6. Projects

Reviewing project budgets and cost to complete

Project cost control compares the current budget with commitments, actual cost, and forecast cost to complete. Review both the project total and individual packages to identify overruns.

Navigation: Launch page > Projects > Portfolio dashboard > project > Cost Control.

Before you begin

Use the correct project, approved budget version, reporting date, currency, and amount scale. M in the illustrated dashboards means millions.

NetSuite Real Estate — Project cost measures connect budget, commitments, actual cost, remaining forecast, and expected completion cost. — Project cost measures connect budget, commitments, actual cost, remaining forecast, and expected completion cost. Click the image for full size.

Procedure

Review the portfolio summary, then open the relevant project. Confirm the current budget and project stage.
Read the cost sequence: original budget, current budget, pre-commitment, commitment, actual cost, estimate to complete, estimate at completion, variance at completion, and available to commit.
Open Cost Control and review filters such as Forecast Exceed, Overcommitted, Within Budget, and Reserve.
Drill into the control account or package that explains an exception. Review approved and pending changes before revising a forecast.
Compare expected completion cost with the current budget and assign follow-up for package-level overruns.

Result

The project team identifies both funding headroom and forecast cost risk.

Important

A positive project-level variance can conceal an overrun in a specific package. Do not subtract actual cost again from a commitment total without checking the report definition; the measures can overlap.

Key calculations

Estimate at completion equals actual cost plus estimate to complete. Variance at completion equals current budget less estimate at completion; a positive result indicates forecast headroom under this convention. Available to commit uses current budget less pre-commitment and commitment in the illustrated report. Displayed rounded values may not sum exactly.

Operational context

Review completion percentage, elapsed time, and available performance indicators with the schedule and package detail. Cost headroom alone does not establish that the project is on schedule or ready for handover.