Actual Costs
Actual costs are the records that capture what a project is truly spending during execution.
What an Actual Cost Record Includes
Section titled “What an Actual Cost Record Includes”- Amount
- Transaction date
- Supplier reference
- Invoice number
- Invoice date
- Notes
- Review status
- Substantiation status
- Source linkage — to a module, material, labor item, expense, or commitment line
Two Independent Status Axes
Section titled “Two Independent Status Axes”Every actual cost entry carries two separate statuses that are deliberately kept independent:
| Axis | Statuses | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Review | Pending → Approved / Rejected |
A person’s decision about whether the entry stands |
| Evidence | NeedsBackup / Substantiated |
What the entry is backed by — computed from the entry itself |
An entry can be Approved yet still NeedsBackup; the two are never conflated into a single status chip. Review is a human choice (Pending, Approved, Rejected), while evidence is derived from the entry (NeedsBackup or Substantiated).
What Counts as Substantiated Evidence
Section titled “What Counts as Substantiated Evidence”An entry is substantiated only when it is backed by something that can actually be checked later:
- a document attached as evidence; or
- both an invoice number and a supplier.
A supplier on its own, or an invoice number on its own, is not enough — each half alone names nothing that can be verified. No hard block is placed on unsubstantiated entries; they simply stay labeled NeedsBackup.
Display vs. Lifecycle Counting
Section titled “Display vs. Lifecycle Counting”Because the two axes are independent, Darwin counts entries differently depending on purpose:
- Display and variance totals — every non-deleted entry counts, and the provisional/substantiated split is shown so you can see both.
- Commitment consumption and cancellation guards — only substantiated entries count. An unreviewed or unsubstantiated figure can never consume a commitment line, close a subcontract, or prevent a commitment’s cancellation.
This matters because the rollup does not just render a number — it drives commitment status changes.
Commitment Linkage
Section titled “Commitment Linkage”Actual costs can be linked to specific commitment lines. When a substantiated cost detail is approved against a linked commitment line, the commitment’s rollups are refreshed — updating its actual amount, remaining amount, and its PartiallyConsumed / Consumed status.
Cost Activity Feed
Section titled “Cost Activity Feed”The Recorded Activity page (My Organization menu) merges commitments and actuals into a single paginated chronological feed, filterable by project, type, status, and baseline. It is a financial log of what has been recorded — distinct from the platform-wide Organization Activity feed described in Approvals & Activity History.
AI-Assisted Cost Attribution
Section titled “AI-Assisted Cost Attribution”Linking an actual cost entry to the right commitment line can be assisted rather than fully manual. Darwin scores every eligible commitment line against the cost detail on a fixed rubric — purchase-order number match, supplier match, amount within tolerance, date within window, and description keyword overlap. Candidates below a minimum score are dropped; near-ties are surfaced together rather than auto-picked.
When that deterministic scoring is weak (no candidates, a tie, or low-confidence document text), an optional AI layer can engage to extract evidence from the invoice PDF and re-rank the candidate set. AI proposes, a person decides: no AI component ever writes an attribution directly — a person always accepts or dismisses a suggestion.
Learning Integration
Section titled “Learning Integration”Substantiation feeds the Module Learning Accuracy computation: only substantiated actual costs are used when comparing an estimated contribution against the actual cost. Unsubstantiated entries make a data point ineligible for accuracy plotting — so unsupported entries quietly degrade the quality of the organizational learning signal.
Best Practices
Section titled “Best Practices”- Capture actuals with as much source context as possible
- Attach a document, or both an invoice number and a supplier, so an entry is substantiated
- Link actuals to the relevant commitment lines when available
- Review pending items before treating them as accepted actuals
- Keep the commitment bridge visible: procurement variance (commitment vs. baseline) is separate from execution variance (actual vs. commitment)