Revenue Forecasting

Hugh,

I understand in using P6 Resource Loaded that I can get the ff:

1. Budgeted Cost = Forecast Revenue. (Prior to begin Updating of the Project)
2. While the Project Progressing, I can get the Earned Value Cost = Actual Revenue (To be Paid by Client)
3. While the Project Progressing, I can get the Planned Value Cost = Planned Revenue (My Updated Periodic Target)
4. If I have the Data of actual expenses, I can input it in the Actual Cost = Actual Expenses.

From the above 4 Data, you can monitor the Projects status.

I suggests to create a Resources using the BOQ with corresponding CLIN. Assign these resources to related Activities.

In our Projects, we are implementing it and it's working well.

Regards,

Ok, thanks Raymund,
I think I understand now:

I have made two copies of the same programme. One is loaded with Revenue values, the other with Cost values.
The Revenue programme is set as the baseline of the Cost programme, and then the Cost programme can be updated as the project progresses.

Using the EV fields, I can get the following Revenue data:
Planned Value Cost = Baseline Revenue Forecast
Earned Value Cost = What we should have claimed to date
Estimate to Complete = Forecast Revenue

Using the Cost fields, I can get the following Costs data:
Budgeted Cost = what we should have spent
Actual Cost = what we have actually spent
Remaining Cost = Forecast Costs

I'd be interested to hear if other people use this method succesfully.

Cheers, Hugh.

 

Using this method you will not be able to apply EV for project performance analysis.

Besides, it looks like you attempt to enter contract and internal costs of project objects but payments and costs are not the same.

Your payment schedule may include advanced payment and then monthly payments calculated certain way. Earned contract cost is not the same as payment amount.

Managing projects it is useful to know flows of earned internal and contract costs, actual cost and payments.

At times you want to see cash flow per region, at times profitability per region at other times as a global and at other times profitability per project manager jobs same as earned value. It would be interesting to know how you perform this basic cash flow reporting.

But you can have all cost components in the database with their respective time distributions on a single file. Keeping the data on separate files does not seems like a good idea to me, not to mention to analyze a whole portfolio.

In Spider Project we use cost centers to group and report time distributed totals for each cost center. For example Project Cash flow, among others will include Income when received and expenses when paid, you can create separate cost centers to follow Income and Expenses as a separate time distributed data.

The following table is from a sample job provided by Spider that can give you an idea on how multiple cost centers are used for this purpose. Note some cost components are present in several cost centers.

Following on the methodology Spider performs with Cost Centers you might be able to export the cost accounts time distributions and combine them into Cost Centers using a worksheet software to get the desired combined distributions.

Of course more advanced things related to the lack of cash flow such as modeling financial constraints might be impossible in your software but basic cash flow shall be as easy as 123. It is very hard for me to believe there is not an easier way in P6 but I am not a P6 user.

Hope this helps.