Support Central
The cost worksheet and its many columns can seem overwhelming, but this article will group them together into manageable groups. US English terms are used with UK English in (brackets).
Creating views with columns grouped together can help you quickly find what you need.
Baseline Budget (Original Budget) is defined by importing data or manually entered on a control element. This should be locked once the baseline budget is established. Learn how in project settings.
Approved Budget Changes are from budget changes and/or change events. The most accurate calculation, taking into account all the different settings, is Approved Budget – Baseline Budget since it isn’t necessarily a sum of changes. When you manually edit the Approved Budget, the Approved Budget Changes is calculated as the Approved Budget – Baseline Budget. There may be budget changes, change event items, and/or manual edits to the Approved Budget value.
Approved Budget Transfers is the sum of budget transfer amounts from all change event items with a status of “approved”.
Approved Upstream Contracts is the sum of the approved contract amounts from upstream contract pay items.
Approved Budget (Current Budget) is initially defined by importing, or manually entered on a control element when the baseline budget is established. It is recommended to use change management exclusively setting in project settings and have the approved budget calculated by the system. The approved budget can be calculated in two ways, depending on the Approved Budget Method selected for the control account or control element.
Approved Upstream Contract Change Events is the sum of change event item amounts when the change event items have an upstream contract impacted, a status of “approved” and are not linked to a contract change.
Items for approved upstream contract change events will not update the approved budget unless budget method AB2 is selected, and the change event item modifies an upstream contract.
Approved upstream contract changes will not affect the approved budget value if you have a single change event item that only modifies an upstream contract.
Pending Budget is the approved budget plus budget changes that are pending approval. Once pending budget changes are approved, they become part of the approved budget. Pending budget is calculated as Approved Budget + Approved Upstream Contract Change Events + Pending Upstream Contracts + Pending Upstream Contract Changes
Potential Budget Changes are from budget changes and change events.
Potential Budget Transfers is the sum of budget transfer amounts from all change event items with a status of “potential”.
Potential Budget is the approved budget plus potential budget changes and potential budget transfers that have been identified in budget changes or change events.
Original Upstream Contract is the sum of the original contract amounts from upstream contract pay items with the parent contract has any status.
Current Upstream Contracts is calculated by Approved Upstream Contracts + Approved Upstream Contract Changes + Proceed Upstream Contracts + Proceed Upstream Contract Changes
Control Budget (Alternate Budget) is defined by importing or manually entered on a control element. It is recommended to use change management exclusively setting in project settings after the cost worksheet is established and have the control budget calculated by the system.
Proceed Upstream Contracts is the sum of the original contract amount from upstream contract pay items when the contract has a “proceed” status.
Proceed Upstream Contract Changes is the sum of the change amounts from upstream contract change items when the status of the contract change is “proceed”.
Pending Upstream Contracts is the sum of pending contract amounts from upstream contracts.
Pending Upstream Contract Changes is the sum of change amounts from upstream contract change items when the cost impact of the contract change is “pending” and the status is “preliminary” or “submitted”.
Potential Upstream Contract Change Events is the sum of cost change amounts from Change Event Items that have a contract impacted, a status of “Potential” and are not linked to a Contract Change.
Potential Upstream Contract Changes is the sum of Contract Change Items when the parent Contract Change has a Cost Impact of “Potential”, and the status is “Preliminary” or “Submitted”.
Control Budget Changes (Alternate Budget Changes) is the sum of control budget change amounts when the status assigned to the parent budget change has been defined as “apply". Exclusive use of change management must be enabled in project settings for this feature to appear. It is recommended that change events are utilized for cost. Hours and quantity are currently not supported in change events, and budget changes must be utilized.
Potential Control Budget Changes is the sum of control budget change amounts when the status assigned to the parent budget change has been defined as “apply to potential". Exclusive use of change management must be enabled in project settings for this to appear under change management. Control Budget changes are currently only supported in the Budget Changes feature.
Potential Control Budget is a way to see your control budget with potential control budget change items that have been identified in budget changes.
US English uses estimate to complete (ETC) and estimate at completion (EAC) while UK English uses forecast cost to complete (FCC) and forecast final cost (FFC).
Connected Cost has several different methods available to calculate the estimate to complete (ETC) or estimate at completion (EAC). The default method is set at the control account level but can be overwritten at the control element level.
If an Estimate to Complete (ETC) method is selected, the ETC is calculated according to the method selected and the estimate at completion (EAC) is calculated as All Commitments + Estimate to Complete (ETC).
If an Estimate at Completion (EAC) method is selected, the EAC is calculated according to the method selected and the estimate to complete (ETC) is calculated as Estimate at Completion (EAC) – All Commitments.
Variance Columns are useful ways to compare your forecast (EAC or FFC).
Potential ETC Changes (Potential FCC Changes) is calculated using Budget ETC Changes with status of “Apply to Potential” + ETC Changes from Change Event Items with a status of Potential.
Potential EAC (FFC) is the estimate at completion (forecast cost to complete) with potential cost change items that have been identified in contract changes or change events.
Potential Statuses in Change Management are a powerful way to see the impact on budgets and estimate at completion.
Below is the hierarchy of how the All Commitments column is calculated and defines each component which is available as a separate column.
Original Downstream Contract is the sum of original contract amounts from downstream contract pay items when the parent contract has any status.
Potential Downstream Contract Changes is the sum of Contract Change Items when the parent Contract Change has a Cost Impact of “Potential”, and the status is “Preliminary” or “Submitted”.
Potential Downstream Contract Change Events is the sum of cost change amounts from Change Event Items that have a downstream contract impacted, a status of “Potential” and are not linked to a Contract Change.
Direct Actuals Previous Periods is the sum of direct actuals from previous reporting periods.
Direct Actuals Current Period is actual amounts from direct actuals for the current reporting period.
Accrued Period is accrued amounts from direct actuals for the current period.
Accrued to Date is the sum of accrued amounts from all direct actuals. When the current reporting period is closed, the system will automatically create a corresponding reversing accrual entry.
Incurred Period is the sum of all actuals current period and accrued period.
Incurred to Date is calculated by all cost actuals to date + accrued to date.
Remaining to Spend is calculated by estimate at completion – all cost actuals to date.
Percent Spent is calculated by all actuals to date / estimate at completion.
Percent Downstream Invoiced is calculated by (pending downstream contract actuals + approved downstream contract actuals) / current downstream contract.
The time phased data is used to distribute each control account's cost, hours, and quantity values, found in the control accounts/control elements tab, across the schedule dates assigned to each control account. Control element data spread is based on the working days in each reporting period and the distribution curves assigned to each control element. The baseline budget, approved budget, control budget, and remaining to spend each have separate sets of schedule dates and a distribution curve.
By default, the baseline budget, approved budget, and control budget are distributed from the current reporting period forward using the schedule dates. You can choose to distribute these budgets starting at an earlier reporting period in the spread time phased data utility. This is usually done when changes to the baseline are entered later than when they were approved.
The remaining to spend for the current period is calculated based on the current data and the remainder is distributed across future reporting periods using the current early dates. The earned value is calculated for the past and current periods only using percent complete data and is not distributed throughout the future reporting periods.
If a project is using budget changes with start / finish dates and distribution curves assigned to the budget change, change amounts will be distributed using the dates and curve defined for the change record. Change Events will remain in Unassigned in this configuration.
Schedule data can be imported via an Oracle P6 EPPM or Oracle Primavera Cloud integration that is built into Aconex Connected Cost.
Earned value management is an advanced feature of Aconex Connected Cost that assumes a level of familiarity with the discipline. Connected Cost implements industry standard EVM methodologies such as the EVM Gold Card. The basis of earned value management is the percent complete value on each control account and you have control over how the calculation is performed.
See the calculating and updating forecasts page for detail about the percent complete methods and compatible forecast methods.
Percent Complete Method controls how the percent complete is calculated for a control account.
Earned to Date is calculated as approved budget x current percent complete.
Earned Period is calculated as earned to date - earned previous periods.
Approved Budget to Date/Period (Current Budget To Date/Period) are columns providing information from time phased data. These are used to display the planned value to date or for the current period.
Cost Performance Index to Date/Period are columns calculated as earned value/all actuals to date or for the current period.
Schedule Performance Index to Date/Period are columns calculated as earned value/approved (current) budget to date or for the current period.
To Complete Performance Index (TCPI) BAC is the efficiency that must be maintained to complete the project at the current approved (current) budget. The TCPI calculation involves several other calculated values.
To Complete Performance Index EAC (FFC) is the efficiency that must be maintained to complete the project at the current estimate at completion value.
Calculation (AU/UK): (Current Budget - Earned to Date) / (Final Forecast Cost - All Actuals to Date)
Not all of the percent complete and forecast methods can be used together, see Compatible Forecast and Percent methods for more information.
The list below shows all available percent complete methods in Cost. The percent complete method controls how progress is calculated on each control account.
The default percent complete method can be set in organization and project settings, these defaults apply to new projects and new control accounts respectively. Changing the default values in settings does not update any existing control accounts.
Not all of the percent complete and forecast methods can be used together, see Compatible Forecast and Percent methods for more information.
The list below shows all available forecast methods in Cost. The forecast method controls how either the estimate to complete or estimate at completion is calculated.
The method can be set at the control account or control element level, note that changing the method for the control account updates all control elements to be the same.
Automated system adjustments describe built-in calculations that will automatically adjust the estimate to complete (ETC) or estimate at completion (EAC) when commitments and upstream contracts are entered and/or approved. Direct actuals and downstream contracts and contract changes are examples of commitments. Commitments generally reduce the ETC, while upstream contracts will increase the ETC.
The automated system adjustments will never reduce the ETC below 0 when commitments are entered. Once ETC has reached 0, any further commitments will always increase the EAC (known as the floor rule).
Fully calculated methods such as ETC 3, EAC 3, and EAC 4 may result in negative results.
ETC 1, ETC 4, and EAC 5 which allow user controlled value and manually entered value allow directly editing the ETC or EAC on the cost worksheet unless budgets and forecasts have been locked, see Locking your project budgets in Cost.
