The art of cost estimating has evolved in many ways through the years, considering the estimate is always the beginning of a project. Several software applications have their strengths when it comes to providing estimates for projects. Most industries have separated the scheduling department from the cost estimating department. Since these processes have been grandfathered as a standard, several disconnects occur by the time a project schedule is created. Primavera P6 may help in reducing these disconnects if a company process considers this fact.

Most estimates we encounter have been developed in Excel, or programs that may directly integrate into P6. If an organization is not ready to adopt this level of estimating and scheduling integration, we can look at Primavera P6 as a tool to incorporate a centralized process for Cost Estimating with the eventual intention to become a real scheduled project.

As the project goes through the approval process with “Planned” Project Status, baseline cost estimates are stored where we can then utilize the costs as a bottom up estimate to forecast where our spend is going to hit. This is due to the costs being assigned at the activity level. As the activities shift through subsequent updates, the budgeted costs will automatically shift pending the correct activity settings. Reporting output can then be standardized to allow budget forecasting reports to be generated with a click of a button.