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Custom Cost Classes

Cobra allows you to create custom budget, forecast, and actual cost classes for special-purpose cost tracking requirements.

Each cost class can be assigned a two-character code, a description, and a set of parameters that differ according to the type of cost involved. You can also indicate whether you want to enter these costs at the level of the control account or the work package.

The following are a few examples of how different user-defined cost classes might be used in a project:

  • To spread budgets for long-term planning packages using a calendar set based on fiscal years
  • To distinguish between accounting actuals, invoiced actuals, and received actuals
  • To enter budgets resulting from change orders that included changes to rates
  • To define customized forecasts that exclude certain types of budgeted or actual costs
  • To enter budgets for work using an alternative source of funds that you do not want to affect reporting

To make a custom cost class available for reporting, you must add the class to the appropriate cost set.

Custom Budget Cost Classes

For budget costs, you can indicate whether the cost is at the control account or work package level, and which calendar set to use for spreading purposes. This allows you, for example, to spread some types of budget costs on a monthly basis and others on a quarterly or yearly basis, thus reducing the size of project data files.

Note: If you assign a calendar set to a budget cost class, you must make sure that the calendar set contains at least one flagged period prior to the first fiscal period of the project and at least one flagged period later than the latest control account or work package finish date. In addition, all flagged periods in the calendar set must use fixed ($) flags.

You can also define an alternate rate file for calculating derived costs. This is a useful feature for tracking contractual change orders that have associated rate changes or for using different rates for the same budget elements. If you do not specify an alternate rate file, Cobra defaults to the rate file assigned to the project.

You can also choose whether a custom budget cost class should be included in the project budget. Budget cost classes defined as Budget are considered part of the project budget baseline. Thus, budget costs impact the project log and are included in the budget and BAC totals displayed for baseline, actual, and forecast cost information. Budget costs are also automatically included in all performance calculations. Note, however, that defining a cost class as Budget does not automatically include the cost in forecast calculations or add the cost class to the budget cost set.

Finally, you can define the account from which a budget is to be obtained. Cobra provides the following options:

  • UB: Undistributed Budget
  • MR : Management Reserve
  • OT: Over Target Baseline
  • DB: Distributed Budget

The recommended setting is to obtain the budget from the undistributed budget. When you allocate MR, the value goes to UB. When you distribute the budget, the value is taken from UB to DB and a log entry is created for the amount distributed into the control account or work package.

When you obtain the budget from MR, you must start by entering the budget that you plan to distribute to a control account or work package to MR. Then, as you distribute the budget to the control account or work package, Cobra makes a double-entry accounting log entry debiting MR and crediting DB.

Once you distribute the budget using a class and you decide that you want to change this option, you must reconcile the baseline. This will add a debit/credit entry for all budget amounts already spread using that class.

If you do not reconcile the log, when the data is spread using that class, a double-entry accounting adjustment is added for the control account or work package for the entire budgeted amount before the entry of the change amount is added.

Custom Forecast Cost Classes

Forecast costs in Cobra can be tabulated at either the control account or the work package level. Notice, however, that you cannot generate forecasts for work packages if you have entered actual costs for the forecast at the control account level.

For forecast cost classes, you can define an alternate rate file, making it possible to consider forecasts using a range of “what-if” scenarios.

You can also define forecast cost classes using multiple forecast dates. This feature allows you to define one forecast based on early dates, another based on late dates, and still another based on default dates.

In addition, you can indicate which budget and actual cost classes should be considered when calculating performance factors and generating forecasts. Note, however, that included budget classes must be at the same input level as the forecast.

For forecast cost classes, Cobra uses included budget classes for initializing manual forecasts or for calculating SPI for statistical forecasts. Included actual classes are used for manual forecasts based on retaining Forecast or for calculating the actual cost component of CPI for statistical forecasts.

For each forecast cost class, you must specify the forecast type as using one of the following choices:

  • Method 1: Performance factor = 1
  • Method 2: Performance factor = 1/CPI cumulative to date (where CPI is equal to Earned Value divided by actual cost)
  • Method 3: Performance factor = 1/CPI for current period
  • Method 4: Performance factor = 1/CPI for last three status periods
  • Method 5: Performance factor = 1/CPI for last six status periods
  • Method 6: Performance factor = user-defined value
  • Method 7: Performance factor = 1/((a * CPI) + ( b * SPI)) (where the sum of a and b is equal to 1.0)
  • Method 8: Performance factor = 1/(CPI * SPI) (where SPI is equal to Earned Value divided by Budget)
  • Method M: Manual (retain ETC)
  • Method A: Manual (retain EAC)
  • Method P: Multiple performance factors depending on how much of the work has been completed. (Cobra determines how much work has been completed by comparing the cumulative Earned Value to the at-complete budget for all currency denominated costs.) This allows you, for example, to set up a forecast that uses a performance factor of 1 for the first half of a project and uses a performance factor based on the cumulative CPI thereafter.

For a number of these forecast methods, you must enter additional parameters as follows:

  • For methods 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8, you must identify the level at which the performance factor is calculated:
    • P: Project level
    • C : Control account level
    • W : Work package level
    • A specified level of a code file attached to the project
  • For method 7, you must specify the level for performance factor calculations and indicate the relative weightings for CPI and SPI. The combined weighting of CPI and SPI must equal 1.0.
  • For method P, you must specify the level for performance factor calculations and define up to four ranges over which a particular forecast method takes effect. For example, you can indicate that Cobra should use forecast method 1 for items that are 0 to 33% complete, forecast method 6 for items that are 34% to 66% complete, and forecast method 2 for items that are 67% to 100% complete.

Custom Actual Cost Classes

For actual cost classes, you can define whether you want to enter the cost at the work package or the control account level and which rate set file to use. You can also indicate which budget costs Cobra should use when initializing actual costs or in cases where the project option that allows unbudgeted actuals has been enabled.

You can also indicate if the class should be included in the project actual cost. You are then prompted to include this class in the forecast calculations and the ACWP cost set.

Custom Performance Cost Classes

For performance cost classes, you are restricted to the work package input level, but you are able to indicate whether or not the class is part of Earned Value.