What do plan, actual and forecast mean in cost control?
The plan is the amount each part of the budget is allowed to cost. In a construction budget that part is a budget item, with a plan amount agreed before work starts. The actual is what the project has spent or is bound to spend so far. The forecast is the expected final cost of the item, based on what is known today.
The gap between plan and forecast is the variance. A positive gap is an overrun in the making, even if no invoice for it has arrived. The earlier that gap is seen, the more options remain: a scope can be reduced, a supplier renegotiated or money moved from another item.
Why is the actual cost not enough?
Actual cost looks backwards. It tells you what has been paid or invoiced, and invoices arrive late. A supplier can finish a package in one month and send the invoice in the next. In that gap, the actual figure shows the item as on budget while the money is already promised.
That is why a cost system needs more than the invoices. A commitment is an agreed amount that is not invoiced yet, such as a signed subcontractor order. An invoice is what the supplier has billed, and a payment is what has actually left the account. A credit note returns or writes off an amount. Each kind of entry means something different, and mixing them hides the problem.
How is a forecast built for each item?
The simplest forecast that is still useful is the amount invoiced plus the amount committed. Reperline calculates it that way for every budget item, and calls it forecast spend. Paid is shown beside it so you can see how much has left the account, but paid is not part of the forecast. The forecast answers a different question: what the item will cost in the end.
Take an item planned at 100,000. Suppose 40,000 has been invoiced and 35,000 is committed. The forecast is 75,000, which is 25,000 under plan. Now a new variation order of 35,000 is agreed with the same supplier and entered as a commitment. The commitment is now 70,000, and the forecast is 110,000. That is 10% above plan, so the item is now over its plan by more than the 5% threshold, and the warning should fire on the day the order is agreed, not when the invoice arrives.
When the invoice does arrive, reduce the commitment by the same amount it covers. Suppose the supplier invoices 20,000 of that order. Invoiced becomes 60,000 and committed falls to 50,000. The forecast stays at 110,000, and the same money is not counted twice.
What are earned value, CPI and SPI, and why are they not the whole answer?
Earned value is a method from project control. It compares three figures: the planned value, which is the budget for the work scheduled so far; the earned value, which is the budget for the work actually done; and the actual cost of that work. The cost performance index, CPI, divides earned value by actual cost. The schedule performance index, SPI, divides earned value by planned value. A value below 1 means the project is behind on cost or on time. These are useful background, and the glossary entries for earned value, CPI and SPI explain them.
Earned value needs a measured percentage of work done for every item, and a planned value curve for every period. Not every project has that, and an index built on weak progress figures is only as reliable as those figures. Reperline does not calculate earned value, CPI or SPI. It calculates what fits the facts it holds: the forecast spend of each item against its plan, the spend ahead of progress for each phase, and a forecast end date for each milestone from its actual pace. For the wider set of methods that estimate the final cost, see the guide to estimate at completion methods.
How should several currencies and corrections be handled?
Costs often arrive in more than one currency: an imported fitting, a foreign subcontractor, a rate that moves between the order and the payment. Each entry should keep its own currency and be converted into the project currency at the rate of its date. Reperline converts each amount that way, takes rates from the European Central Bank or accepts a rate entered by hand, and names a currency the bank does not publish so the rate can be entered.
Corrections should never rewrite the past. A wrong entry should be voided with a reason, stay visible and stop counting in the totals. Reperline works that way: a voided transaction is struck through, not erased. Keep the budget structure fixed once it is approved, and record every change to the plan amounts, so a later review can see what was planned and when it moved. A template with eleven groups is ready for an empty budget, though Reperline cannot yet import a budget from Excel.
What should a monthly cost review look at?
A monthly review works best when it uses the same figures every time and the same order of questions. Start with the forecast, not with the invoices. Ask which items are forecast above their plan, and why. Then ask whether the progress of each phase supports the money that has been invoiced. Only after those two questions does the review need the detail of individual entries. A review that starts with a long list of invoices tends to end without a decision, because nobody has yet asked what the list means for the final cost.
The list below is a practical checklist for the same meeting.
- Items whose forecast spend is above their plan, with the commitments that caused the rise.
- Items where the invoiced share is ahead of the progress of their phase, because money is moving faster than the work.
- Commitments agreed but not yet invoiced, and whether each one is still the right amount.
- Large transactions and entries without a document number, if the owner has switched those checks on.
- Voided transactions and corrections, so that a change in a total can be explained.
How does Reperline handle this?
The budget module keeps the plan, invoices, payments, commitments and credit notes for each item in one table, and shows plan, invoiced, paid, committed and forecast side by side. The forecast is always invoiced plus committed, so an overrun shows when it is agreed. Signals watch the same figures: an item whose forecast is more than 5% above its plan, money that is invoiced faster than its phase progresses, and, when switched on, large transactions and transactions without a document number.
Claude can read an invoice and file it as a proposal with the counterparty, the number and the date filled in, but the proposal becomes a record only after a person approves it. A second proposal with the same counterparty and number is refused as a duplicate. Every change is in the activity log. Reperline is not an accounting system: your books stay where they are, and there is no integration with accounting software today. See the budget module for the detail, the signals module for the warnings and the audit trail module for the log. The plans are on the pricing page.