Materials, actual costs and cost summary¶

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A project is profitable only if you know, at any moment, how much it has really cost and how much it is going to cost. ProjectIQ collects actual costs from two sources — approved hours and material usage — and combines them with the committed cost of open purchase orders and with the budget of the WBS. The Cost Summary on the project form turns these figures into a forecast: the estimate at completion and the expected margin.

This manual explains how to record materials, how actual and committed costs are built, and how to read the cost summary.

Where the numbers come from¶

flowchart LR
    subgraph Plan
      B[WBS budget<br/>labour + materials + other]
    end
    subgraph Actual
      T[Approved time entries<br/>hours x hourly cost on the date]
      M[Material usage<br/>quantity x unit cost]
      GR[Goods receipts] -->|create| M
    end
    subgraph Committed
      PO[Open purchase order lines<br/>quantity to receive x price]
    end
    B --> CS[[Cost Summary]]
    T --> AC[Actual Cost] --> CS
    M --> AC
    PO --> CC[Committed Cost]
    CV[Contract value] --> CS
    PG[Progress %] --> CS

Figure	Source	Updated
Budget Total	Budget of the WBS nodes	When a node is saved
Actual Hours	Approved time entries	When an entry is approved (or submitted with approval off)
Actual Cost	Cost of approved time entries + total cost of all material usage	When an entry or a usage is saved or deleted
Committed Cost	Purchase order lines still to receive × price, on sent or confirmed orders	When orders, lines or receipts change
Progress %	Leaf node progress, weighted by budget	When a node is saved

Every figure exists both on each WBS node (actual hours and cost of that node) and on the project (totals). Costs recorded on the project without a WBS node count in the project totals and are shown as Not assigned to a WBS node in the cost summary.

Material usage¶

A material usage records material consumed on a project: what, how much, when, on which task, from which supplier and at what cost. It can be created by hand, or automatically by a goods receipt (see Purchasing).

Recording material by hand¶

Open Projects → Work → Material Usage and click + New, or use the Materials tab of the project (the project is then filled in), or the quick create form.
Choose the Project (must be In Progress) and optionally the WBS Node (only nodes of that project are offered).
Set the Usage Date.
Choose the Item. The Description and Unit of Measure are copied from the item if empty.
Optionally choose the Supplier the material came from.
Type the Quantity.
Leave Unit Cost empty to let the application fill it in, or type it.
Save: Total Cost = Quantity × Unit Cost.

Fields¶

Field	Meaning
Project	The project (required). The usage is deleted with the project
WBS Node	The task the material is used on (optional, same project only)
Usage Date	When it was used
Item	The item from the catalogue (optional: you can record free-text material)
Description	What was used; from the item when empty
Supplier	Where it came from (optional)
Quantity / Unit of Measure	How much; the unit comes from the item when empty
Unit Cost	Cost per unit (visible only with cost visibility)
Total Cost	Quantity × Unit Cost, calculated (visible only with cost visibility)

How the unit cost is proposed¶

When you choose an item and leave Unit Cost empty:

if a Supplier is set and an active item supplier row exists for that item and supplier, its Price is used;
otherwise the item's Unit Cost is used.

The proposal happens only when the item is chosen or changed; later changes of the catalogue price do not change existing records.

Material from goods receipts¶

When a buyer registers a goods receipt on a purchase order, ProjectIQ creates one material usage per received line, at the order price, on the order's project and on the WBS node of the order line. These records are marked as coming from the receipt and cannot be changed or deleted directly: "This material usage comes from a goods receipt: cancel the receipt to change it." To fix them, cancel the receipt and register it again.

So you do not need to record purchased material twice: receive it, and it becomes actual cost automatically. Record by hand only material taken from stock or bought outside purchase orders.

Views¶

View	Shows
All Material Usage	Every usage you can see
Material Usage by Project	Used in the Materials tab of the project

Quick Find (the search box of the view) is available on material usage.

Actual cost in detail¶

flowchart TB
    subgraph Node 2.2.1 Electrical
      T1[Approved hours: 46 h<br/>cost 1,650.00]
      M1[Material usage: cables, boxes<br/>2,340.00]
    end
    T1 --> N[Node Actual Cost 3,990.00<br/>Actual Hours 46]
    M1 --> N
    N --> P[Project Actual Cost<br/>= sum of all nodes + unassigned]

Labour: only approved time entries count (with time approval off, submitted entries are approved immediately). Draft, submitted and rejected hours are not actual cost yet.
Materials: all material usage counts as soon as it is saved, whether typed by hand or created by a goods receipt.
Recalculation is immediate and also covers moves: if an entry is moved to another node or project, both old and new totals are recalculated.

Committed cost¶

The committed cost is money you have already promised to suppliers but not yet received as goods: for every line of the purchase orders that are Sent or Confirmed, (ordered quantity − received quantity) × price. Draft orders (not yet sent) and cancelled orders do not count. When goods are received, the received part moves from committed to actual (through the material usage). See Purchasing for the details.

flowchart LR
    PO["Order 100 m cable × 2.00 = 200.00"] -->|nothing received| C1[Committed 200.00<br/>Actual 0]
    C1 -->|receipt of 60 m| C2[Committed 80.00<br/>Actual 120.00]
    C2 -->|receipt of 40 m| C3[Committed 0<br/>Actual 200.00]

The committed cost is also used when a purchase request is submitted: if actual + committed + the new request exceed the budget of the node (or of the project), the request is flagged Over Budget for the approver.

Cost summary¶

The Costs tab of the project shows the Cost Summary component.

Header figures¶

Figure	Meaning
Contract value	The agreed price (Contract Value of the project)
Budget	Total budget of the WBS
Actual cost	Actual cost to date, with the split Labour / Materials
Estimate at completion	Forecast of the final cost: actual cost ÷ progress when progress is above zero; otherwise the larger of budget and actual
Expected margin	Contract value − estimate at completion

Budget vs actual by WBS branch¶

Below the header, a table shows one line per top-level WBS node (each branch includes all its sub-nodes):

Column	Meaning
WBS branch	Code and name of the top-level node
Budget	Budget total of the branch
Actual	Actual cost of the branch
Variance	Actual − budget: positive means over budget
Spent	Share of the budget already spent, as a bar
Hours (actual / budget)	Approved hours against budget hours

Costs without a WBS node appear in a last line, Not assigned to a WBS node.

Worked example¶

	Value
Contract value	120,000
Budget	100,000
Actual cost	45,000 (labour 30,000, materials 15,000)
Progress	40%
Estimate at completion	45,000 ÷ 0.40 = 112,500
Expected margin	120,000 − 112,500 = 7,500 (budgeted margin was 20,000)

The forecast says the job is spending faster than it progresses: at this pace it will end 12,500 over budget. Look at the branch table to find where the variance comes from.

The estimate at completion is only as good as the progress figures: update progress on the leaf nodes regularly. With progress at 0 the forecast falls back to the budget (or to the actual cost, if it is already higher).

Messages: "Save the project to see its costs." on a new project; "The cost summary could not be loaded" on network or permission problems (refresh the form).

Cost visibility¶

Costs are sensitive. Columns holding hourly costs and material costs are protected by the OP365 Cost Visibility column security profile:

users with the profile see Unit Cost, Total Cost, time entry Cost, resource hourly costs, supplier and item spend;
users without it see these fields empty or masked, even on records they can open.

The project totals (Actual Cost, Committed Cost, Budget Total) are visible to whoever can read the project. Assign the profile to administrators, project managers and controllers (see Administration).

Messages you may see¶

Message	Meaning and solution
"Hours and materials can be recorded only on projects In Progress."	Set the project In Progress, or record on another project
"The WBS node belongs to another project."	Choose a node of the selected project
"This material usage comes from a goods receipt: cancel the receipt to change it."	Use Cancel Receipt on the goods receipt, then register it again
Unit Cost or Total Cost empty	You do not have the Cost Visibility profile, or the item has no cost and no supplier price