Understanding Project Reporting (Time, Money, and Value) in Forecast

⏱️ 4 minute read

Project reporting in Forecast is designed to give you a complete 360-degree view of your project's health. It goes beyond simple time tracking to connect your operational data (time entries and task estimates) directly to your financial performance (revenue, cost, and margin).

This guide introduces the standard reporting structure used throughout Forecast, explaining the core financial metrics, the different data "snapshots" to compare the project’s trajectory and how calculations are made and best used.

This article covers:

• The 5 Financial Pillars
• Snapshots: The "Data Timeline" of Your Project
• Configuration: Tailoring Calculations to Your Ways of Working
• Key Takeaways

The 5 Financial Pillars

Every financial report in Forecast—whether it’s a portfolio view or a single project deep-dive—is built on five standardized metrics.

Revenue

The amount of money you expect to earn or have earned from the client.

• Revenue depends on the project budget type:
  • For Time & Materials projects, Time & Materials Retainers and Fixed Hours Retainers: Revenue is calculated simply as Billable Hours × Role Rate + Price of Expenses
  • For Fixed Price projects: The Total Revenue is locked to the fixed price amount, plus the price of expenses.
  • Fixed Price Retainers: Revenue is tied to the total price of all retainer periods
• Manual Revenue Recognition and Revenue Locking give finance teams the ability to keep books balanced on a month-by-month basis.
• You can read more in-detail about Revenue reporting in Financial Categories: Revenue Calculations.

Cost

The internal expense incurred by your company to deliver the work.

• Formula: Hours × Internal Hourly Cost of the resource + Cost of Expenses
• If a specific user is not assigned, cost can be based on company or project team averages per role, or a flat hourly cost.
  • The desired option is set in Project Settings > Financials.

Profit

The net financial gain.

• Formula: Profit = Revenue - Cost

Margin

The percentage of revenue left after subtracting costs.

• Formula: Margin = Profit / Revenue x 100

Value of Service

The "theoretical" value of all work performed, regardless of whether it is billable or billed. This field answers the question: "What would this work be worth if we billed for everything at our standard rate?"

• Total Value of Service: Reflects the value of all time and expenses (Billable + Non-Billable).
  • Billable Value of Service reflects the value of time and expenses marked as Billable
  • Non-Billable Value of Service reflects the value of time and expenses marked as Non-Billable
• Formula: Hours (Billable or Non-Billable) × Role Rate + Expenses

On Fixed Price projects, the Value of Service can be compared to Revenue (from the Fixed Price) to determine if the project has “overserviced” or not, and therefore if the pricing model was a good choice. Comparing Revenue with the Value of Service will also reveal any “offset” introduced by Manual Revenue Recognition or Revenue Locking.

Snapshots: The "Data Timeline" of Your Project

We all know that the shape of a project can change from the proposal to the live project to a delivered product. Forecast provides snapshots of data to compare your original plan against reality, and where you are against where you’re expected to land.

Configuration: Tailoring Calculations to Your Ways of Working

Not every project follows the same model. With Agile projects it is often impossible to fully scope work in advance. Staff augmentation services do not require task scoping or time registrations if a team and a timeline is set. While the default for calculations is task estimates and time registrations, it is possible to instead use resource allocations as the basis for Estimated, Actual or Remaining Work fields. 

This is set in Project Settings > Financials.

Key Takeaways

1. Rates drive Revenue; Internal Costs drive Cost. Revenue is external (Rate Cards); Cost is internal (Resource Cost).
2. Baselines represent your initial budget. Compare against it to track if you are drifting off course.
3. Value of Service (VoS) tells the full story. Use VoS to understand the financial weight of non-billable work.
4. Projected Total is your compass for the project. Check Projected Total to see if your project will finish profitable, or in line with the Baseline.

Related articles

• Updates to Financial Categories and Reporting in Forecast
• Financial Categories: Revenue Calculations