Project budgeting and forecasting are essential for any project-based organization. The EAC Workbench enhances these processes by providing a structured and efficient method for predicting and building Estimate At Completion (EAC) values for both costs and revenues. This tool ensures that project managers can make informed decisions based on reliable data.
The EAC Workbench seamlessly integrates both system-generated and user-entered data. It handles calculations for both cost- and revenue-related EAC, using the project’s Active Budget at the time of the Project Forecast’s creation as the foundation for its calculations, all in the project’s defined base currency.
Additionally, the EAC Workbench retrieves costs and revenues through snapshots, including planned, committed, used, and actuals, up to the cut-off date, eliminating the need for manual reconciliation. It also connects contract change orders (variations) to the forecast, ensuring that both agreed and unagreed changes are considered.
This document has three sections:
The Budget Transfer feature enables the redistribution of the active budget amount (corresponding to the Active Budget at the time of project forecast creation) between forecast lines within the same forecast. Importantly, this redistribution maintains the total Active Budget value for the entire project unchanged, ensuring financial consistency.
Budget values can be moved fully or partially between forecast lines. You can select from a list of Budget Transfer Reasons and add comments to each transfer for documentation purposes. Once transferred, the transferred amounts for each forecast line are displayed in the Budget Transfer column. In addition, the values for Adjusted Budget This Forecast, Unplanned Cost/Revenue, EAC and ETC (Estimate To Complete) for each forecast line are updated. The history of all budget transfers can be viewed on the Budget Transfer Details page.
The Estimated Budget Change feature allows you to account for future anticipated changes in the Active Budget by entering adjustments to a forecast line. You can input both positive and negative estimated budget changes, accommodating increases and decreases in costs. Multiple changes can be added to a specific forecast line, and comments can be included for clear communication and traceability.
The estimated budget changes impact the Adjusted Budget for This Forecast value, while keeping the Active Budget of the project intact. This provides a clear view of financial adjustments. The estimated budget change amount is displayed in the Estimated Budget Change column. Additionally, the values for Estimated Future Commitment, Unplanned Cost/Revenue, EAC, and ETC are recalculated for the selected forecast line.
The Estimated Future Commitment feature allows you to adjust for uncertain anticipated future commitments, such as contingencies or expected rate adjustments. It can also be used for forecasting miscellaneous work not covered by other categories.
The Estimated Future Commitment Adjustment values can be positive or negative values. Additionally, multiple adjustments can be made to a specific forecast line, with the option to add comments for each adjustment. This feature also supports connecting sub contracts or sales contracts to the adjustments.
As a result, the values for Estimated Future Commitment Adjustment and Estimated Future Commitment are updated. In addition, the EAC and ETC are recalculated based on the adjustments.
Contract Change Order (CCO) values can be used to predict more accurate values for the EAC. Contract change orders, regardless of their status, can be connected to an EAC Workbench created for a specific project.
The status of CCO values is displayed in the Manage Contract
Change Order assistant. If the CCO agreement has already been
updated into the sub contract or sales contract, it is considered in the calculation
via the Planned Cost or Planned Revenue obtained
through a snapshot. If not, the CCO values can be retrieved using
Manage Change Order Connections.
When a project forecast is created, an EAC Workbench is automatically connected, and initially set to Created status. This status indicates that work has not yet started, and the EAC Workbench is read-only. The EAC Workbench can also be set to In Progress status automatically if it has been defined on the Forecast Type.
To initiate the calculation process, the EAC Workbench must be in In Progress status. The EAC Workbench can only be set to In Progress when the connected project forecast is in Preliminary status. In this status, the connected project forecast becomes read-only to ensure data integrity during the calculation process.
Make necessary adjustments by utilizing the different features in the EAC Workbench, such as Budget Transfers and Estimated Budget Changes, which fine-tune the budget values for each forecast line, resulting in updating the Adjusted Budget for This Forecast value. If no Budget Transfers or Estimated Budget Changes are applied, the Adjusted Budget for This Forecast value will remain identical to the Active Budget recorded at the time of the project forecast’s creation.
It’s also possible to adjust for uncertain anticipated future commitments, such as contingencies or expected rate adjustments, through the Estimated Future Commitment feature. In addition, Contract Change Orders, regardless of their status, can be connected to an EAC Workbench and managed through the Manage Change Order Connections.
These adjustments will recalculate EAC and ETC values.
Once the EAC values are finalized, they can be transferred to the project forecast using the Copy EAC to Forecast command. After the values have been transferred, the EAC Workbench status changes to EAC Transferred, and you can continue the budgeting and forecasting process in IFS Cloud. In this status, the EAC Workbench becomes read-only again, indicating that the calculated values have been successfully transferred.
Should you choose not to transfer the values to the project forecast, you can stop the progress, which will save the values in the EAC Workbench while reverting it back to Created status.
If the EAC Workbench values need to be updated after the transfer, it is
possible to update the status from EAC Transferred back to
In Progress. This allows for further adjustments and
recalculations. Once finalized, the updated values can be copied to the
project forecast again.
Here follows the calculation formulas for fields impacted by the features in the Each Workbench.
The Adjusted Budget This Forecast is calculated as follows:
Unplanned Cost and Unplanned Revenue represent the difference between the Adjusted Budget This Forecast and the Planned Cost or Planned Revenue. This includes amounts from contract change orders (CCOs) in Active status. These amounts have been pushed to sub contracts for cost values, and to sales contracts for revenues. As a result, the Planned Cost and/or Planned Revenue have been updated respectively.
The Unplanned Cost within EAC Workbench is calculated as follows:
The Unplanned Revenue within EAC Workbench is calculated as follows:
Estimated Future Commitment is calculated as follows:
The Estimate at Completion is recalculated by the various ways that the forecast can be updated in the EAC Workbench.
EAC for cost values within EAC Workbench is calculated as follows:
EAC for revenue values within EAC Workbench is calculated as follows:
The Estimate To Complete is recalculated as a result of EAC adjustments.
ETC for cost values within EAC Workbench is calculated as follows:
ETC for revenue values within EAC Workbench is calculated as follows:
The Total Committed Cost within EAC Workbench is calculated as follows: