Job Costing - Forecasting

Forecasting Overview

The forecasting menu contains several options for creating and viewing forecasts, and for populating data for the WIP adjustments at the end of each period.

The Enter Cost Forecast (Enter Manual Forecast) and Enter Units Forecast screens are used to review and update the projected final amounts for a particular job. By adjusting the cost to complete or the projected final amount, the percent complete is overridden on the line item.

These forms allow the revision of the cost to complete, unit rate, go forward input/output rates, yield and project final amount, depending on the budgeting method used.

Normally, the completion rates are entered to the same degree of complexity as the costing structure for the job.  If the costs are budgeted at the category level, the percentage of completion should also be recorded at the category level. The system displays all the budget items for the job upon entry of this form.

As well, there is the ability to create a series of snapshots of the to date job totals throughout the life of the job. This will provide the ability to produce reports based on these snapshot projections.

The following examples show how the percent complete and projected final amounts are calculated in the system, and how the posting of costs and the modifying of amounts affect them.

NOTE: The term cost is used to represent the accumulation of costs as determined by the 'Projected Final' checkbox setting in the Job Costing Control File.