How budgets, commitments, actual costs, and revisions inform a more useful project forecast
Part 2 of 3 · Construction Project Controls Series
A construction budget sets the starting expectation for cost and revenue. As work progresses, the question changes: Based on what has happened and what remains, where is the project likely to finish? Answering that question requires a current estimate, not simply a comparison of actual costs with the original budget.
This second post in our construction project controls series looks at how Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and SIS Construct 365 Project Cost Management (PCM) help teams connect budgets, approved changes, commitments, actual costs, and estimated cost at completion (ECAC). The goal is to spot pressure on cost and margin early enough to respond.
Start with a consistent cost structure
A forecast is only as useful as the detail behind it. Task codes identify the work being performed, while budget categories organize its financial values. Using a consistent structure across the budget, transactions, commitments, and reports helps project and finance teams trace variances to the work that caused them. It also makes comparisons from one forecast period to the next more meaningful.
Keep the original budget and approved changes visible
Projects change, but the original plan should remain visible. In Construct 365 PCM, budget revisions and project change orders can document how the plan evolves. A submit, approve, and commit process distinguishes working changes from approved ones. This matters when a potential change has been identified but is not yet authorized: the team can discuss its likely effect without treating pending scope as approved contract value.
Account for commitments as well as actual costs
Posted actuals show what has already been recorded; they do not capture the full cost exposure. A subcontract or purchase order may commit the project to a cost before the related invoice posts. If the team looks only at actuals, a project can appear comfortably within budget even though much of the remaining budget is already spoken for.
For example, a cost category with $600,000 budgeted and $300,000 posted may appear to have $300,000 available. If another $220,000 is committed, only $80,000 remains before considering uncommitted work still needed to finish. Reviewing actuals, open commitments, and remaining work together produces a more useful discussion. Avoid adding committed amounts to an estimate to complete if that estimate already includes them.
Revise ECAC using current project evidence
ECAC estimates the total cost expected when the project is complete. At a basic level, it brings together cost incurred to date and the remaining cost expected to finish the work. Project managers should revisit that remaining estimate as production, quantities, rates, staffing, procurement, and scope change. Amount-based categories can be revised by value; quantity-based categories can also support revisions to quantity and rate.
A calculation can provide a starting point, but it cannot replace judgment about work still ahead. Compare the proposed forecast with field progress and current commitments, investigate material differences, and record the assumptions behind significant revisions. The value comes from repeating this review throughout the project, not from producing one seemingly precise number.
Make forecast ownership clear
The ECAC revision workflow separates an estimate being developed from one the organization has reviewed and committed. The submit, approve, and commit steps make it clearer who reviewed a cost increase or margin change and which forecast to use in reporting. Agreeing on a regular review cadence also helps teams address changes before month-end reporting makes them harder to act on.
Watch the direction of margin
One forecasted margin figure says little about whether performance is improving or deteriorating. Comparing ECAC and margin across periods helps reveal a pattern: Is the expected final cost rising? Are approved changes keeping pace with cost growth? Project Financial Overview and Project Cost Analysis views can then help teams examine the underlying project, task, and category detail.
Review ECAC alongside WIP and billing
A project can have a credible cost forecast and still face billing or cash pressure. Review ECAC alongside work in progress (WIP) measures such as percent complete, backlog, overbilling, underbilling, retention, and receivables. Differences between progress, recognized revenue, billing, and collections can raise questions the cost forecast alone cannot answer.
Turn the forecast into a management habit
A more predictable forecast does not require a surprise-free project. It requires a repeatable way to identify changes, distinguish approved amounts from pending assumptions, update the expected final cost, and review the effect on margin and cash.
Connecting those conversations to project data in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and SIS Construct 365 PCM helps teams use the forecast to guide decisions while they still have time to act.
In Part 1 of this series, we covered practical steps for stronger construction project controls. Here, those controls become the foundation for ECAC. But when scope changes, the team also needs to know whether the customer has approved the change, whether subcontract commitments reflect it, and when the work can be billed. In Part 3, we follow a change order from its first estimate through approval, commitments, and invoicing.
Coming soon: Part 3 — From Change Order to Invoice in Construction.
Director, Global Solutions Engineering
SIS, LLC
