Cost forecasts that account for what is committed as well as what is invoiced, and programmes that reflect the critical path.
Send the file, not a brief. No call required.
Construction projects rarely go over budget suddenly. They go over slowly, invisibly, because the reporting tracks invoices while the money was committed weeks earlier by a signed order. The single most valuable change we make on these projects is separating committed from invoiced, so the overrun appears while there is still scope to trade.
The four engagements that come up most often
The columns that carry the argument
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Package | Budget | Committed | Invoiced | Forecast | Variance |
| 2 | Groundworks | 180,000 | 180,000 | 180,000 | 180,000 | 0 |
| 3 | Frame | 420,000 | 468,000 | 302,000 | 468,000 | -48,000 |
| 4 | M&E | 310,000 | 288,000 | 141,000 | 305,000 | +5,000 |
| 5 | Contingency | 90,000 | 0 | 0 | 42,000 | +48,000 |
Why each one is written the way it is
=MAX([@Committed], [@Invoiced], [@Budget]*[@[% complete]])
Forecast at completion taking the highest of committed, spent and earned value. Without the committed term, a forecast quietly reverts to budget when it should not.
=SUMIFS(Orders[Value],Orders[Package],[@Package],Orders[Status],"<>Cancelled")
Committed value from signed orders. A package tracked on invoices alone reports comfort right up to the month the bills arrive.
=WORKDAY([@Start],[@Days]-1,Holidays)
Programme dates in working days. Calendar-day programmes are systematically optimistic by roughly 40%, which is where most published dates come from.
=NETWORKDAYS([@End], ProjectEnd, Holidays)
Float per activity. Zero float is the critical path — and the only slippage worth escalating on a Friday afternoon.
A worked case from this sector
A fit-out contract reported on budget for four months because invoices lagged the work. Adding committed spend showed the frame package already at 111% of its line — a variation had been signed and not yet billed. Contingency absorbed most of it, but the finding moved the conversation with the client from month nine to month five, when scope could still be traded rather than argued about.
Free, and adaptable to your own data
Specific to this work, not generic
Committed is money you are contractually obliged to spend — a signed order or variation. Invoiced is money you have been billed for. A project tracked only on invoices discovers its overruns when they are already irreversible.
Yes. Retention held and released, payment terms per subcontractor and the resulting cash profile are a standard part of the cost model — and usually the part that turns a profitable project into a cash problem.
No. For programme and cost control on a single project a spreadsheet is often faster to adapt; across a portfolio with document control and RFIs, it is not, and we will tell you when you have crossed that line.