Record a Cost and Review a Variance

Your project has an approved baseline. When work begins, record what it actually costs and compare it with that plan. Your team decides whether a difference calls for a better recipe, a pricing change, or simply an explanation.

Use real entries on a real project. If you are practicing with sample amounts, use a clearly identified practice project; do not add invented costs to a live project’s records.

Before You Begin

• Confirm the project and the approved estimate revision with your project lead. If the tracking screen does not clearly identify the baseline, check it in Project Summary before drawing conclusions.
• Have an actual-cost amount, transaction date, and supporting evidence ready.
• Confirm who will review the cost and who can maintain the affected module or price list.

If no costs have been incurred yet, return to this exercise when evidence is available. A preliminary baseline can support early tracking, but this walkthrough uses the formally approved baseline from the previous step.

1. Record One Actual Cost

1. Open Operations → Cost Control.
2. Select your project from Portfolio and open Cost Groups.
3. Add a cost entry to the relevant group. Enter the amount and transaction date, then the supplier, invoice details, and explanation available to you.
4. Select the source item or commitment line when applicable.
5. Attach a supporting document, or provide both an invoice number and a supplier, so the entry has checkable evidence.
6. Save and review it in the project’s Costs register. Ask the responsible reviewer to approve or reject it.

Review and evidence are separate. An approved entry can still need backup. Check both statuses before relying on the amount. See Actual Costs.

2. Explain the Difference

Open Variance Report. Compare the group’s budget with its actual costs, checking the provisional and substantiated views. A cost recorded early in the job does not, by itself, prove that the whole job came in under budget.

1. Choose Explain on the relevant group, then add a finding.
2. Select the cause: price, quantity, scope, execution, or decision.
3. Identify the source item when available and write what happened, supported by the evidence.
4. Review any AI-drafted note before saving. A draft does not decide the cause for you.

Example: a group budgeted at $1,000 has substantiated costs of $1,100. If a supplier charged a higher rate for the same quantity and scope, explain the $100 difference as a price change. Check for quantity or scope changes before reaching that conclusion.

3. Assign the Learning Work

Return to the top-level Cost Control → Learning tab and find the open finding. Choose Send to Learning, select an assignee, priority, and due date, and create the linked work request.

Open that request and submit it through the normal workflow. Use its comments and attachments to preserve the explanation and the proposed action.

Creating the request does not edit the catalog or prices. The person responsible still needs to investigate and make the reviewed change.

4. Make the Change, Then Record the Outcome

Decide what the evidence supports:

Outcome	What to do before closing
Module updated	Edit the relevant recipe, review the change, and verify the module again.
Assumption documented	Record the assumption or correction where the next estimator can find it.
Pricing practice changed	Make the reviewed pricing change, preserving earlier price lists and estimates.
Accepted variance	Explain why the difference is legitimate and no change is needed.

When the linked learning request is ready to complete, choose Completed in its workflow panel. Record the resolution outcome and note; for a module update, confirm the affected module. Then check the finding in the Resolved view of the Learning tab.

A resolution records the outcome; it does not make the underlying recipe or pricing edit for you. Ordinary estimate saves preserve existing prices and recipes. Use a later revision and explicit recalculation if approved work needs to change.

Check What the Next Project Will Use

Confirm that your team can find the finding, evidence, linked request, and reviewed improvement. If the module was affected, its Learning tab shows the related learning record.

Every project teaches the next one. Your team decides what to carry forward.

➡️ Reuse Your Work on a Second Project