The warning arrives with the report
Cost figures are compiled once a month, so a line that crossed its budget in week two is found in week five. By then the work is built and the only decision left is who explains it.
Cost tracking
Construction cost overrun alerts
The month-end report tells you a line went over budget after the money is spent. Fidrel’s financial alerts are meant to say it sooner: they compare each budget line’s forecast, commitments and invoiced cost with its budget whenever the cost page opens. This page covers what triggers each alert, which thresholds you set and what to do when one fires.
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Why overruns are found late
Every line gets the same attention
A project has dozens of budget lines and little time. Without a rule for what deserves a look, people read the totals, which can sit comfortably under budget while one line is far over.
An invoice nobody coded
An invoice that has been verified but not charged to a budget line hides its cost. The line looks healthy until somebody finds the invoice, and the forecast is wrong in the meantime.
The six alerts and what triggers each
Forecast exceeds budget fires for a budget line whose forecast is above its current budget. High budget consumption fires when the invoiced cost of a line reaches the consumption threshold as a share of its budget. Commitments exceed budget fires when a line’s commitments are above its budget. Forecast has increased compares the totals of the two latest forecast estimates and fires when the newest is higher by more than the threshold, so it needs two forecast estimates. Costs are ahead of production compares the share of budget invoiced with the progress of the schedule tasks linked to the line, and it exists only for lines that have such a link. Invoice is not fully allocated fires once if any verified invoice has an amount not yet charged to budget lines.
Cost tracking
The three thresholds
A new project starts with 90 percent for budget consumption, 10 percent for a rise in the forecast and 20 percentage points for costs ahead of production. These are starting values; change them to fit the project. The consumption and forecast thresholds accept whole numbers from 1 to 1,000, and the production gap from 1 to 100. Three alerts have no threshold because they are plain comparisons: forecast above budget, commitments above budget and an invoice not fully allocated.
From a threshold to the invoices behind an alert
Step 1
Open Financial alerts
On the cost page, open Project finances and then Financial alerts. The cost overview shows the same alerts as a card with a count and the names of the alerts that are active, and the card opens the same tab.
Step 2
Set the three thresholds
If you have budget permission, the form under the alerts holds High budget consumption (%), Forecast has increased (%) and Costs are ahead of production (%). Change a value and choose Save. The alerts are re-read against the new numbers.
Step 3
Open the line behind an alert
Each alert is a button. When it belongs to a budget line, choosing it opens that line on the cost overview, with the invoices charged to it listed by vendor and invoice number, and a history of budget changes, commitments and forecast changes.
Step 4
Decide and record it
Open an invoice to check how it is coded, or record a change of remaining forecast, a commitment or, where you may approve it, a budget change with a reference. The alert clears when the figures no longer meet its rule.
Narrowing a long list of lines
On the approved baseline estimate, the quick filter Over budget lists only the lines whose deviation is above zero, which is a useful second look when the alert list is long. The alerts and the filter answer different questions. An alert asks whether a line is heading over budget by one of the rules above, while the filter shows the lines that are over right now.
What the alerts do not do
Alerts are worked out when you open the page, so Fidrel sends no email, text message or push notification for them. The rules are fixed: you can change the three thresholds, but you cannot add a rule of your own or give one line a threshold different from the rest. An alert is a warning on the page and does not block an invoice, a commitment or a budget change. It also keeps no history of when it began to fire, because it is recalculated each time from the current figures.
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No. Financial alerts appear in Fidrel when the cost page is opened and are not sent by email or as a message. Make opening Financial alerts part of your weekly cost review.
No. The three thresholds apply to the whole project. Forecast exceeds budget and Commitments exceed budget have no threshold and apply to every line.
A new project starts with 90 for High budget consumption, 10 for Forecast has increased and 20 for Costs are ahead of production. You can change all three if you have budget permission.
That alert needs a budget line linked to schedule tasks so that progress can be compared with the invoiced share. A line with no link is never tested for it.
Choose the alert. It opens the budget line, which lists the invoices charged to it by vendor and invoice number. For an unallocated invoice, open the invoice list and use its unmapped filter.
People with budget permission on the project see the threshold form under Financial alerts. Everyone else with access to the page sees the alerts but not the form.