Special Function: Understanding Estimated and Actual Cost Data

To use its budget wisely, an agency must have effective methods for estimating expenditures and evaluating actual costs. The Cost fields on a Planning Task record enable agencies to: 1) predict the amount of money it will spend each month to complete a particular task; and 2) gather data on the actual costs associated the work it performed.

There are four groups of fields in the Cost section of a Planned Task record:

• The Cost Estimate [(Month) $ Est] fields (highlighted in yellow) show the system-calculated cost estimate for the work the department expects to perform each month.
• The Actual Cost [(Month) $ Act] fields (in green) display the system-calculated cost of the work the department actually performed each month.
• The Resource summary fields (Labor $, Equipment $, Contractor $, Material $, Fluid $, and Misc $—in orange) show the year-to-date, actual cost of completing the task, broken down by the type of resource.
• The Summary fields (Total $ Est, Total $ Act, Remaining, % Used and % Over/Under—in red) allow users to compare cost estimates to actual spending.

Be aware that many of the calculations in this section of the form are dependent on items in the Setup fields and Resources grids. So, you must first enter Setup information and add Resources to the Planned Task before Lucity can display accurate cost data in the Cost section of the form.

More information about Task Cost fields and formulas 

Cost Estimates

Lucity generates monthly cost estimates for a Planned Task using the Unit Costs of the Resource records (Employees, Contractors, Equipment, Materials, Fluids) users add in the Planned Task's child grids. The sum of those Unit Costs is multiplied by the quantity of work the department plans to complete in a given month [(Month) Est Amt, found in the Quantity section of the form]. That product is then divided by the Daily Quantity (found in the Setup section of the form); that is, the number of Task Units the Department says a crew can complete in a day.

[(Month) Est Amt x Unit Cost sum] / Daily Quantity = (Month) $ Est

Actual Costs

Lucity produces Actual Cost figures for a Planned Task using data from completed Work Orders that Lucity determines match the Planned Task. (Learn more about the matching criteria.) Each night, Lucity checks for completed Work Orders that match Planned Tasks in the system. When it finds one, that Work Order appears in the Planned Task's Work Orders grid, and its quantity, labor-day and cost data is rolled into Planned Task calculations.

If the work on a task began in one month and ended in another, actual costs are reported on the Planned Task record in the month in which the task ended.

More information about Work Order Costs

Data Accuracy

Lucity looks for matching Work Orders and updates cost data automatically each night through its Nightly Tasks function. However, users can run toolkits on demand in each of the three Planning and Budgeting modules to ensure they are looking at comprehensive, accurate cost reporting for the task, department and fiscal year.