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Forecast Costs and Revenue in the Project Reporting Tab

Use the Forecast Dashboard within the Project Reporting tab to confidently plan your project’s future costs and revenue, track key financial metrics, and manage cashflow with ease.

Overview

Key Graphs

Cost Forecasting

Revenue Forecasting

Overview

The Forecast Dashboard brings together cost forecasting, revenue forecasting, and essential performance metrics in one place.
It’s designed to help you see exactly where your numbers come from, update them as your project progresses, and understand the combined impact of your cost and revenue forecasts on overall cashflow.

Team members with access to the project can view this dashboard by going into the Project, then selecting the Reporting Tab. 

Key Graphs

    • Forecasts Graph – Displays Forecast Margin, Revised Contract Value, and Total Cost at Completion over the last 12 months relative to the current or filtered month. 

    • Claimed vs Spent – Monthly view comparing claims/invoices to spent costs.

    • Cumulative Claimed vs Spent – Cumulative view to highlight the gap between claims and costs, useful for identifying cashflow risks.

 

Revenue Forecasting

The Revenue Forecasting tool helps you plan future income based on your contract lines and any variations.

How it works:

  • Contract lines and variations flow automatically into the table.
  • You’ll see the Scheduled Value (contract or quoted price), Claim to Date, and Balance to Finish.
  • Click the menu in the top right (three horizontal lines) and select Edit Revenue Forecasting.
  • Use the Spread button to automatically distribute revenue (Linear, Frontloaded, Backloaded, or S-Curve).

Once saved, your revenue forecasts appear as a dotted line on the Claimed vs Spent graphs, alongside your cost forecasts. This gives you a full picture of what’s coming in and going out over the months ahead.

 

Cost Forecasting

Lentune’s forecasting tool helps you keep projects on track by showing what costs are still expected and how they impact your forecast margin. By default, Lentune automatically calculates the cost to complete based on your remaining budget, saving you time and reducing errors. Once a phase of work is fully complete, you can manually adjust forecasts to reflect actual costs, giving you a clear, accurate view of project performance and profitability.

Before You Edit Forecasts

Lentune automatically assumes that budgeted costs will become spent costs. The Cost to Complete is calculated as your revised budget minus any committed or spent costs.

If you’ve spent less than budgeted, Lentune will still expect more costs unless you manually set the Cost to Complete to $0. Until you do, your forecast margin may appear lower than it really is.

Tip: It's recommended to only adjust the Cost to Complete once a stage of work is completely finished. Editing too early means you’ll need to keep updating it every time new costs come through.

Example: Timber was budgeted at $1,000, but you got a 10% discount, and now the total spent will only be $900. Lentune assumes that $100 will still need to be spent and will automatically calculate that the cost to complete is $100. Once all timber work and invoices are finalised, you can set the cost to complete to $0 to accurately reflect the final cost.

Updating Forecasts

  1. In the Reporting Dashboard, click the menu (three horizontal lines) in the top right.

  2. Select Edit Cost Forecasting.

  3. Update forecast values for each cost code.

  • Automatic vs Manual Updates:
    When Lentune is calculating automatically, a lightning bolt icon appears next to the Cost to Complete.

    Once you manually edit a cost to complete, the lightning bolt disappear and Lentune stops updating automatically, and you must manually adjust it whenever new costs are committed or spent for that cost code.

For more detail, click the pencil icon next to a cost code to open Advanced Forecasting, where you can break down costs by:

    • Lump sums (e.g., timber, materials)

    • Quantity-based costs (e.g., 1 unit @ $580)

    • Time-based costs (e.g., 2 days @ $300/day)

You can export these details for team review and future adjustments.

Cashflow

The Cashflow tab is used to allocate when forecast costs will be incurred.

  1. Select a start and end month.

  2. Either:

    • Manually enter the monthly amounts, or

    • Click Spread to automatically distribute the cost (Linear, Frontloaded, Backloaded, or S-Curve).

  3. A graph preview will show how the cost will be spread before you apply the changes

 

FAQs

Q: Who has access to the Forecast Dashboard?
A: Anyone with access to the project can view the project-level reports, and only users with access to the administration tab can view the company-level dashboard.

Q: Can I filter my forecast data by month?
A: Yes, you can filter by Reporting Period to see the forecast as at a certain month, excluding transactions dated after that month.

Q: Can I export these reports?
A: Yes, you can export these reports either as a PDF or a CSV depending on the report type.
To do this, click the menu at the top right of each report (the three horizontal lines).

Q: What is the Cost to Complete?
A: The Cost to Complete is the value of costs that Lentune expects are still to come for a project. It’s automatically calculated as your revised budget minus any costs already committed or spent.

Q: Why does Lentune show a lightning bolt icon next to the Cost to Complete?
A: The lightning bolt icon means Lentune is automatically calculating the Cost to Complete. If you manually edit it, the icon disappears, and you take control of updating it yourself.

Q: When should I manually update the Cost to Complete?
A: It is recommended to only edit the Cost to Complete for a cost code once a phase of work is finished. Editing too early means you’ll need to keep adjusting it every time a new cost comes through.

Q: What happens if I don’t set the Cost to Complete to $0 when work is done?
A: Lentune will still expect more costs, which will make your forecast margin appear lower than it really is. Accurate forecasting gives you a clear picture of expected costs and margins, helping you manage budgets, improve cashflow planning, and make better decisions about project performance.

Still need a hand? We’re happy to help - send us an email at support@lentune.com. 

Last updated: 15 April 2025