Cost Control
You can read every column in the cost control grid and say where each number came from.
Every account row carries the same six figures, and the module is readable the moment you know which are given, which are counted and which is yours.
| Column | What it is | Where it comes from | | ------------ | -------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------- | | **Budget** | the approved baseline budget | the locked budget | | **Expected** | anticipated cost not yet paid — invoice, quote, estimate | counted from cost items | | **Paid** | the amount already paid | counted from cost items | | **Forecast** | the estimated final cost | **you** | | **Free** | forecast not yet booked as cost items | Forecast − Expected − Paid | | **Variance** | budget minus forecast (negative = over budget) | Budget − Forecast |
**Forecast is the only authored number in the grid.** Budget comes from the locked budget; Expected and Paid are counted from the account's cost items; Free and Variance are differences between the others.
That is the shape of the whole module, and it is why [how a forecast is formed](/kb/article/how-a-forecast-is-formed) is the article that matters most.
A cost item counts towards **Expected** while it is unpaid, and towards **Paid** once it carries an actual paid amount. It moves; it is never in both at once, so the two columns never double-count.
That is what makes Expected + Paid a meaningful figure — everything booked against the account, whatever stage it is at — see [what a cost item is](/kb/article/what-a-cost-item-is).
Free is what the forecast still allows that nothing has been booked against. Early in a production a large Free is normal — most of the money is still to be spent.
Late in a production a large Free usually means the forecast has not been brought down to reality: nobody expects that money to be spent any more, but nobody has said so. That is what [consolidate an account](/kb/article/consolidate-an-account) is for.
Three of these columns go by a second name in support conversations — Forecast as *prediction*, Variance as *deviation*, Free as *remainder*. The screen is the authority: **Forecast, Variance, Free.**
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