Cost Control
You know what the forecast is for, why it starts at the budget, and the three ways it moves.
**Forecast is what you now believe an account will finally cost.** It is the only number in the grid you author, and keeping it realistic is the whole job of the module.
Budget says what was approved. Expected and Paid say what has been committed and settled. Neither answers the question a producer actually has, which is *what will this end up costing*.
An account with €40,000 budgeted, €12,000 paid and nothing else booked is not an account that will cost €12,000. Forecast is where you say what it will cost, and Variance — Budget minus Forecast — is what turns that into an early warning instead of a post-mortem.
**1. You type it.** The direct route: you know the department will land at €46,000, so you say so. The account immediately shows a negative Variance of €6,000 and the overspend is visible months before it happens.
**2. You consolidate it.** Sets Forecast to Expected + Paid, dropping Free to zero. This is the "nothing further is expected here" move, and it is right only when that is true — see [consolidate an account](/kb/article/consolidate-an-account).
**3. You recalculate it.** Adjusts the forecast through the account's own quantity, unit and price rather than a typed total — two more shooting days at the same daily rate. The reasoning stays visible in the account instead of disappearing into a number — see [recalculate an account](/kb/article/recalculate-an-account).
Free is Forecast minus what has been booked. It is the headroom the forecast still allows.
The two move together, and reading them as a pair is the skill:
| Reading | What it usually means | | ------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------- | | Large Free, early in production | normal — most of the money is still ahead | | Large Free, late in production | the forecast has not been brought down; consolidate | | Free at zero, more cost still coming | the forecast is too low; raise it before the invoice lands | | Negative Free | more is booked than forecast — the forecast is already out |
Nothing computes it for you, and nothing should. It is the number that carries what you know and the booked figures do not: that a supplier has agreed to hold their price, that a location fell through, that the schedule gained two days.
An unmaintained forecast makes the whole set decorative — Budget and Paid without a forecast tell you where you have been, never where you are going.
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