FINANCIALS: Forecasting, Approved Budget & Actuals

Modified on Fri, 29 Dec, 2023 at 12:28 PM

The Financials section of the workspace is for tracking and managing the approved budget, forecast and actuals for a project across all configured expense categories and expense types.

The financials table displays by default an overview of the Full Year financials as well as a summary for the current month:

Types: The list of expense categories. While project financials are posted against expense types, the financials component rolls up amount values to the expense categories the expense types belong to in order to provide a concise view of the project financials. We will see later that it is possible to drill down and see the amount values by expense types.

Baseline: The full year amount of money that has been approved to be spent against that expense category for the project. Loading Baseline values is an admin function performed by the team that administers the portfolio.

Actuals: The full year actuals amount for the expense category. Actuals are not shown in the Full Year financials view until they fall within a 'locked' period - this effectively 'commits' actuals to appear as part of the full year financials.

Periods are 'locked' as a central function by the team that administers the portfolio - typically as part of a month end financial process. A locked period cannot be reopened.

Remaining Forecast: The forecast amount for the remaining open months of the current financial year.

Full Year Forecast: Actuals plus Remaining Forecast.

Variance: The variance between the Approved budget and the Full Year Forecast value. The amount value will be shown in green if the variance is positive, otherwise it will be shown in red. Note that the brackets around a value indicate a negative number.

Current Month Forecast / Actuals / Variance: The next three columns represent the current month forecast and actuals amount values. The variance between the Forecast and Actuals amount is also displayed.

In a project hierarchy all the financials for sub-projects roll up to the financials table of the 'parent' project.

For more on editing non-resource forecasts, click here.

For more on adding actuals, click here.

For more on scenario planning, click here.

Drill down

Use the options (top right) to:

Click on Show Expense Types (top right) to display the financials records by expense type. Click on Hide Expense Types to return to the aggregated view.

Select Show Months to extend the table and display all months for the financial year.

Hover over a monthly value for a view of the forecast amount, actual spend and approved amount for the expense type in that month.

The value displayed in closed months is the actual amount. The forecast amount value is displayed in open months.

Amounts in closed months are displayed in red if the actuals value is higher than the baseline/approved value. If no baseline/approved value is available, the actuals value is compared to the forecast.

Amounts in open months are displayed in red if the forecast amount is higher than the baseline/approved amount.

Additional Reports

Additional reports are available from the reports drop down, top right of the Financials section.

Project Financial Report: Report page with a summary of financials life-to-date and for the current financial year with financial projection, benefits and on-going costs for the project.

Project Health with Financials: Report page with full health status, impacts, mitigating actions and path to green and financials.

Both reports can be exported to PDF via the Tools menu.