Forecasting

Forecasting is a feature that must be enabled by tech support. For assistance, please contact your e-Builder account manager.

The Forecasting feature grants users permission to properly forecast anticipated costs, providing more accurate over/under for each of your projects. Approved budgets are the foundation of your forecasts. As time progresses on the project your forecast will take into consideration professional estimations by the project manager to reflect real life circumstances. The forecast will then be adjusted for each budget line item as appropriate, which will automatically affect the Estimate at Completion and Forecasted Over/Under (variance) calculations.

Why Forecast?

Forecasting is really the core of any business plan because you must identify your destination before you can figure out the best path. A forecast is not 100% accurate, but accurate enough to identify possible risks. The earlier you know about a possible risk the better off you are in eliminating it. Forecasting allows you to be as proactive as possible, to mitigate potential risks.

Often people refer to forecasting as a mysterious process; no one can predict the future. However, it is possible to make reasonable predictions or assumptions on how events will turn out based on the logical assessment of the facts presented to you. You will get better at it the more you do it and the more experience you gain on the field.

In the world of construction, forecasting is a key ingredient to meeting or beating your budgets. By instituting a disciplined forecasting process you can communicate the anticipated cost of the project (and program) with much greater certainty. That process involves putting together carefully reasoned assumptions based on professional estimates, logs (like potential change order log, RFI log, issue log, etc.) IT, furniture and equipment lists – to name a few – quantified in a systematic way to make your projections as accurate as humanly possible. Some of this information will be contained in various logs in your e-Builder reports, forms and documents.

Using the forecasting feature requires adjustments to your views and key reports, training on the how to', and most importantly, a potential change in the forecasting process. Once forecasting is enabled in the account, when accessing the forecasting menu in the administration tools it will clearly show it is enabled.

To guide you through working with forecasting in e-Builder, the following sections are included in this section:

• Access the Forecasting Page
• Working with Forecasts
• Create a Forecast
• Edit Forecasts
• Print Forecast Data
• Create Forecast Snapshots
• Attach Documents to Forecasts
• Attach Forms to Forecasts
• Attach Processes to Forecasts