Budgets vs Estimate
You can maintain an Original Budget, a Current Budget, and a Current Estimate, as is shown from the CBS tab of the Control main page, using a custom data block.
Original Budget
The Original Budget (OB) is a snapshot of the project plan in its original state, prior to execution. It is a baseline used for comparison as the project progresses. You cannot edit your Original Budget values; they are read-only in the CBS register, available for reference only.
Once set, the Original Budget never changes.
In the CBS register, you can find the OB values for man-hours, quantities, and costs.
Current Budget
The Current Budget (CB) is the project’s operational budget, including only project changes approved through a controlled process. The Current Budget is therefore the sum of your Original Budget, plus or minus any approved changes.
See the Change Management section for more details on managing and approving budget changes.
In the CBS register, you can find CB values for planned, earned and forecasted costs, hours and productivity.
Current Estimate
The Current Estimate (CE) represents the most up to date estimate of your work. You can update your Current Estimate quantities, hours, and costs at any time in the CBS register, with no required approval process or work flow.
You can use the Current Estimate as a sand box to build out change orders and do what-if analysis to plan for potential changes, without worrying about affecting the Current or Original Budgets.
All editable cells in the Current Estimate CBS grid are single click.
Lock Budget and Price
When you first create your project, your cost breakdown structure is unlocked, meaning you can make changes to your current estimate, but there is no locked down budget for tracking purposes. Your Original Budget and Current Budget data blocks therefore contains no values.
Locking your budget creates an Original and Current Budget based on your Current Estimate values. Keep in mind that:
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Your Original Budget cannot change
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Your Current Budget can only change via approved change orders (see Lesson 7 – Change Management)
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During project execution, you can compare your actual costs and man-hours to your Original and Current Budgets to track you progress
In the CBS you can lock the budget by selecting Actions > Lock/unlock budget > Lock Budget or Lock project budget and price.
The Budget Lock Status columns then changes to a locked symbol.
In Pay Items, you can also lock your price and budget for pay items by selecting Actions > Lock/unlock price>Lock Price or Lock project budget and price.
The Price Lock Status columns then changes to locked.
Unlock Budget and Price
After you lock your budget, in rare instances, it might be necessary to unlock your Original and Current Budgets, though this is typically not recommended. For example, after initial import of your estimate into Control, you might need to make further adjustments to your cost breakdown structure to conform your estimate to the working plan for the project. Normally, unlocking your budget is the exception, not the rule.
In Pay Items, like locking the budget for cost items, you unlock the price from the Actions menu.
