Actual cost tells you what has happened. Cost to complete forces the project team to quantify what is still expected to happen before the job is finished.
Costs already recognised against the project.
Expected cost still required to finish each work package and cost category.
Actual cost plus the remaining cost required to complete the project.
Committed cost is useful, but it is not automatically the same as final cost. Packages can be incomplete, exclusions can sit outside a subcontract, labour can remain uncommitted and provisional scope can move.
A cost-to-complete review therefore needs to ask whether each remaining allowance is commercially sufficient, not merely whether a purchase order exists.
Where forecast cost differs from adjusted budget.
The commercial driver behind the variance, not merely the accounting code.
What can still be negotiated, re-scoped, recovered or controlled.
BuilderForecast combines cost to complete with budget, commitments, variations and reporting so the forecast is maintained as the project changes.