Cost To Complete Template: FREE Excel Download (ETC, EAC, BAC)

While a project is underway, it can be difficult to know exactly how the project is going financially. Workers and staff members are paid. Purchases are made. Revenue comes in, payments flow out. How is the project REALLY doing, though? The depletion of a project’s budget can be like quicksand – no one really notices until they’re already in a bit of trouble. Projects that are in full-swing require so much attention that the budget takes the backseat. In some ways this is logical – time spent monitoring the project is time not spent pushing it forward. Unfortunately though, project monitoring and control is an essential ingredient of a successful project. This article will be focused on performing a Cost-To-Complete (CTC) forecast. In this article, we’ll include a FREE Excel download of our cost to complete template!

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What Is A Cost To Complete Estimate?

Otherwise know as an Estimate-To-Complete (ETC), Estimate-At-Completion (EAC) or Budget-At-Completion (BAC), a Cost-To-Complete estimate allows us to account for performance, progress, revenue and costs to-date on the project, and forecast the remaining revenue, budget and profitability for the rest of the project. The cost-to-complete provides vital information pertaining to the project’s overall performance and bottom-line profit.

Cost-To-Complete Demonstration Video:

How Often Should The Cost-To-Complete Be Calculated?

I’ve always been a believer in performing a cost-to-complete forecast whenever I am submitting a bill to the client. For most construction projects, it’s good practice to draft a cost-to-complete estimate every month.

As Project Managers, this allows us to gauge whether or not the project has been over-billed or under-billed to date, and how much profit should be taken in any given month relative to the actual performance.

No one ever wants to over-bill a client and then have to do work they can’t bill for – this creates concerns over how much money will be left after the ‘bleeding’ has stopped. Stress levels increase and things get chaotic when money is flying out the door.

Knowing exactly how a project is doing, and billing the client in kind, is where the cost-to-complete estimate is most useful.

Example: Our Cost To Complete Template With Hypothetical Budget Figures (FREE Excel Download)

The following cost-to-complete template is the same version as what I’ve used in the construction industry many times, but it can be modified for many other types of project, as well. I’ve tried to make it as adaptable as possible for performing a cost-to-complete on any type of project.

What you’ll need to use our cost to complete template:

1. Microsoft Excel
2. Your Project’s Most Recent Cost Reports
3. Revenue Data To-Date
4. Approved/Executed Change Order Figures, As Well As Pending/Upcoming C.O. Figures

Now let’s get into the fun stuff.

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Our Cost To Complete Template: The Snapshot

In our cost to complete template, all key information will be found on the project snapshot. Here’s a preview of the project snapshot along with instructions on what each line (A – Q) is for. Fear not – the majority of this snapshot is completed automatically.

Just to reiterate, all screenshots of our cost to complete template will have hypothetical data to show the features of our calculator.

Here’s a brief explanation of each line above:

1. Revenue Ledger Tab

The first tab in the cost-to-complete template is the revenue tab. This is a ledger where you can record all revenue collected on the project to date. Here’s a sample of what this tab looks like:

You can enter all payments received to date, or you can enter one lump figure totaling all payments – whichever you prefer. The sum of this revenue ledger is shown on Item E of the Project Snapshot.

2. Pending & Upcoming Change Order Ledger

Oftentimes, change orders are in the negotiation stage for weeks or even months. There are also some instances when a change order is being estimated, but not yet submitted for approval. In either instance, it’s important to forecast these change orders in a cost-to-complete – both the expected cost and the expected revenue from each.

Here’s a sample of the pending & upcoming change order tab:

One common practice is to downplay the amount of each change order once it’s approved. This is to make room for potential future negotiations and provides a factor of safety on the final cost-to-complete estimate. This tab’s total is shown on Item I of the Snapshot.

3. Labor & Hourly Staff Ledger

One of the largest expenses on any project is the cost of hourly labor and staff members. It’s extremely important to accurately estimate the remaining costs of labor and staff when performing a cost to complete.

You can forecast these costs based on current production rates or based on calendar durations.

Here’s a sample of the labor and hourly staff ledger:

This portion of the cost-to-complete allows us to forecast upcoming labor and staff costs by title, trade, item of work, hours/days/weeks/etc. and their respective hourly rate.

This ledger, along with all other tabs we discuss below, feed into Item K on the Project Snapshot.

4. Equipment & Rental Ledger

Estimating upcoming equipment and rental costs is fairly straightforward, but it’s best to go line-by-line for each piece of equipment. Some are only needed for a short amount of time, while others will last the duration of the project.

This ledger breaks down each equipment/rental item by description, vendor, rental duration and unit rate. Here’s a sample:

The total of this ledger feeds into Item K on the Project Snapshot.

5. Material & Purchase Ledger

When projects are in full-swing, it can be difficult to remember exactly when materials or purchases are made vs. how much cost is still to come later. On this tab of our cost to complete template, you can outline all upcoming materials and purchases line-by-line. Simply organize all upcoming material purchases by item type, vendor, quantity and unit price.

Here’s a sample of the material and purchase tab:

As you can see, this ledger allows you to combine materials by many different units of measurement. This is ideal for projects that require many different materials – material sold by the piece, by square foot, cubic yard, bag, gallon or lump-sum.

The total of this ledger feeds into Item K on the Project Snapshot.

Related Articles:

• What Is A Construction Purchase Order? 13 Things To Include In A PO
• How Does Progress Billing Work In Construction? The 8 Essential Steps
• What Are The Basics Of Project Scheduling? 9 Essential CPM Steps

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6. Subcontractors & Services Tab

Unless the project is at the very beginning or very end, subcontractors and services will be partially complete on the job.

On large projects, you may be managing several of these subcontractors at one time. Knowing how much each subcontractor is owed is crucial when calculating a cost-to-complete.

Here’s a sample of our subcontractor ledger:

This ledger allows you to record each subcontractor’s contract value (including any C.O.s) and the paid-to-date amount for each subcontractor. The remaining balance owed and percent-completed is totaled automatically, and the total balance owed to all subcontractors is fed into Item K on the Project Snapshot.

7. Expenses & Sundry Ledger

There are a variety of expenses on the job site that aren’t exactly ‘materials’. Technically, construction materials are defined by materials that are incorporated into the end product. These purchases are hard to define and can be forgotten in comparison to expenses like subcontractors and materials.

When performing a cost to complete, these expenses and sundries must be accounted for. Here’s a sample of the expense and sundry ledger from our cost to complete estimate:

You can use this ledger to account for upcoming expenses related to temporary protection, hand tools, lodging, fuel for equipment and many other sundries and “consumable” purchases. This total is fed into Item K on the Project Snapshot.

8. Overhead Ledger

Last, but certainly not lease, is the project overhead forecast. Overhead makes up all ‘soft costs’ on the project – this includes management and all necessary equipment required for the management team to oversee the project.

Some companies account for project management staff and associated expenses on a specific project’s costs, while others calculate overhead for the entire company instead.

That said, this overhead ledger may not be required depending on your company’s accounting set up. Feel free to leave this tab blank, or use it for whichever project-specific costs you see fit!

As you can see above, we’ve entered a few common project overhead expenses on the same ledger. We’ve included project management staff, a field office, misc. bills, computers, phones, vehicles and a portion of the (hypothetical) company’s general overhead, which is sprinkled across several projects in this example.

As with the other tabs, this is the final ledger that feeds into Item K on the Project Snapshot.

9. Summary

Last but not least, we make our way back to the SUMMARY tab in our cost to complete template. This may look like a lot of information, but it’s simply an automatically-calculated summary of all individual tabs that add up to the total in Item K. Here’s a sample:

As you can see, there’s a section for each ledger in the cost to complete template. Each one is broken down by average cost per week and cost per day, too. These dates are based on the dates you’ve entered for the project completion and cost-through dates (as labeled by *1 and *2).

Ultimately, you only need to look at the Project Snapshot – this detailed summary information is not required, but included in case it’s helpful.

9. Print-Friendly Summary Report

We’ve also updated our cost-to-complete spreadsheet to include a print-friendly, fully-automated summary sheet. Simply add your company logo and you’ll be able to print a clean, simple financial summary report for your cost-to-complete! A sample is shown below:

In Conclusion

Cost to completes aren’t easy, but they’re absolutely essential for project managers who need to accurately forecast the remaining estimate, budget and/or costs on their projects.

Our cost to complete template has been used ‘in action’ by me personally, and is designed to allow maximum functionality and for a user-friendly experience. One thing all project managers do while estimating a cost-to-complete is make adjustments to costs to see where the overall profitability will end up. This is why we’ve added the Project Snapshot to each individual page – tinker and adjust as much as you like!

I truly hope you’ve found this article useful and that you enjoy using our cost to complete template on our project! If you have any questions or would like to see additional features, leave a comment below!