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Configuring project Financials values

Becky
  • Updated

⏱️ 8 minute read

Quick access: Projects > All Projects > Project > Settings > Financials

Previously, Forecast's financial reporting on projects has been based entirely on task estimates, assignments and time registrations. For teams using these features, reporting on a project’s financials is accurate and consistent. However, for teams managing projects based on allocations and that do not have assigned tasks or that do not require their teams to register time, reporting on project's financials becomes limited. The ability to configure granular project financial values depending on task or allocation provides the solution for improved financial reporting depending on the needs of each project. 

This article covers:

Overview

Project owners have the ability to either select project allocations or task estimates as the basis for project hours and financials within a project's Financials settings.

Allocation-based values provide greater flexibility for teams who work agile, particularly for projects using allocated resource time instead of task assignments, or for organizations who do not rely on task estimates, assignments or time registrations. 

Configuring allocation-based project financials

Project owners can configure how values are calculated for each project, and they can be configured to use project allocations, task estimates or a combination of both.

The values that are available for configuration are Estimated, Remaining Work and Actual Values. How a value is calculated in the project is determined by the selected settings. 

Value Type Based on Task estimates Based on Allocations
Estimated Values Total hours Estimated on tasks on the project Total hours allocated to team members for the project, including soft and hard allocations.
Remaining Work Values* Total remaining Estimated hours on unfinished tasks on the project Total of future allocations on the project, including soft and hard allocations.
Actual Values* Total time registered on the project Total of past allocations on the project, including soft and hard allocations.

*Hours allocated on "today's" date are included in Remaining Work values, but not in Actual values.

Note: Value type settings will not affect time registrations for Time and Materials projects or prevent them from appearing for invoicing.

To configure allocation-based project financials

  1. Click Projects in the top bar. 
  2. Select All Projects from the dropdown.
  3. From the Projects page, select a project to update. 
  4. From within the project, click Settings in the left side panel.  
  5. Select Financials.
  6. In Values Calculations, select Allocations for each of the value types. 
    ProjectValuesfromAllocations_ProjectSettings.png
Note: If any of a project's values have previously been configured as allocation-based, it is possible to revert all values back to task estimates and time registrations by manually selecting Task Estimate or Time Registrations for each value within the project's Financials settings. Manually updating all project values to task estimates and time registrations will remove Breakdown from the project's Financials and replace it with Task Breakdown. 

Configuring Hours, Revenue and Cost values

Hours, Revenue and Cost appear for each Value type and can also be configured separately, if needed. By default, each value type will use the same base value to calculate its hours, revenue and cost values. Using these additional settings for each Value type allows you to manage value calculations overall by type or more granularly.

For example, you may want to set Estimated Hours and Estimated Revenue based on allocations, but use task estimates as the base for Estimated Cost of the project. 

Note: Using allocations as the base for Actual values (actual hours, actual revenue, actual cost) is not recommended, unless you are not tracking time in Forecast for the specific project.
Important: The base selected for Revenue, regardless of the value category (Estimated, Actual, Remaining Work), governs both the calculation for billable time and the distribution of suggested revenue recognition.

Hours, Revenue and Cost calculations overview by value

Tip: Hover over the tooltip next to a value to display its calculation.
Value Based on Task estimates Based on allocations
Estimated Hours Total hours Estimated on tasks Total hours allocated to any team member, including soft and hard allocations
Estimated Revenue

All rate-based calculations, such as Revenue Recognition and Estimated Value of Service.

Estimated hours x Rate. 

All rate-based calculations, such as Revenue Recognition and Estimated Value of Service.

Estimated hours x Rate. 
Estimated Cost Task Estimates x Internal hourly cost + Cost of Estimated expenses Allocated hours x Internal hourly cost + Cost of Estimated expenses
Remaining Hours Remaining time Estimated on unfinished tasks All future hours allocated to any team member, including soft and hard allocations.
Remaining Revenue

All rate-based calculations, such as Revenue Recognition and Estimated Value of Service.

Remaining hours x Rate. 

All rate-based calculations, such as Revenue Recognition and Estimated Value of Service.

Remaining hours x Rate. 
Remaining cost Remaining time on unfinished tasks x Internal hourly cost + Cost of future expenses Future hours allocated to any team member, including soft and hard allocations.
Actual Hours Time registered on tasks or the project. Hours allocated in the past for any team member, including soft and hard allocations.
Actual Revenue

All rate-based calculations, such as Revenue Recognition and Estimated Value of Service.

Actual hours x Rate. 

All rate-based calculations, such as Revenue Recognition and Estimated Value of Service.

Actual hours x Rate. 
Actual Cost Time registered x Internal hourly cost + Cost of past expenses Past allocated hours x Internal hourly cost + Cost of past expenses.

To configure hours, revenue and cost separately

  1. Click Projects in the top navigation bar. 
  2. Select All Projects from the dropdown.
  3. From the Projects page, select a project. 
  4. From within the project, click Settings in the left side panel.  
  5. Select Financials.
  6. In Values Calculations, select Task estimates or Allocations  for each of the value type. 
  7. To base values calculations individually, tick the box to Set Hours, Revenue and Cost separately.
    1. Select the base for each calculation within the value type. 
      SetValuesSeparately.png
    2. Repeat for each value type as necessary. 

Viewing the Project Financials Breakdown

If any of these allocation-based value settings are selected to base values on allocations, the “Task Breakdown” page under Project Financials is replaced by simply “Breakdown.” Projects enabled for task-based values have access to the project's task detail using Task Breakdown within the project's Financials. 

The Breakdown provides the detail for hours and financial figures that account for values from allocations, time registrations, task estimates and expenses as well as details for specific team members, tasks, or dates.  To learn more about how to use the Breakdown, see Viewing the Project Financials Breakdown.

BudgetBreakdown.png

Understanding the impact of the selected financial values across Forecast

In some cases, a project's financial values setting will impact how project data is reflected in a given report or when exporting data via API. Some reports will not change based on the values settings selected, while some will update depending on the settings selected. 

If project values are based on allocations, they can impact or be impacted by other areas within the platform such as time-off.  In a scenario where team members may have allocated project time overlapping time-off, the allocated hours for that day (or range of days) will be treated as 0. All calculations based on allocations will consider 0 hours as coming from the allocation for the days included in the time off.

The selected options for the project financials' values also reflect in the Project Financials Breakdown and in the existing Standard and Advanced Analytics reports. 

Standard Reports 

With Forecast Standard Reporting some of the reports will not change based on the values settings selected, while some will update depending on the settings selected:  

Project Portfolio Report Will reflect the selection of project value settings for a project.
Time Registered Report Will not be impacted by a project's value settings and will continue to be based on time registrations.
Utilization Report Will not be impacted by a project’s value setting. Actuals will continue to be based only on time registrations, regardless of its values settings.

Advanced Analytics

Within Advanced Analytics, the following values will be calculated accordingly depending on the settings selected for a given project. Check out Overview of the Advanced Analytics Data Model to learn more about the data available for advanced reporting.

Estimated Value settings
  • Total Project Total Scope Minutes
  • Total Project Plan Cost
  • Total Project Plan Revenue (also referred to as Value of Service in Breakdown on fixed price projects).
Actual Value settings
  • Total Project Minutes Registered
  • Total Project Actual Cost
  • Total Project Actual Revenue (also referred to as Value of Service in Breakdown on fixed price projects).
Remaining Work Value settings
  • Total Project Remaining Minutes
  • Total Project Remaining Cost
  • Total Project Remaining Revenue(also referred to as Value of Service in Breakdown on fixed price projects).

The following values reflect Revenue Recognition distribution within the platform and will be calculated based on allocations if the Revenue settings are selected for a given project. 

  • Total Project Actual Revenue Recognized to Date
  • Total Project Actual Open Revenue Recognition
  • Total Project Actual Locked Revenue Recognition
  • Total Project Forecast Revenue to be Recognized

Financials API 

The following values will be calculated based on the settings selected in the Project Financials and will reflect in the Forecast's API responses. To learn more about Forecast's API, see API Documentation. 

Estimated Values settings
  •     "Estimated":
    • "billableTimeAndExpenses"
    • "nonbillableTimeAndExpenses"
    • "allTimeAndExpenses"
    • "cost"
Actual Values settings
  • "actual":
    • "billableTimeAndExpenses"
    • "nonbillableTimeAndExpenses"
    • "allTimeAndExpenses"
    • "cost"
Remaining Work Value settings
  • "forecastToComplete":
    • "billableTimeAndExpenses"
    • "nonbillableTimeAndExpenses"
    • "allTimeAndExpenses"
    • "cost"
Project time
  • "timeInMinutes":
  • "actualTimeRegisteredToDate"
  • "forecastTimeToComplete"
  • "scopeApprovedTime"
  • "scopeTotalTime"

The following API response fields will reflect Revenue Recognition distribution in the platform, which is governed by revenue settings:

  • "revenueRecognition":
    • "totalRevenueRecognition"
    • "revenueRecogitionLocked"
    • "revenueRecognitionUnlocked"

 

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