System Generated Report Estimates

A number of Unanet reports include values such as % Complete, Estimate to Complete, Estimated Totals, and Over/Under Budget amounts.  Many of these values can be optionally entered either at the project level on the Project Profile Budget tab, or at the task level on the Task Edit > Budget tab.  Depending on which values have been supplied, the reports may or may not need to generate an estimated amount for each value.

This page attempts to provide some insight into how the estimated values are calculated, that is, given the presences of particular combinations of data entry, how will the remaining fields be populated.  

Topics covered on this help page include:

• Estimation Rules

• Example Values

• Put Another Way

• Project vs Task Discrepancies

Estimation Rules

In the table below, the "v" indicates a value is supplied for that particular field, a "-" (hyphen) indicates no value was supplied.

Note: The information below applies to the calculation rules as they apply to estimating amounts relating to "hours".  

Several Labor Dollar and Expense Dollar calculations are based on the % Complete value, which if not provided is derived based on "hours" information.

Case# 8: Provided %Comp has no affect on the estimated total when there are no actuals present. The estimated total in this case will always be the Budget.

Case# 4: If %Comp is provided and %0.00, the result of the calculation should change to prevent DIV/0 error. The ETC should become Budget and the Est. Total should become Budget + Actual.

• Assumption #1: No Actuals is equivalent to 0 actuals

• Assumption #2: If no actuals are available, percent complete cannot be calculated and will therefore default to 0 when not supplied.

• Assumption #3: No budget is equivalent to a 0 budget

• Assumption #4: A manually supplied value for Est. Total overrides a manually supplied value for ETC.

• Assumption #5: When an Actuals value exceeds a manually supplied value for Est. Total, the Actuals value overrides the manually supplied value for Est. Total

• Earned Value

• • If the report was generated from the project data, earned value is calculated as %Complete * Budget

  • If the report was generated from the task data, earned value is the sum of calculated earned values for each of the project's tasks.

• Variance - Variance is calculated as Earned Value - Actual.

Examples (corresponding to formulas above)

The table below provides actual examples corresponding to the Rules stated in the table above.

Put another way...

The following states rules for estimating project performance numbers.  Project Status, Project Earned Value, Revenue Recognition reports and Project Alerts and Performance Tracking all use this logic.

% Complete calculations

If %Complete was provided, use it:

   Final %Complete = user-specified %Complete (as provided)

If %Complete was NOT provided and should be estimated from Hours:

   Calculate Hours Est. Total using Est. Total calculations (see below)

   Final %Complete = Hours Actuals / Hours Est. Total

If %Complete was NOT provided and should be estimated from Labor Cost:

   Calculate Labor Cost Est. Total using Est. Total calculations (see below)

   Final %Complete = Labor Cost Actuals / Labor Cost Est. Total

If %Complete was NOT provided and should be estimated from Total Cost:

   Calculate Total Cost Est. Total using Est. Total calculations -- Labor & Expense values determined independently then combined (see below)  

   Final %Complete = (Labor + Expense Cost Actuals) / (Labor + Expense Total Cost Est. Total)

Note that when the Project Budget tab >> Estimate from value is set to Total Cost, the estimated total used in the calculation is calculated by first determining the "estimated total" of the Labor Cost and then the Expense Cost separately.  You might expect different results if you assume they are first combined.

For example, if you were to set up a $1,000 labor cost budget but no expense cost budget, and then enter only $500 of expense cost actuals you might expect the system to declare the project 50% complete ($500/$1000).  However, we would instead calculate the Estimated Completed Percent as 33%.   Because we calculate the piece parts separately we would adjust the total budget to $1500 (the $1000 for labor cost plus the missing expense cost budget would be defaulted to $500 -- as the budget is determined to be equal to the actuals when no budget is provided).  Given that, the Estimated Completed Percent would be calculated as Actuals of $500 / Estimated total of $1,500 = 33%.

Est. Total calculations

If you have NO Actuals:

   Default Actuals to 0

If you have NO Budget:

   Default Budget to 0

When Est. Total is provided:

   If Est. Total was provided and it is greater than Actuals, use it:

      Est. Total = user-specified Est. Total (as provided)

      ETC = Est. Total - Actuals

   If Est. Total was provided but it is less than Actuals, use Actuals instead:

      Est. Total = Actuals

      ETC = Est. Total - Actuals (becomes 0)

When Est. Total is NOT provided:

   If ETC was provided, then use it to calculate Est. Total:

      Est. Total = Actuals + ETC

      ETC = user-specified ETC (as provided)

Est. Total and ETC were NOT provided but you have Actuals and %Complete:

   If %Complete is 0:

      Est. Total = Actuals + Budget

      ETC = Est. Total - Actuals

   If %Complete is not 0:

      Est. Total = Actuals / %Complete

      ETC = Est. Total - Actuals

Est. Total and ETC were NOT provided and have NO Actuals and/or NO %Complete:

   If Actuals are greater than Budget:

      Est. Total = Actuals

      ETC = Est. Total - Actuals

   If Actuals are less than Budget:

      Est. Total = Budget

      ETC = Est. Total - Actuals

Project vs Task Discrepancies

Note that when calculating metrics from project values vs. task level values, you may get different results for seemingly similar data.

As an example, on the Project Status Report, when we “use the task budgets for project metrics”, we collect actuals, estimate % complete, and then derive Estimated Total for each task.  We then add up the results of each task’s calculations to come up with the project’s totals.  Likewise, when we “use the project budgets for project metrics”, we collect all actuals reported for the project and compare all of the actuals to the project’s budget to derive the % complete, and from that, the Estimated Total. 

To illustrate how this may yield different results, consider the following example:

1. Task 1 – 50% completed, with budget of $100, and actuals of $50, would have an estimated total of $100. 
2. Task 2 – 100% completed, with budget of $50, and actuals of $100, would have an estimated total of $100 (as the estimated total cannot be less the already incurred actuals).
3. The sum of estimated totals for the 2 tasks is $200.
4. Project with total budget of $150 and total actuals of $150.  % complete for this project will be calculated as all actuals over project’s budget: 150 / 150 = 100%.  In this case, the Estimated Total for the project is still $150.

The sum of the parts does not always equal the whole.