

Navigate to the Project Forecasting page, which shows the cost breakdown structure with totals for cost, revenue, margin and cost to complete.  

The page is split into three panels which can be adjusted in terms of size and which columns are displayed.   

You can drag and drop the bars to expand the panels.

You can use the scroll bar to scroll across each panel.

The parent categories can be expanded and collapsed for a detailed or summary view.

The Cost information rolls up the structure to provide totals at each level.

Left-hand Panel

The left-hand column shows the Original Cost Estimate and the Variance from Revised Cost Estimate. 

The Original Cost Estimate shows the information from the Financial Management page.  To update this section, the Financial Management page needs to be updated. 

There are additional columns which can be added such as Change Orders.  This column can be populated by submitting change orders in the change request register.   

Once the Change Request is approved, the cost and revenue information are displayed in the CO column. 

Note:  The figures shown in red and green show positive and negative variance against original estimates; red means you’re forecasting more than expected, green is less than expected.

Middle Panel

The middle panel shows the current forecast and the profile.  

Each month has two columns; Hours and Cost.  Users can edit the cells which are in white to provide a manual forecast.  

To add forecasting into the future, enter a forecast value into the cells that are white.

Enter the number of hours into the cells where you require resources

Note:  Entries are annotated with a red flag in the top left corner of the cell.

Click Transfer to Resource Demand

The information will be populated back onto the SCM.  You will receive confirmation of the transfer in the top right of your screen.

The forecast can also be populated from the Gantt by clicking Load from Schedule at the bottom of the screen.  

In order for the Load from Schedule to populate costs, the user must input skills and/or materials into the Gantt onto a task.  The dates of the task are used to populate this forecast.

The forecast costs/hrs are distributed in a linear basis.

The skills/materials must also be assigned to an account code so they are aligned to the correct cost code.

Monthly and running totals are shown at the bottom.  These can be toggled on/off.

Any invoicing information is shown in summary in the totals at the bottom of the screen in the revenue lines.  

The pop-out(s) will show the scheduling information, which come from the Cora Payment Scheduler screen.

Click the pop-out icon 

This opens the following Payment Schedule pane.

Note:   The Payment Schedule allows the project manager to create a schedule of payments associated with the project.  The schedule is linked to the forecast.

Right-hand Panel

The right-hand column shows the cost to complete and the totals for the project.

The labour rates are shown next to the total cost and hours per cost code.

These totals roll up the structure; with the final project cost, revenue and margin displayed at the bottom.

Table of abbreviations for the Forecast Panel columns

Top Screen Navigation

Display Options

At the top of the screen, you can apply different filters to the information that is displayed.

The currency displayed can be adjusted in the Currency dropdown.

The Status shows the current status of the Forecast.

EAC Status will show the current status e.g. Open, Submitted, Approved or Posted.

The Equivalent annual cost revision number is displayed under EAC Revision No.  

Tick the hours checkbox to view the breakdown in hours.

Tick the cost checkbox to view the breakdown by cost.

Click Show Columns:  

You can select the columns from the drop-down list, that you want to display.

Click Show previous months

From the drop-down list, you can check the box(s) for the previous months you want to display or alternatively you can check the box “Select All” to view all previous months.

Click “Expand All”

This will fully expand all the title and sub-title information in the panels.   

Click “Show Information”

This will show additional information for the project, e.g., Project Manager, Project name, etc.  

Click “Hide Information” to conceal the information

Settings

Use “SETTINGS” to select the columns you want to display in the Left Panel and the Right Panel.

Click Settings:

This will open the following pane:

Check the “Hide Totals” box if you do not want the totals to be dispayed in the forecast.

Select the criteria you want to display and move from the left column to right column.  Use the arrows or double click, to move your selection.

You need to do this for the Left Panel and the Right Panel.  

Click SAVE to capture your changes and update the Project Forecasting screen.

Bottom Screen Navigation

At the bottom of the screen, you can view the iteration of the forecast and also perform additional functions:

• Transfer to resource demand
• Pull data from the Gannt (Load Schedule)
• Run a calculation
• Save and submit EAC.

Transfer to Resource Demand

When you "Transfer to Resource Demand" it transfers and populates the Resource Demand screen with the demand, so that you do not have to duplicate the effort.

Click Transfer to Resource Demand

The following confirmation panel will open.

Check the box to delete all exiting demand.

Note:  This is irreversible.

Check the box to apply from Next Period.

Note: This will apply from the start of next month (not the current month) if ticked.

Click TRANSFER to continue or CANCEL to exit the action.

Transfer to Resource Demand transfers and populates the SCM resource demand with the demand data that has been put into the forecast screen, so that you do not have to duplicate the effort.

Note:   You can "Transfer to Resource Demand" directly on the Gantt chart.  You do not need to be in the Project Forecasting screen.

Load from Schedule

When you "Load from Schedule” you pull updated resource and cost information from the Gantt.

Note:   In order for the Load from Schedule to populate costs, the user must input skills and/or materials into the Gantt, onto a task.  The dates of the task are used to populate this forecast. 

Click Load from Schedule to load the costs that have been added on the Gantt.

Click LOAD.   The following confirmation pane will open.

Click Load to continue or you can cancel the action by clicking Cancel.

Click SAVE.

Calculate

When you enter data into the forecast manually, the “Calculate” button updates the Cost to Complete.  

For example, the Project Manager might make several changes on the project forecast.  If they add additional hours to a labour cost code and there is an existing rate in the forecast, clicking Calculate will popoulate the cost, although it will only be applied when the SAVE button is clicked.

Click CALCULATE to update the calculations.

Click SAVE to save the calculations and all changes made on the forecasting screen.

Note:   It will only save when the SAVE button is selected.

EAC

The EAC “Estimate At Complete” is your latest Forecast to finish the project.  

The EAC process on the forecasting screen is to facilitate the request for additional money to finish a project.  The request is then sent for approval.

Submit EAC

Usually, the Project Manager of the project will have the rights to submit the EAC “Estimate At Complete”.  

If the Project Manager has any additional costs that will affect the budget of the project, they usually submit the EAC to request more money to complete the project.

Note:   The views and functionality available to you depends on your access permissions and your system’s configuration.

Click SUBMIT EAC.  

This opens the confirmation pane where you can confirm or cancel the action.

Click SUBMIT EAC.  

The EAC Status changes to “Submitted” and the function bar at the bottom of the pane changes to APPROVE EAC.  

If any adjustments need to be made before finalising, click REJECT EAC.

This will change the EAC Status back to “Open”, and the function button will change back to SUBMIT EAC.

Approve EAC

To approve the EAC, the below button “APPROVE EAC” will be visible to the approver, e.g., Operations Manager.  

Note:   The views and functionality available to you depends on your access permissions and your system’s configuration.

Click APPROVE EAC.  

This opens the confirmation pane where you can confirm or cancel the action.

Click APPROVE EAC.  

The EAC Status changes to “Approved” and the function bar at the bottom of the pane changes to POST EAC.   

If any adjustments need to be made before finalising, click REJECT EAC.

This will change the EAC Status back to “Submitted”, and the function button will change back to APPROVE EAC.

Post EAC

When a user (e.g., the Business Manager) has the permission to Post the EAC, the below button

Note:   The views and functionality available to you depends on your access permissions and your system’s configuration.

Click POST EAC.   

This opens the confirmation pane where you can confirm or cancel the action.

Click POST EAC.   

Note: When you POST EAC you do not have the option to reject of make any changes to the forecast.

Iterations

The Project Forecast screen saves an iteration every time forecasting closes.

Click the “Iteration” drop-down arrow to open the list of iterations.

Note: You can cycle back through previous iterations to see historic versions of the forecast.

Note: Clicking on an iteration will result in it being displayed on screen in read only format.

Last Updated Date

This shows the last date and time the Project Forecast was updated.

Last Updated By

This shows the name of the person who last updated the Project Forecast.