Q360 provides many unique forecasting reports to aid our customers in making informed and predictive management decisions.  However, these reports do not operate in a vacuum – they are driven by aggregate data collected from various functional areas within your business.  Let’s examine several important forecasting reports and the key data and processes that drive them.

Project Hours Schedule Summary (Q0286)

• Objective:  Review hours / labor sold vs hours scheduled as entered on tasks.  This will include hours adjusted via ICO/CCO.  This report will help audit Projects to ensure they are completely scheduled
• Drivers/Setup:
  • Project Task Schedule – ensure Estimated Effort and Time Bill Category are populated
  • L type items on projects order including ICO/CCO
• What to look for?
  • Scheduled % < 80% or whatever your threshold is
  • Earned % >100.  This indicates Projects where actual hours exceed sold and where an ICO / CCO adjustment may be necessary

Project Material Schedule Summary (Q0288)

• Objective:  Review overall project material equipment status.  This report identifies equipment that has not been scheduled, or is overdue.  This helps with identifying projects that may need an adjustment to their project material schedule
• Drivers/Setup:
  • Project Material Grid > Request Date.  This is the date that equipment is projected to be used or required.  This drives the projected date of that equipment cost

• What to look for?
  • Check projects that have “Un-Scheduled” and “Overdue Material” and “Sched Subcontractor”
  • If there is Sold Subcontractor, it should be scheduled
  • Check for under 80% scheduled and NOT $0 Sold Material.  The % may be whatever threshold works best for your business
  • Un-Scheduled Materials: The cost of all Material Items without an assigned Request Date, Ship Release Date and PO ETA.  Looks for all three dates = NULL
  • Overdue Materials: The cost of all Material Items that have not been shipped and the Request Date, Ship Release Date and PO ETA are in the past.  Overdue Material compares the latest of these three values to today’s date

Project Revenue / Cost Forecast (Q0058)

• Objective:  Forecast overall project portfolio revenue and cost month over month into the future
• Driver/Setup:
  • Project Task Schedule – ensure Estimated Effort and Time Bill Category are populated
  • Project Material Request Date
  • Optionally, you may incorporate Sales Forecast into the report
  • Set PROJECTFORECASTMETHOD configuration “MATLABOR.”  System default is STRAIGHTLINE however, this setup will not display the revenue and cost based on project labor and material plan.  Thus, you must use MATLABOR for accuracy

Service Contract Revenue Forecast (Q0071)

• Objective:  To forecast Recurring Monthly Revenue. This report will help identify if your RMR is trending in the right direction.
• Driver/Setup:
  • Active Service Contract Start/End Date
  • Report will be based on Monthly revenue recognition. You could invoice the contract for full term of the contract. However, the report will display revenue per month

Service Contract Invoicing Projection 

• Objective: To forecast RMR invoicing and the expected cash flow monthly through RMR billing
• Driver/Setup:
  • Active Service Contract Start/End Date
  • Active Service Contract Billed Thru Date

Cash Flow Forecast Detail (Q0231)

• Objective:  To forecast future cash flow and better understand cash position of your organization
• Driver/Setup:
  • Due Date or Expected Payment Date on posted customer invoices
  • Due Date or Expected Payment Date on posted vendor invoices (vouchers)
  • Service Contract Invoicing Forecast
  • Project Invoice Task
  • GL Accounts flagged as “Fixed Cost”
  • Project Material Request Date for variable cost (everything except L Type items)

Project Labor Forecast (Q0215)

• Objective:  Forecast different categories of labor demand in Operations by month and project.  This will help plan your labor proactively and utilize labor resources more efficiently.
• Driver/Setup:
  • Task schedule and time bill category
  • If you do not see relevant data in this report, review the Project Hours Schedule Summary
  • Create tasks for the duration of projects with forecasted dates
  • Schedule should be regularly updated and maintained as project progresses
  • Optionally, Sales Forecast may be incorporated

Labor Capacity Forecast (Q0216)

• Objective:  Compare labor needs from project schedule against labor pool by category
• Drivers/Setup:
  • Task schedule and time bill categories
  • Employee labor type General Codes / labor resource categories
  • Employee labor types (in profiles)
  • Will account for “time off” schedule in employee record
  • Optionally, Sales Forecast may be incorporated

Sales Forecast

• Objective:  Compare labor needs from project schedule against labor pool by category
• Drivers/Setup:
  • Task schedule and time bill categories
  • Employee labor type General Codes / labor resource categories
  • Employee labor types (in profiles)
  • Will account for “time off” schedule in employee record

The majority of the above reports are driven by proactive management of the sales pipeline, project management, AR, AP, etc.  However, we need to consider revenue and expenses that are not set up as a schedule such as T&M and Box Sales, and expenses such as Payroll, Rent, Lease, and various other expenses that are “fixed.”  These types of revenue and expenses are incorporated into various forecast reports by looking at historical financials.  To accomplish this, we need to ensure that the GL Accounts are set up properly.

GL Account Setup

Review your Chart of Accounts and flag GL accounts in one of the following categories.  Do not set more than one of the following flags per GL Account:

• Fixed Cost:  Feeds the Cost Flow Forecast > Over Head column.  This is any monthly recurring cost that you wish to incorporate into forecasting reports.  These costs may be fixed or recurring, e.g. Payroll, vehicle related expense accounts (fuel, etc.), T&M equipment cost accounts, equipment warranty / repair cost accounts, equipment box sale cost accounts.  Note:  Exclude labor COGS accounts as those will be incorporated into your payroll accounts
• Project Revenue:  Set this flag on all project revenue accounts
• Recurring Revenue:  Set this flag on all accounts that record Recurring Monthly Revenue (RMR)
• Variable Revenue:  Set this flag on all variable revenue accounts.  These include revenue accounts related to T&M work, warranty work and box sales