Once all the details have been attached the user can have a great overview on how the Project is doing, comparing what was initially quoted and what has been scheduled and done so far.
View Options
To hide or show columns in the comparison table, click on the Eye icon (third button on the top left corner of the window - also at the top right corner of the Budget table) and select Edit View. As the Edit View window opens, columns can be selected to show by clicking on them in the Hide area, so they jump to the Show area, and they can be hidden by dragging them from the Show to the Hide area. The order can also be modified by clicking on the up/down arrow next to each column name or by dragging a line to a new position.
Here a description of the available columns related to the Actuals (To Date, Forecast and Invoiced):
The 'To Date' numbers refer to the 'To Invoice / Used' mode.
The 'Forecast' numbers refer to the 'To Invoice / Used / Booked' mode.
The 'To Date' holds the already used and time reported Actuals; and the 'Forecast' shows a projection of where the Actuals will end up if all time reports are filled out as booked.
The 'Invoiced' show numbers that have been invoiced.
- Qty: Displays the quantity, either Hours, Days or Fixed.
- Buy Rate: Shows the Buy rate.
- Buy: Shows the total Buy rate for the line, according to the quantity.
- Sell Rate: Shows the Sell rate.
- Sell: Shows the Sell rate for the line, according to the quantity.
- Diff. Buy and Diff. Sell: These show the difference between the Budgeted and To Date or Forecast or Invoiced numbers; e.g., the column Diff. Sell (To Date) takes Sell (Budgeted) minus Sell (To Date). Positive numbers means that you have currently time reported (or booked) less than what was Budgeted; and negative numbers means that the Actuals have gone over what was Budgeted.
Comparing and reporting
In this example, Users do not carry prices and that is why they were not added to the Quote. This Budget Structure has a special Account for Editors/Operators where Users are attached only for the record. But you might as well leave them in the Actuals pane at the bottom.
In this case, $2486 was Quoted. So far, $1054 has been used up. But the 'Forecast' column shows that in all likelihood at least $2159 will be spent once the Project is done and the time reports are filled in.
Comparing Budget with Actuals in Budget window
The same comparison can be made in the Financial Report Designer.
The first print template below is grouping by Budget Category and Budget Account Main, and the second one is grouping by Budget Category, Budget Account Main and Budget Details. Both templates have these settings:
> Include Actuals
> Use Actuals From View "Actuals"
> Include Budgeted
To get the "To Date" numbers in the Financial Report Designer, use the fields under "Totals (To Invoice / Used)". To get the 'Forecast' numbers, use the fields under "Totals (To Invoice / Used / Booked)".
Comparing Budget with Actuals in Financial Reports
Comparing Budget with Actuals in Financial Reports with details
The option 'Comparison Budget' in the header of a Budget allows selecting another Budget from the same Project.
This might be useful in cases where you need to compare an initial estimate with the revised quote, or even the initial estimate with the actualised data attached to the approved quote.
This option will show in the header between Discounts and Budget Operators, once a second Budget is added to the Project.
To show the comparison numbers, add the columns that are called "x (Compare)" through the Edit View: Qty (Compare), Multiplier (Compare), Buy Rate (Compare), Buy (Compare), Sell Rate (Compare), Sell (Compare).
This way, in the Budget table any details from the Comparison Budget that can be matched with similar details in the currently viewed Budget will be totaled and shown in the "x (Compare)" columns.
In the example below, the initial estimate included the sound design and sound mix at a buy price of $20 per hour. Since this service was to be outsourced, once the quote was approved and the work scheduled, the buy price was reconfirmed by the supplier to be $30 and $35 respectively, thus changing the cost of the whole job and the profit.
Comparing initial estimate with updated quote
Any details from the Comparison Budget that can not be matched will instead be displayed at the bottom of each account, in an italic font. Those details can be copied from the Comparison Budget to the currently viewed Budget, by selecting them, right clicking and choosing "Copy To Current Budget".
Copy To Current Budget
When running a Financial Report on the Budget, the comparison numbers can be displayed by choosing the different fields inside "Numbers (Comparison Budget)".
In this example, this Cost Report is showing the initial cost (from the first estimate, that is the Comparison Budget), the updated cost (from the approved quote) and the sell total (from the actuals), and is calculating the profit using a math operation between the actuals sell total and the updated quote buy total.
Cost Report showing details from the Comparison Budget, the approved quote and the actuals
In this report, the Transcoding service is not displayed because it is not part of the Budget Details grouping (it is not included in the approved quote - it belongs to the Comparison Budget only). If you need to display it in your report, it can be selected from the Rows.
Any lines that are in the Comparison Budget but NOT in the main Budget are hidden until you display at least one 'Numbers (Comparison Budget)' field.