This article covers:
- Accessing the Costs entity;
- Standard Configuration;
- Calculations;
- Committed Costs:
- Running Totals;
- Currency;
- Cost Reporting.
The Costs entity allows users to capture expected costs and actual costs applicable to their project.
Watch this video that covers Cost Management in PPO:
Please note that on 25 September 2026, Committed Costs were included in the Capability Activator and are by default switched off for new instances provisioned after this date. This article includes Committed Costs for instances that have it included or for clients who want to activate the committed costs in the Capability Activator. Committed Costs, are used by some organisations to allow project managers to report on costs that have been committed but not yet spent. This impacts on the estimate to complete / forecasting and variances.
Accessing the Costs entity
The Costs entity can be accessed when you hover over the Projects Menu or from the Project View page. If you do not see the Costs entity, make sure that your user group has been granted access.
For more information about setting up user group access rights, read the following knowledge base article.
Standard Configuration
The screenshot below shows the standard configuration of the Costs entity.
The entity allows users to classify costs in terms of a category, sub-category, year and month. Users can also add an additional description for the cost.
For each cost record a budget, actual / spent, committed and an estimated amount to complete (amount still required to finish the task / project) can be added. These four fields are then used to calculate the total at completion and variance.
Calculations
The costs entity in PPO calculates the below fields by default (the field names have also been provided in the explanation below as different clients may use different field captions. For more information on field names, access the following knowledge base article.
Total at Completion:
Total at Completion is calculated as Actual / Spend + Committed + Estimate to Complete. This will show the user what their expected actual cost will be at the completion of the project, based on the amount already spent (Actual / Spent), committed to spending (Committed) and the amount expected to still be spent (Estimate to Complete).
The calculation for this field is thus: Total at Completion = Actual / Spent + Committed + Estimate to Complete as shown below.
Variance:
This field shows the difference between the Total at Completion and the Budget. This will show the user whether their expected cost at completion is in line with their budget.
The calculation for this field is thus: Variance = Budget - Total at Completion.
Committed Costs
Committed Cost is controlled by the Capability Activator post September 2026 and allows organisations to determine whether to allow project managers to report on committed costs, which are costs that have been committed to, typically by means of a purchase order, but not yet spent. The capability is deactivated by default post September and is included in instances provisioned before September 2026. This video explains the committed costs, when activated and when not.
Running Totals
Running Totals allow you to view totals for the selected currency fields as displayed on the cost list. This helps you review amounts such as Budget, Actual / Spent, Committed and Estimate to Complete.
To display the totals, first ensure that the fields you would like to display the totals for are included in your list page settings. To do this, click on the Settings icon on the Cost List page.
On the settings cost page, check that fields such as budget, actual / spent, committed, estimated to complete and variance are included under the columns section. Refer to this article on how to set up page settings
Once the fields have been set, you can proceed to set up the running totals as follows:
Click on the settings icon on the Cost list page
Under the Columns section you will see a calculator icon on all fields where you are able to calculate the sum and display the totals in a row. By default this is not set to show the totals, in order to show the totals of that specific field, you have to click on the calculator icon. Once done, click on the submit button.
A Total row is displayed at the bottom of the cost list page, with each total beneath its corresponding column. Total use the same field type as the value in that field, including decimal places.
In a normal list view, the Total row remains visible at the bottom while you scroll through the records.
You are able to display subtotals when you apply a group by in the cost settings page eg. if you group by the year or sub-category. This will display a subtotal row for each group, together with the Overall Total at the bottom of the list.
This allows you to compare costs across various years while retaining the view of the overall amounts.
Important to remember:
- All records must fit one page. Total are displayed only when the list's records fit on a single page. If the list spans across multiple pages, increase the number of items displayed per page, where possible or narrow the list using filters.
- Percentage fields are averaged. Where a percentage field is selected, PPO displays the arithmetic average of the records rather than adding their percentages together.
Total while editing
When editing costs via inline edit, the totals update as you type, allowing you to see the effect of your changes. Submit your changes to save the updated values.
Currency
The currency used on PPO is by default US Dollars. However, the default can be changed by hovering over the Administration Menu and selecting System Configuration. The currency symbol setting is found under the "Other Settings" category and can be changed to any currency symbol. The currency symbol is then displayed on the cost pages as well as the cost reports and dashboards.
Cost Reporting
The cost reports available in PPO will assist the executives and project managers to track and monitor costs. They are:
- Finance Data Report - the report shows the summed costs per project, as well as a grand total for the entire portfolio of projects.
- Cost Detail Report – the report shows a data dump of all the data fields available on the costs entity. It is only available in a datasheet view.
For more information on the report explanations access the following knowledge base article.
To learn more about adding or updating Cost records using the Grid Widget, access this article.