Advanced Financials - Forecasting

Overview

Project Forecasting lets project teams build and maintain a period-by-period forecast of a project's costs, revenue and margin, submit it for approval, and track actuals against it as the project progresses.

What is it used for?

Use Project Forecasting to plan a project's financials month by month, keep that plan current as work progresses, take it through approval each period, and revise the Estimate at Completion (EAC) mid-period when needed. The sections below describe the screen and the common tasks.

What It Does for the User

1. The Forecasting Grid

The core of the screen is four panes: a fixed cost-category label pane plus Left/Centre/Right, scrollable grid showing every cost category and sub-category for the project..

Users edit individual period cells inline by clicking them; edits are tracked in the browser and batched for submission.

Hours for Original Cost Estimate, Change Orders and Revised Cost Estimate

Where your organisation loads budgeted hours from its financial system, the Hours columns for Original Cost Estimate and Change Orders are filled in automatically and appear the next time the grid loads:

• Hours recorded as zero show as 0.00; hours that were never entered stay blank.

• All Change Order periods for a cost category are added together into a single Change Orders column.

• Revised Cost Estimate hours are calculated as Original Cost Estimate hours plus Change Orders hours — the same way the Revised Cost Estimate cost figure is calculated.

• Whether the Hours columns are shown depends on the project's forecast display settings.

2. Data Panels and Information Banner

An expandable information panel above the grid displays key project metadata, including Project Manager, Project Name, Customer, key dates, contract amounts, margin percentages, billed-to-date, cash collected, outstanding AR, and configurable custom fields labels.

3. Iteration History

Every finalised forecast creates a new iteration, which is a locked view of the screen. The Iteration dropdown in the footer lets users navigate to any previous period's finalised version. Previous iterations are read-only; editing and workflow actions apply only to the current Latest iteration.

4. Previous Month Data (Historical Columns)

The Show Previous Months multi-select dropdown lets users overlay actual and forecast values from one or more prior months as additional columns in the scrollable centre section, providing a side-by-side trend view without leaving the page, it disappears entirely when viewing a past iteration.

5. The Forecast Lifecycle (Status Machine)

6. Submission Modes

There are two distinct modes, controlled by the system setting Enable Project Forecast Submission:

• Hardcoded Flow (setting OFF): PM clicks Submit, manager clicks Complete, and Business Manager clicks Finalize. Finalize takes a snapshot and opens a fresh editable forecast for the next period. A Reject button moves the status one step backward.

• Submit Forecast Workflow (setting ON): Submit starts a configurable approval workflow. The forecast is locked read-only during approval. Approvers see Approve / Reject buttons in the page footer. Once final approval is given, the system automatically finalises and snapshots the forecast.

7. EAC (Estimate at Completion) Adjustment

In addition to the main forecast lifecycle, there is a separate EAC Adjustment lifecycle for revising the estimate mid-period without creating a full new iteration.

8. Data Loading Helpers

• Load from Schedule — populates forecast values from Gantt/schedule data, replacing future-period grid values with schedule-derived costs.

• Load from Registers — draws data from configured Custom Registers and populates cost, revenue, and billing sections with live register data.

• Set P to A — clears all forecast profile values and optionally seeds remaining-committed values into the first future period.

9. Currency Support

If multi-currency is enabled, a currency dropdown switches between the project's local currency and the base currency. FX conversion is applied to all grid values at the rate appropriate for the forecast date. Only true for submitted or archived forecasts. An open forecast converts at today's rate, not a date tied to the forecast itself.

10. The Forecasting Review Queue (Dashboard Widget)

A dashboard widget, Project Forecasting Review Queue, shows a summary of all projects under a manager, with 12 months of revenue forecast, gross margin, and key financials. Managers can select projects in bulk and Submit, Approve, or Reject forecasts without opening each project individually.

11. Details View (Work Order View)

A toggleable Details View re-renders the grid by Work Order and account code rather than by cost category. Editing buttons are hidden in this view.

12. Audit

Actions like submit are written to the project history audit trail.

What Your Administrator Controls

Some of what you see on the forecast screen is set by your Cora administrator rather than by you:

• Forecast Period — the active forecast month that every project forecasts against. When the administrator rolls it forward, forecasts reopen for the new period.

• Read-only forecasts — the administrator can lock all forecasts against further editing.

• Submission mode — whether forecasts follow the built-in Submit / Complete / Finalize steps or a configurable approval workflow (see Submission Modes above).

• Where the Forecast tab appears — on the project financials screen, the standalone Financial Management page, or both.

• Forecasting level — each project forecasts at either Detailed Level or Account Level.

• Calendar — forecast periods follow standard calendar months unless your organisation uses a non-standard fiscal calendar.

• Number of years shown — the grids show up to a configured maximum number of years.

Column layout, footer visibility, hiding empty rows and value highlighting are set in Project Forecasting Settings.

Where to Find It

Project Forecasting is accessed from a project's navigation toolbar under the Forecasting or Advanced Forecasting link, depending on configuration. The Forecasting Manager Queue widget appears on manager dashboards.

Prerequisites

• The system setting Enable Advanced Project Forecasting must be on.

• The user must have either the User can view Forecast or User can edit Forecast project security right.

• Fiscal periods must be configured for the project's date range; if they are not, the page shows a validation error and the grid is hidden.

Editing a Forecast

1. Open the Project Forecasting page. The Latest iteration is selected by default.

2. Click any white cell in the Forecast column for a future period; it becomes an inline text box.

3. Enter a value and tab or click away; the cell turns highlighted to indicate an unsaved change.

4. Click Calculate to refresh derived totals in memory without saving.

5. Click Save to persist all changes to the database.

Displaying Previous Periods

• Use the Show Previous Periods multi-select dropdown to select one or more historical months. The grid adds those months' Actual, Forecast, and Variance columns.

Switching Currencies

• If multi-currency is enabled, use the currency dropdown to toggle between the project's local currency and the base currency. All values convert automatically.

Loading Data from the Schedule

1. Click Load from Schedule.

2. Confirm when the toast appears. The system reads Gantt resource assignments and charge-out rates for all future periods and overwrites the forecast cells. The current period is editable too — and cost-value cells specifically require a separate feature setting, enabled by Cora Support, before they're editable at all.

3. Review the loaded values and click Save to confirm.

Loading from Registers

1. Click Load from Registers. This option is only available once Cora Support has enabled the Registers-to-Advanced-Financials feature for your environment.

2. Confirm. Data from configured financial Custom Registers populates the Billings, Revenue, and Cost register rows in the footer.

Submitting a Forecast (Workflow Mode OFF)

1. Verify all values and click Save.

2. Click Submit and confirm the toast. Status changes to Submitted.

3. A Business/Operations Manager opens the queue widget or project and clicks Complete. Status becomes Completed.

4. The Business Manager clicks Finalize. The forecast is snapshotted, a new editable iteration opens, and status resets to Open.

5. To reverse, click Reject. The status moves one step back and the project manager receives a rejection email.

Submitting a Forecast (Workflow Mode ON — Enable Project Forecast Submission)

1. Click Submit. The system saves and starts the configured workflow.

2. The status label in the grid header changes to a clickable hyperlink showing the workflow status, such as Waiting for Approval.

3. The assigned approver opens the project, sees the Approve / Reject buttons in the footer, and clicks one. A comment dialog may appear if comments are required.

4. Once all required approvals are given, the workflow engine automatically finalises the forecast.

5. The Iteration dropdown updates immediately to show the new finalised iteration.

6. If rejected, the forecast returns to Open for editing and re-submission.

EAC Adjustment (Generic / Non-Workflow)

1. Edit values in the forecast grid for an in-period EAC.

2. Click Submit EAC and confirm. EAC Status changes to Submitted.

3. Approver clicks Approve EAC.

4. Business Manager clicks Post EAC. EAC Status becomes Posted and the values are transferred to the financial forecasting system.

5. To reject at any stage, click Reject EAC. The EAC status reverts one step.

EAC Adjustment (Workflow Mode — Submit EAC Workflow)

1. Click Submit EAC. This starts the EAC workflow and locks the forecast read-only.

2. The EAC Status field in the header shows the workflow approval status and opens the EAC Workflow Status popup when clicked.

3. The MSD Status field in the footer shows the posting lifecycle: Submitted, Ready to Post, Posted, or Failed (Open and Approved are reachable too).

4. The assigned approver sees Approve EAC / Reject EAC in the footer. On approval, the system sets status to Ready to Post and triggers MSD posting.

Viewing Iteration History

• Use the Iteration dropdown in the footer. Selections display as Latest, a month/year label, or EAC.

• Historical iterations are read-only; no editing or submission buttons appear.

Forecasting Review Queue (Dashboard)

1. On the manager dashboard, find the Project Forecasting Review Queue widget.

2. Tick project rows to select them.

3. Click Submit in workflow mode or Submit/Approve in legacy mode to progress selected forecasts in bulk.

4. Click Approve or Reject to act on workflow-pending forecasts in bulk.

5. Click the project number or status links to open the individual project forecast in a modal.

Use Cases

• As a Project Manager, I use this to build a time-phased forecast of my project's cost, revenue and margin, and compare it against actuals each period.

• As a Project Manager, I use this to load forecast values from my project schedule or from configured registers instead of keying them in by hand.

• As a Project Manager, I use this to submit my forecast each period so that it is reviewed, approved and locked as an iteration.

• As a Project Manager, I use this to submit an EAC adjustment mid-period without creating a full new forecast iteration.

• As a Business or Operations Manager, I use the Project Forecasting Review Queue to review, approve or reject forecasts for all my projects in bulk.

• As a Project Manager, I use this to look back at previous iterations and previous months to see how the forecast has moved over time.

FAQ's

Why can't I edit the forecast?

Editing only applies to the Latest iteration — previous iterations are read-only. The forecast is also locked while it is going through an approval workflow, when the project is archived, in the Details View, and when your administrator has set forecasts to read-only. You also need the appropriate forecasting right on the project.

Why is the forecast grid missing and showing a fiscal calendar error?

The project's date range extends beyond the fiscal periods configured in Cora. Ask your administrator to extend the fiscal calendar to cover the project dates.

I lost my changes — what happened?

Changes are held in the browser until you click Save. Switching currency, switching iteration, or running Load from Schedule reloads the forecast and discards unsaved edits. Always save first.

What is the difference between submitting a forecast and submitting an EAC adjustment?

Submitting a forecast takes the whole period's forecast through approval and, once finalised, locks it as a new iteration. An EAC adjustment revises the estimate mid-period without creating a new iteration and follows its own status lifecycle through to posting.

Why don't I see the Load from Registers button?

Load from Registers is only available once Cora Support has enabled it for your environment and the financial registers have been configured.

Why did my forecast reopen at the start of a new month?

Your administrator has rolled the Forecast Period forward. This reopens forecasts for every project so they can be updated for the new period.

Why is an Hours cell blank in one row but 0.00 in another?

A blank cell means no hours have ever been recorded for that cost category. 0.00 means hours were recorded and the value is zero.

Where did the Cashout Forecast tab go?

From release 1.26.4 your administrator can rename Cost Book labels, including "Cashout Forecast", to match your organisation's terminology. The screen works the same way under its new name.

Related Materials

• Admin page: Admin - Advanced Financials - Forecasting

• Enterprise Financials - Overview

• Costbook

• Financial Reports

• Workflow - Overview

• EAC Analysis - Overview

Notes

Common Gotchas

• Fiscal Calendar Error: Configure fiscal periods before using forecasting. If the project's date range exceeds the configured fiscal periods, the error fires. If no calendar is configured at all, no error fires

• Unsaved Changes on Reload: Currency changes, iteration changes, or Load from Schedule triggers reload the forecast from the database, discarding unsaved edits. Always Save first.

• Archived Projects: Load from Schedule, Load from Registers, Snapshot, Save, Calculate, and Submit EAC are all disabled for archived projects.

• EAC Comment Requirement : Set EAC adjustments to a threshold (for example, $10,000). Require a comment in the Total Cost comment field before submission, approval, or posting; otherwise block the action.

• Forecast push to Enterprise Financials: By default, every Save automatically pushes forecast data to the Enterprise Financials module. Cora Support can switch this push off for your environment, in which case saves no longer update Enterprise Financials.