SECTIONSProject Forecasts
Project forecasts display the actual, forecasted, and backlog revenue and cost for your projects in a table, broken down by time period and the relevant business record. For example, your project forecast might look like the Project Forecast Example table.
Acme Company - Managed Services-Project Part 1In the example, the columns represent the year and the month that a value is for, followed by an additional level that determines whether the value is revenue or cost.
The first row provides the total values for the project, followed by an additional level that determines whether the values are actuals, forecasts, or backlog. Each lower level provides additional information about the business record that the value originates from. You can click the name of a business record to view its details.
The backlog represents work that is targeted but not yet planned or scheduled. It consists of the project's remaining targeted revenue and remaining budgeted cost. These are the amounts that remain after you subtract the revenue and cost you have already forecasted from the project's targets. Note that backlog values only appear if your org is configured to calculate remaining targets. For more information, contact your administrator.
The backlog also contains information about any expense budgets linked to the project. Note that this happens regardless of whether the remaining targets are calculated.
When the forecast is first created, columns and rows are automatically sorted in ascending order, with the exception of the Revenue/Cost column. However, as the forecast is updated with new data, new rows are added at the bottom of the table, and new columns are inserted in alphabetical order relative to the existing columns. This might result in an unexpected row order. If this happens, you can reorder the rows manually. You can also reorder columns manually if you want a different order than alphabetical. For more information, see Changing the Position of a Column in a Forecast and Changing the Position of a Row in a Forecast.
By default, the values are displayed in the project's currency. If you want to view the values in the corporate currency, you can switch between the currencies. For more information, see Switching Between Project and Corporate Currencies in a Forecast.
In some cases, you might want to temporarily reflect an expected change to a value that hasn't yet been recorded in your business records. You can do this by making an adjustment. For more information, see Forecast Adjustments.
As you collaborate with others on your forecasts, you can start comment threads on specific cells. This can be useful to ensure that everyone has visibility into why a value was adjusted or to highlight any risks. For more information, see Cell Comments in Forecasts.
Project forecasts are periodically updated with the latest operational data using a scheduled background process. The frequency of the process executions depends on how your org is configured. In some cases, you might not want to wait until the next scheduled execution. If that happens, you can manually update the data. For more information, see Generating Forecast Data for a Project and Updating a Project Forecast with the Latest Data.
Each update or adjustment made to a cell's value is recorded in the cell's history. You can view the history entries to gain insight into who made an adjustment, when they made it, and the reason for making it. You can also see when the data was updated. The forecast-level history enables you to view a summary of multiple changes grouped together. For more information, see Forecast and Cell History.
Using the PSA Project Forecast dashboard, you can view forecasted versus budgeted revenue, cost, and margin at project level or by individual project item, such as a milestone, expense, or miscellaneous adjustment. You can also view a breakdown of forecasted revenue, cost, or margin by individual project item for the current quarter, next quarter, and future project periods. For more information, see PSA Project Forecast Dashboard.
KPI Summary Cards
Project forecasts display five KPI summary cards. For example, your KPI summary cards might look like the KPI Summary Cards Example table. The KPI summary cards are recalculated every time you open your forecast template as well as whenever a cell value is edited.
Each summary card represents a different measure of your project forecast's financial performance as follows:
- Forecast Revenue (ETC) and Forecast Cost (ETC) show the estimated revenue and costs till to come, based on forecast values only, excluding anything already recorded as actuals.
- Expected Total Revenue (EAC) and Expected Total Cost (EAC) show the full picture by combining both actuals and forecast values across all time periods.
- Expected Total Margin (%) represents the difference between your expected total revenue and expected total costs, expressed as a percentage of total revenue. A positive margin indicates that revenue exceeds costs, while a negative margin indicates that costs exceed revenue.
The KPI summary cards only use your actuals and forecast values. They don't include the backlog. The expected totals can therefore differ from the project total row, which does include the backlog.
Using values from the Project Forecast Example table, the KPI summary cards are calculated as follow:
- Forecast Revenue (ETC) is calculated by adding together all forecast revenue values: USD 7,850.00 + USD 6,850.00 = USD 14,700.00.
- Expected Total Revenue (EAC) combines actuals revenue (USD 4,755.00 + USD 3,755.00 = USD 8,510.00) with forecast revenue (USD 14,700.00): USD 8,510.00 + USD 14,700.00 = USD 23,210.00.
- Forecast Cost (ETC) is calculated by adding together all forecast cost values: USD 2,788.89 + USD 1,788.89 = USD 4,577.78.
- Expected Total Cost (EAC) combines actuals costs (USD 26,007.23 + USD 25,007.23 = USD 51,014.46) with forecast costs (USD 4,577.78): USD 51,014.46 + USD 4,577.78 = USD 55,592.24.
- Expected Total Margin (%) is calculated by subtracting total expected cost from total expected revenue, dividing that profit by the total expected revenue, and multiplying by 100: ((USD 23,210.00 − USD 55,592.24) / USD 23,210.00) × 100 = −139.52%.