Check what a project costs you

Begin with acknowledged fees

Use the original fee plus acknowledged changes for the commercial baseline. Keep proposals outside that total until the decision is recorded. An optimistic pipeline of additions should not disguise pressure on the current work.

Update actual work and the estimate to finish

Enter dated time records and the relevant internal cost rate. Then review the hours still required. A forecast based on last week’s remaining estimate can be misleading even when every time entry is accurate.

Read the forecast as a decision aid

Compare acknowledged fees with actual delivery cost, remaining cost estimates and other entered costs. These are your estimates, not an accounting profit statement. Check which costs are included before comparing projects.

• Review work that was repeated.
• Check dependencies that could create another round.
• Make remaining assumptions explicit.

Choose the next action

Possible actions include revisiting the delivery plan, clarifying a dependency, pricing a genuine addition or accepting a known cost to finish agreed work. Record the reason and the next review date outside the client snapshot when it is internal.