APMS Cost Control allows you to create cost reports as a mix between estimates and actuals. This makes cost reports more precise than ever. It also allows you to track spending effects, producer expenses and cashflow.

The logic behind cost control is that you compare the cost of your project against a defined budget. When you create a cost control set the structure of the selected budget is copied.

Hint: If you do not see the Cash Flow and Cost Control module, make sure you activate a PRO Credit by pressing "upgrade" from Project Manager.

In the navigation area on the left you see all cost control sets of the current project (1) and the categories of the currently selected Cost Control (2).

In the edit area you will recognize the accounts and cost items (3).

You can also search for items (4) or use the filter (5) or add a missing account (6).

When an account is selected, the macro area displays the information that was inserted in the linked budget (7).

In difference to the budget there are some new columns:

Budget (1) – the amount from the initital budget

Prevision (2) – the amount currently estimated either by the Global Estimate of the account or its cost items

Paid (3) – the sum of all cost items with actuals (instead of estimates)

Outstanding (4) – is the difference from paid (3) to prevision (4)

Difference (5) – is the difference from budget (1) to prevision (2)

(positive amounts mean you are within your budget, negative / red amounts mean you are over budget)

When you click an account (1), you see all the account's cost items (2).

A cost item can be an estimate (3) or an actual (4). Actuals are usually imported from accounting (including a payment date), while estimates are costs that are not certified yet. Logically, actuals always override estimates.

Example: If you get a quote for some equipment rental you enter that as an estimate. When the company sends the invoice and it was paid, you enter the final cost as an actual.

An account can contain any number of cost items.

You can add, delete and move items with the toolbar (5)

Global estimate (1) is a feature to quickly set a new estimated total for an account without entering any specific cost items.

When there are detailed cost items or estimates in the account, you can choose if these are included in the global estimate or if they should be counted on top of the global estimate by clicking the checkboxes (2)

Just like for account in Budgeting, you can add information to your cost items in the macro panels. You can edit the following panels:

- Producers: Add the producer who pays this cost item to keep track of a producers' expenses

- Tags

- Notes

- Cashflow: Add specific cashflow information if you have it. For actuals with a payment date this info will be overridden of course.

- Attachments: Add the invoice or contract if you like. If you do this consequently you have a complete and verifiable archive for this project.

- Taxes: Add taxes for your cost estimates. For actuals this panel is not available because taxes are imported as a cost.

- Effects: Add effects to your cost items to keep track of the spending effects

Open the Cost Control module (1) and click the small "+" (2) to create a new cost control set.

Hint: If you do not see the Cash Flow and Cost Control module, make sure you activate a PRO Credit by pressing "upgrade" in Project Manager.

Choose a name and select the budget on which the cost control set should be based on (3).

Click Ok (4) to create.

Before you can import any data from accounting into your cost control set, you need to define an accounting scheme.

Go to Settings (1), Accounting Schemes tab (2).

On the left you see your budget accounts along with the budget account numbers (3).

Create the first accounting scheme by clicking "+" (4)

You can choose a name (1) for your accounting scheme that you have to select when importing later.

If you have the same account numbers in accounting like in your budget, press the "arrow" to the right of the name (1) to copy the numbers. Otherwise type in the account number for each budget account (2).

Most likely you will have one accounting scheme per accounting department or coproducer. Add or delete accounting schemes by "+" and "-" (3).

Click Ok (4) when you are finished. You are now ready to import compatible files to cost control.

APMS imports .csv files. Most accounting software can export this kind of file. You can also export an Excel file and then save it as .csv in Excel. The easiest way to look at a .csv file is to open it in Excel.

When you export the data from your accounting software, make sure you include the column names in the first row. The order of the columns does not matter.

To import accounting data from file into a cost control set, open the cost control module (1) and select a cost control set (2). Now click "Import Data" (3).

A valid accounting scheme is required to import. If there is no accounting scheme defined yet you will see an alert. See "Creating and managing accounting schemes" for more information on accounting schemes.

After you have selected the desired .csv file to import, you need to help APMS understand the format specifications of your file.

(1) Select the character that separates each row in your file. This depends on how you exported the file from your accounting software. In most cases it will be a semicolon (;). You can check this if you open the import file in a text editor.

(2) Select the character that separates the decimal values. Either a comma (1,5) or a period (1.5).

(3) Select the character that groups the numbers. Either a quote (1'000), a comma (1,000).

(4) Choose the date format of your file. D=day, M=month, Y=year. (i.e. 20.01.2014 = DD.MM.YYYY)

Once you have selected the import options and clicked okay you then have to match the columns. On the left side you see the column headers from the file. Drag them around (1) so they match the APMS columns on the right side (2).

Check all fields you want to import (3). The fields with an (*) must be imported.

When all columns are matched, click "Import" (1).

Now choose an accounting scheme that translates the account numbers from the file to APMS budget account numbers. (1)

If you want, you can also choose a producer to attach on all imported items (2)

On the left side you see, account per account, all cost items that APMS could read from the file. (1)

At the same time, you see the specific APMS account on the right side (2). If you see a cost item that already exists in the account, you can match it by dragging it from (1) to (2) in order to avoid duplicates. So you are able to update your cost control by importing complete accounting statements on a regular basis.

Items that have been imported once are automatically matched in the next import.

To move between the accounts, click "Back" and "Next" (3)

When you are ready to import your data, click "Import Now" (1).

The cost items are imported from the file and matched. You'll see that the paid column now has updated values.

Note that all imported items are imported as actuals. You cannot import estimates.

Filters in Cost Control work just like filters in Budgeting. To use filters, first open the filter area by clicking "Filters".

You can filter the whole budget or cost report by any combination of

• positions with or without any attachments (1)
• positions with or without any assigned taxes (2)
• positions with or without any assigned fringes (3)
• positions with or without any cash flow metadata (4)
• positions with or without a specific producer (5)
• positions with or without specific tags (6)
• positions with or without specific effects (7)

To filter for a specific prodcer, click the "Producers" field…

…start typing the first letters of the producer and hit enter to confirm the auto-complete suggestion…

…to see all categories that contain matching positions (1) and all matching positions in the currently selected category (2).

If you now want to see all in-kind-suppy by that producer, add that tag filter.

You can invert all filters by clicking them directly.

The tag filter for "in kind supply" becomes a filter for all positions that are NOT assigned to the tag "in kind support":

To reset a filter, click the small arrow…

…to see the whole data again.

You can close the filter area by clicking "Filters" again. (1)