Cost Control
You can decide whether to tick Consolidate account forecasts when you import, and you know what it changes in Forecast, Free and Variance.
The **Matching** step of **Accounting Data Import** (see [import accounting data](/kb/article/import-accounting-data)) has the checkbox **Consolidate account forecasts**, unticked by default. If you tick it, KOSMA sets the **Forecast** of each account that receives cost items from the import to what is booked in it.
To import, you need a licence that covers Cost Control. As a guest, you also need a set that is shared with you for editing. See [what your licence includes](/kb/article/what-your-licence-includes).
Tick the checkbox when the accounts of this import will receive no more costs: in the last import of a production, or when you close a period and every account of the import has had its last invoice. One tick then consolidates them all. If more costs are still to come, for example during the shoot, leave the checkbox unticked. You can consolidate an account later, when it is finished: in the cost control grid, click the account's row, then in the **Recalculation** tab click  **Consolidate**. See [consolidate an account](/kb/article/consolidate-an-account).
KOSMA does not save the consolidation with the project. When you open the project again, every account shows its **Forecast** without consolidation.
Ticking the checkbox has the same effect as clicking  **Consolidate** on each of these accounts, see [consolidate an account](/kb/article/consolidate-an-account). If an account's cost items, including those of this import, already reach its own forecast, the checkbox changes nothing on it.
An example: an account has its own forecast of 100 and no cost items yet. The import adds one paid cost item of 60.
| | Forecast | Paid | Free | | ----------------- | -------- | ---- | ---- | | Checkbox unticked | 100 | 60 | 40 | | Checkbox ticked | 60 | 60 | 0 |
On a consolidated account, **Variance** (Budget minus Forecast) rises by the amount that **Forecast** drops, in the example by 40. If more costs are still to come, **Variance** no longer shows that the account may cost more than its budget.
The account's own forecast, the value you entered (100 in the example), stays as it is. Consolidation only changes what KOSMA shows under **Forecast**. To end it for one account, click  **Consolidate** on that account again.
In the **Options** step, which comes before Matching, you can tick **Back up this set first**. KOSMA then saves a copy of the open set with all its cost items and the status **Snapshot**. The option is unticked by default. The import and the consolidation work as without the backup: on the open set, not on the copy.
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