Cost Control
You can decide whether to tick Consolidate account predictions when you import, and you know what it changes in Forecast, Free and Variance.
In the **Matching** step of **Accounting Data Import** (see [import accounting data](/kb/article/import-accounting-data)), **Consolidate account predictions** sets the **Forecast** of each account that receives cost items from the import to what is booked in it. The checkbox is unticked by default. 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 in which every account of the import has had its last invoice. One tick then consolidates all of these accounts at once. 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).
Ticking the checkbox has the same effect as clicking  **Consolidate** on each of these accounts, see [consolidate an account](/kb/article/consolidate-an-account). Then **Forecast** is the sum of the account's paid and expected cost items, and **Free** shows 0. Without consolidation, **Forecast** is the higher of that sum and the account's own forecast. 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.
Consolidation does not change the account's own forecast. KOSMA does not save the consolidation with the project: when you open the project again, every account shows its **Forecast** without consolidation. To end it earlier for one account, click  **Consolidate** on that account again.
If **Copy Cost Control Dataset** is ticked in the **Options** step, KOSMA creates a new cost control set and imports into it. This option is ticked by default. The checkbox then consolidates the accounts of the new set. The new set holds no earlier cost items, only the lines of this import, so there a consolidated account's **Forecast** is the sum of this import's cost items. The set you had open stays as it was before the import, with all its cost items.
Markdown