Project Cost Tracker

What this tool does

CM8-11 tracks project spend against budget by work package — the standard cost-control breakdown used on construction, fabrication, engineering and IT projects. For every package it rolls up committed cost (open POs), actual cost (the ledger) and a simple forecast-at-completion, then flags anything over budget and reports contingency drawdown.

Everything runs inside this single HTML file. No installation, no account, no network requests — your budgets, invoices and forecasts never leave your computer.

The cost model

The single most useful discipline in project cost control is counting committed money as spent. A signed PO is not an invoice yet, but the cash is no longer yours to allocate. Tracking only invoices makes a project look healthy right up until the backlog of invoices lands.

• Budget — the approved amount for the package. On labour lines you can enter budgeted hours and a rate; if you leave the amount blank it is computed as hours × rate.
• Commitment — a PO, subcontract or other order placed but not yet invoiced. Enter the open value. When an invoice arrives, log it as an actual and reduce or remove the commitment so the money is not counted twice.
• Actual — invoiced / incurred cost, logged as dated ledger entries. Negative amounts record credits and back-charges. Hours on an entry roll up against budgeted hours on the package.

Suggested workflow

1. Set up the project header (name, code, currency, contingency %) on the Cost Plan tab.
2. Break the budget down into work packages — one line per contract, trade, discipline or deliverable. 5–30 packages is typical; more than you can review weekly is too many.
3. Enter commitments as soon as each PO or subcontract is placed.
4. Log actuals weekly from invoices and timesheets on the Ledger tab. When an invoice covers part of a PO, log the actual and edit the commitment down by the same amount.
5. Review the Cost Plan: the % consumed bars and OVER flags show where attention is needed. Use the category filter and the over-budget toggle in a cost meeting.
6. Print the report (or save as PDF) for the monthly cost review, and save the project JSON as your period snapshot.

Forecasting: ETC and EAC

The automatic estimate-to-complete assumes the rest of the budget will be spent — a deliberately conservative default — and never forecasts below what is already committed. When you know better (a package is descoped, or trending over), enter a manual estimate-to-complete on the package; the EAC column marks these with ETC*.

Contingency

The contingency percentage creates a reserve on top of the base budget (reserve = base budget × %). This tool draws it down by the sum of package overruns — every unit a package's exposure exceeds its budget. When "contingency remaining" goes negative the project needs a change order or a rebaseline, not hope.

Typical values: 5–10% for well-defined repeat work, 10–20% for design-and-build or renovation, more for early-stage estimates. Contingency is for unknowns within scope — scope changes should change the base budget instead.

Definitions

• Term — Meaning
• Work package — A budget line costs are booked against; the unit of control.
• Committed — Ordered but not yet invoiced (open PO / subcontract value).
• Actual — Invoiced or incurred cost recorded in the ledger.
• Exposure — Actual + committed — money no longer available.
• Remaining — Budget − exposure. Negative = over budget (flagged OVER).
• ETC — Estimate-to-complete: cost still to come, automatic or manual.
• EAC — Estimate (forecast) at completion: actual + ETC.
• VAC — Variance at completion: budget − EAC.
• Contingency drawdown — Sum of package overruns charged against the reserve.

Saving your work

• Autosave: the whole project is kept in this browser's local storage (when the browser allows it) and restored next time you open the file. The indicator in the toolbar confirms each save.
• Save project (.json): a complete portable snapshot — use it for period snapshots, backups and moving between computers. Load it back with “Load project”.
• Export CSV: two exports — the work-package cost table and the full ledger (actuals + open commitments) — ready for a spreadsheet or ERP import.
• Print: the Report tab prints a clean cost report regardless of which tab you are on (browser print dialog → save as PDF works too).