Lock The Budget
Use Case
With the project budget established, the project controls manager locks the budget which creates a locked original budget to be used as a baseline to compare to as the project progresses and establishes current budget values which may be updated throughout the project via approved changes.
When you first set up your budget in InEight Control, your quantities, costs, and hours are all considered Current Estimate values. You want to lock your budget so that only approved changes will affect your Current Budget.
The InEight solution uses two budgets and a current estimate. Each of these has a unique purpose at outlined below. Your project controls team should be familiar with this terminology so they can analyze and update the budget effectively.
-
Original Budget (OB) – Once the estimate is conformed and approved, it is uploaded to InEight Control and the budget is locked. This is the baseline project budget that cannot be edited once it is locked (unless the budget is unlocked which will set original budget values back to zero and is not advised after a project has started). Original Budget contains values for original budget quantity, manhours and cost.
-
Current Budget (CB) – The Current Budget reflects approved changes made to the Original Budget (e.g., contract change orders, operational changes, zero-dollar budget moves). Changes to the Current Budget should be managed by the appropriate role (e.g., project controls manager, business manager, project engineer), by using the Budget move and contract adjustment process in InEight Control or via budget changes originating in InEight Change. All budget changes will be recorded on the Change Register in InEight Control. Current Budget contains values for current budget quantity, manhours and cost.
-
Current Estimate (CE) – The Current Estimate quantity is labeled in InEight as the Forecast T/O (take/off) Qty. This is the most up-to-date representation of the expected quantity required to complete each cost item and should be continuously updated to drive forecasted cost at completion.
Ideas on Site
It’s important to consider how your company uses Current Estimate unit rates, man-hours, and cost. For example, your company may have as standard operating procedure to always have Current Estimate unit rates match Current Budget unit rates unless a significant estimate bust is discovered, in which case the project manager must approve tracking against a more accurate Current Estimate rate.
The following steps walk through how to lock the budget to establish the Original and Current Budgets.
Step 1
Make last minute tweaks if necessary.
Step 2
Select the import option from the Integrations tab in InEight Estimate.
Your Original Budget stays locked and never changes.
Your Current Budget only changes when changes are approved.
Once locked, you would use the following workflow for updating the budget:
