What's new in 1.26.4
Revenue API: Two new read-only endpoints, GET /Forecasting/Revenue and GET /Forecasting/RevenueTypes, let integrations read project revenue for one or many projects without pulling the full forecast. They never change data.
OCE & Change Order Hours: Budgeted hours for Original Cost Estimate and Change Orders can now be loaded into the Project Forecasting grid through POST enterpriseFinancials/financials. Revised Cost Estimate Hours is calculated as OCE Hours plus CO Hours. No configuration change is needed.
Cost Book terminology is localisable: Labels including "Cashout Forecast", "Cost Book", "Transactions", "Cost Book Grid" and "Add Cost Book Line" can be renamed at Admin → Financials → Codes → Finance Localization.
Overview
This page explains how a Cora administrator switches on and configures Forecasting — the master switches, the financial set-up it depends on, per-project settings and the rights that let users view and edit forecasts.
A step-by-step reference for enabling and configuring the Forecasting module — master switches, prerequisites, per-project settings, and permissions.
What is it used for?
Forecasting configuration decides which forecasting modules are available, how forecasts move through approval each period, which forecast month projects work against, and who can view or edit forecasts.
What Forecasting Covers
Forecasting is not one screen — it is three related subsystems that share a single master configuration panel:
Project Type | Description |
|---|---|
? Project Forecasting | The modern, generic project-level forecast module for WIP, Revenue, SCM, and Committed Transactions. |
? Advanced Project Forecasting / Cash-Out Forecast | A Cost-Book-driven forecast that is part of Advanced Financials. |
? Enterprise Financials (EF) Forecasting | An older, parallel financial forecasting path. |
All of them are switched on and tuned from Admin → Configuration → Finance. There is no dedicated "Forecast Admin" page in the standard product — settings live inside the general Financials configuration screen, and access runs through the same Project Profile / security-rights mechanism used everywhere else in PPM, not a discrete "Forecast Admin" role.
Where to find it (Admin)
Main settings: Admin → Configuration → Finance → Financial Management tab — Enable Financial Management and all forecasting master switches.
Cost Book: Admin → Configuration → Finance → Cost Book tabs.
Rate Matrix: Admin → Configuration → Rate Matrix.
Fiscal Calendar: Admin → Fiscal Calendar Settings / Data.
Cost Types: Admin → Popup → Element of Costs.
Per-project level: Admin → Popup → Project Forecasting Level.
Rights: Admin → Project Profiles, then Admin → Popup → Group → Organise Project Rights.
Display settings: Project Forecasting → Project Forecasting Settings; Advanced Financials → Cash-Out Forecast Settings.
Configuration (Admin)
Work through these steps in order. Steps 4 and 5 are optional.
1. Enable Financial Management
Go to Admin → Configuration → Finance → Financial Management.
Check Enable Financial Management.
This is a prerequisite for every forecasting option below.
Gotchas: Once any financial data exists in the system, this checkbox locks and can no longer be turned off.
2. Set Up the Financial Building Blocks Forecasting Depends On
Configure these before or alongside Forecasting itself — the forecast screens read from them directly.
Prerequisite | Where to Configure | Why Forecasting Needs It |
|---|---|---|
Cost Book | Admin → Configuration → Finance → Cost Book tabs (Registers, Submission, Admin, Columns Admin, Attributes) | Advanced Project Forecasting / Cash-Out Forecast is built directly on Cost Book registers and lines. Only appears if the Cost Book feature is enabled for the tenant. |
Rate Matrix | Admin → Configuration → Rate Matrix | Supplies the resource/burden rates used to cost forecasted hours; also shown inline inside the forecast grid. |
Fiscal Calendar | Admin → Fiscal Calendar Settings / Data | Only needed if forecasting on a non-standard, 13-period calendar rather than standard calendar months. |
Cost Types / Element of Cost | Admin → Popup → Element of Costs | Cost categorization that flows into forecast rows and columns. |
3. Turn On the Forecasting Master Switches
Still on Admin → Configuration → Finance → Financial Management, set the following:
Setting | Control | What It Does |
|---|---|---|
Enable Advanced Project Forecasting | Checkbox | Master switch for the Cost-Book-driven Cash-Out Forecast module. In some environments this setting is locked and can only be changed by Cora Systems — contact Cora Support if you need it changed. |
Enable Project Forecast Submission | Checkbox | Turns on the formal Submit-Forecast approval workflow. Prompts for confirmation if enabled while Submit-EAC workflows are in flight. |
Forecast Period | Period selector | The currently active forecast month all projects forecast against. Advancing it rolls every project forward, reopens forecasts, clears and regenerates overviews, and warns first if any project has an in-flight Submit Forecast workflow for the current period. |
Display Forecast Tab / on Financial Page | Tab-display checkboxes | Controls whether the Forecast tab shows on the project financials screen, the standalone Financial Management page, or both. |
Forecast System Iteration Basis | "Last Approved" vs "Last Saved" dropdown | Only selectable if scheduled iterations are enabled; determines which iteration forecast reporting reads from. |
Set Forecast Read Only | Checkbox | Locks forecasts from further editing tenant-wide. |
Max Number of Years | Dropdown | Caps how many years of forecast/financial data show in the grids. |
Non-Standard Fiscal Periods | Checkbox | Switches forecast periods to the fiscal calendar from Step 2, instead of standard calendar months. |
Create Scheduled Iterations | Checkbox + day-of-month dropdown | Controls whether new financial/forecast iterations are created automatically, and on what day. |
Revenue Calculation Types | Swap-list control | Controls which revenue-calculation methods are available for project-level selection. This is a tenant-gated feature. |
Some controls only appear once certain internal feature toggles are enabled for your tenant. If an option is not visible in your Admin menu, Cora Support may need to switch on the underlying toggle first. Examples include the Revenue Calculation Types list and the Control Budget columns.
4. Set Per-Project Forecasting Level
Optional — only needed where a project should forecast at a different level of detail.
Open Admin → Popup → Project Forecasting Level.
Review the read-only grid of every project and whether it forecasts at Detailed Level or Account Level.
Change the level from the individual project's own settings.
5. Configure Display Settings for the Forecast Screens
Optional. These settings control what users see in the forecast grids rather than organisation-wide behaviour, but they are worth setting as part of rollout. From 1.26.4 they also govern whether the Original Cost Estimate / Change Orders Hours columns are shown when hours are loaded through the API.
Screen | Settings Available |
|---|---|
Project Forecasting → Project Forecasting Settings | Column visibility, left/right/centre placement, hide footer, include account-group level, hide rows with no values, and value highlighting. |
Advanced Financials → Cash-Out Forecast Settings | Controls which columns and years appear in the Cash-Out Forecast grid. |
6. Grant Forecasting Permissions
Forecasting access is rights-based, not a single "Forecast Admin" role.
Go to Admin → Project Profiles and create or edit a Project Profile.
Tick the relevant rights: Project Forecasting View / Edit, User Can Update Forecasts, User Can View/Edit Forecast, User Can Update Actuals/Commitments, and Billingforecast Can Update.
Go to Admin → Popup → Group → Organise Project Rights and assign that Project Profile to the security Group for the relevant project(s). Optionally propagate to other projects the same users manage.
What each forecasting right covers
Right | Covers |
|---|---|
Project Forecasting View / Project Forecasting Edit | Viewing and editing the standard Project Forecasting module. |
User Can Update Forecasts | General forecast update right. |
User Can View Forecast / User Can Edit Forecast | General forecast update right. |
User Can Update Actuals / User Can Update Commitments | Entering actuals and commitments — often granted alongside forecasting rights. |
Billingforecast Can Update | Updating the billing forecast specifically. |
These rights cannot be granted directly to an individual user. They always flow through a Project Profile assigned to a Group on a project.
Things to Watch Out For
Enable Financial Management locks once data exists. After any financial data has been entered, the setting can no longer be turned off — decide before go-live.
Rolling the Forecast Period and enabling Submission are workflow-aware. Both check for in-flight Submit Forecast / Submit EAC workflows and ask you to confirm if there is a conflict. Rolling the period reopens forecasts for every project.
Some options are gated behind tenant feature toggles. If a setting described here is missing from your Admin menu, Cora Support may need to enable it first.
Forecasting level is per project. The Project Forecasting Level screen is read-only; change a project's level from that project's own settings.
Rights only via Project Profile on a Group — never per user. Forecasting rights cannot be granted directly to an individual user.
Fiscal periods must cover project dates. Users see a validation error and no grid on the forecast screen when a project's dates run beyond the configured fiscal periods.
Revenue API (1.26.4). GET /Forecasting/Revenue and GET /Forecasting/RevenueTypes are read-only. They always return the current iteration (there is no period input). Callers only see projects their account can access; administrators and machine tokens are exempt. Figures are returned as stored, with no currency conversion. Estimates Revenue and Budget Revenue are not exposed. Existing integrations need no change.
OCE & Change Order Hours via the API (1.26.4). POST enterpriseFinancials/financials accepts an optional Hours value next to each Amount. The change is additive — payloads without Hours behave exactly as before — and needs no configuration. An explicit Hours value, including zero, replaces the stored value. Zero shows as 0.00 and never-entered hours stay blank. Negative hours are accepted against Change Orders. Values are stored to 2 decimal places. Column visibility follows the project's existing forecast display settings (Step 5).
Renamed Cost Book labels (1.26.4). If you rename "Cashout Forecast" or other Cost Book labels at Admin → Financials → Codes → Finance Localization, users see your terms instead. Update your training material to match. If nothing is changed, the default names stay.
Area | Note |
|---|---|
Locked Settings | In some environments, "Advanced Project Forecasting" and "Enter Materials Manually" are locked and can only be changed by Cora Systems. The screen directs you to contact Cora Support. |
Workflow-Aware Changes | Rolling the Forecast Period and enabling Submit Forecast both check for in-flight Submit Forecast / Submit EAC workflows first, and prompt for confirmation on conflict. This is expected behavior, not an error. |
Enterprise Financials (EF) Forecasting | There does not appear to be a dedicated admin screen distinct from the general Financials configuration screen. Verify with Cora Support if your tenant is EF-heavy. |
Use Cases
As a Cora Admin, I configure this to switch on Advanced Project Forecasting for our organisation once Financial Management and the Cost Book are in place.
As a Cora Admin, I configure this to roll the Forecast Period forward each month so every project forecasts against the new period.
As a Cora Admin, I configure this to require formal approval of project forecasts through the Submit Forecast workflow.
As a Cora Admin, I configure this to give project managers edit access and finance reviewers view access to forecasts through Project Profiles assigned to Groups.
As a Cora Admin, I configure this to forecast against our non-standard fiscal calendar instead of calendar months.
As a Cora Admin, I configure this to lock all forecasts as read-only at period close.
FAQ's
Why can't I turn off Enable Financial Management?
Once any financial data exists in the system, the setting locks and cannot be turned off.
A setting described on this page is missing from my Admin menu. Why?
Some options only appear when a feature toggle is enabled for your environment — for example, the Cost Book tabs only appear when the Cost Book feature is on. Contact Cora Support to have it enabled.
Why did I get a confirmation prompt when changing the Forecast Period or enabling submission?
Cora checks for in-flight Submit Forecast / Submit EAC workflows before applying either change. The prompt protects approvals already in progress — it is expected behaviour, not an error.
Can I give one user forecasting rights without changing a Group?
No. Forecasting rights are always granted through a Project Profile assigned to a Group on a project.
Why can't I select a value in Forecast System Iteration Basis?
This option is only selectable when Create Scheduled Iterations is enabled.
How do I change a project from Account Level to Detailed Level forecasting?
The Project Forecasting Level screen shows every project's level but is read-only. Change the level from the individual project's own settings.
How can an integration read project revenue without pulling the whole forecast?
From 1.26.4, use GET /Forecasting/Revenue, which returns revenue figures for one or many projects with paging. GET /Forecasting/RevenueTypes lists the revenue areas a caller may write, so those values need not be hard-coded. Both are read-only.
Can we rename "Cashout Forecast" to match our own terminology?
Yes. From 1.26.4, go to Admin → Financials → Codes → Finance Localization and change the Cashout Forecast entry. Cost Book, Transactions, Cost Book Grid and Add Cost Book Line can be renamed the same way.
Do I need to configure anything for OCE / Change Order hours to appear?
No. The Hours columns already exist on the Project Forecasting grid. Once hours are loaded through the API they appear the next time the grid loads, subject to the project's forecast display settings.
Related Materials
End User page: Advanced Financials - Forecasting
Notes
About this guide: Screen names and labels described here reflect the standard product for this release. Labels may differ slightly on customised or older instances — confirm against your own Admin menu when following these steps.
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