What is a forecasting view?
Answer
In Procore, a forecasting view is a tool that you can leverage to help your project team avoid cost overruns. It supports project mangers with an improved way to estimate how monthly project costs can be allocated on a project's budget. A default 'Procore Standard Forecast' view is provided to all Procore clients who enable this feature. This view can be assigned to a project, so project manager's can work with the view in a 'Forecasting' tab in a project's Budget tool. With this view, your analysis can be performed on line-item basis, which help project managers make informed adjustments to budgets at the line item level.
Using a forecasting curve, the 'Procore Standard Forecast' view lets you view how your construction project's cash flows over time by spreading the 'Project Cost to Complete' column value across a time period that you define. You can also customize which column value to spread.
- Linear. Apply this option to evenly spread the amount in the 'Project Cost to Complete' column over the selected timeline.
- Front-Loaded Curve. Apply this option so the spread shows more spending at the beginning of the timeline and less spending at the end of the timeline.
- Back-Loaded Curve. Apply this option to adjust the spread shows less spending at beginning of the timeline and more at the end of the timeline.
- Curve. Apply this option to adjust the spread to show less spending at the beginning and end of the and more spending at the middle of the timeline.
- Manual. Apply this option if you want to set a specific value for each month's cost projection on the budget line item.
Example
Procore Standard Forecast View
The illustration below shows you the default layout for the 'Procore Standard Forecast' view, as it looks when assigned to a project's Budget tool.
Default Columns
The following table details the default column and layout of the 'Procore Standard Forecast' view.
| Column Name | Column Type | Column Format | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start Date | - | Date | Select a start date for your forecast timeline from the drop-down calendar control. |
| End Date | - | Date | Select an end date for your forecast timeline from the drop-down calendar control. |
| Curve | - | n/a | Select the curve that you want to apply to the forecast timeline. This defines how budget costs are spread along the forecast timeline. |
| Approved COs | Source | Currency | Shows the amount of any change orders in the 'Approved' status associated with the budget line item. |
| Revised Budget | Calculated | Currency | Shows the revised budget amount for the budget line item. |
| Projected Budget | Calculated | Currency | Shows the projected budget amount for the budget line item. |
| Projected Costs | Calculated | Currency | Provides the projected costs associated with the budget line item. |
| Estimated Costs at Completion | Calculated | Currency | Provides the estimated cost at completion for the budget line item. |
| Job to Date Costs | Source | Currency | Shows all of the costs for the job to the current date for the budget line item. |
| Projected Cost to Complete | Calculated | Currency | Provides a calculated value that shows the projected amount to complete the task associated with the budget line item. |
| Forecast to Complete | Calculated | Currency | Provides a calculated forecast amount to complete the task associated with the budget line item. |
| Projected Over Under | Calculated | Currency | Shows a calculated value with the projected amount the line item is over or under budget. |
| Remaining | Calculated | Currency | Show the remaining amount of the total for the budget line item. |
| Month(s) | - | Month | Shows a month column for every month in the timeline you defined in the Start Date and End Date columns on the budget line item. |