The costing and budgeting module is a very powerful module within the IMPACTxp system that allows the user to analyze and control cost expenditure and manage budgets for the financial year.

Whilst the IMPACTxp base module automatically records costs against work orders and plant items, the costing & budgeting module provides high-level management control of costs. The costing & budgeting module therefore operates through a series of cost codes that can be defined within a hierarchical costing structure. This unique structure allows the user to collect total costs from underneath any point in the ‘cost code tree’.

Each cost and its associated budget can be broken down to reflect:

Internal labor
External labor
Internal materials
External materials

Costs are posted automatically to the cost code structure without the need for period end processing, giving instant feedback against budget. The highly graphical drill down reports then allow management to investigate any serious over or under spending by simply clicking on the chart to review individual work orders and their cost transactions.

calendar file

Each company has different financial reporting requirements and budget periods. The costing calendar is therefore user definable and can conform to the traditional months of the year or include 13 x 4 weekly periods. Any number of periods can be entered provided they follow on from each other and each period can be a variable number of days.

cost code structures

The costing and budgeting module is highly configurable, providing the ability to define a hierarchy of cost codes, and for higher-level items in the structure to collect the costs of all the cost codes underneath them in the structure. For example, a cost code may exist for a production line with scheduled maintenance and breakdown cost codes existing underneath it. In turn, cost codes may exist under each of these for type of plant. The user is therefore presented with a broad spectrum of cost reporting capability whereby the cost for the production line as well as the total cost for scheduled maintenance can be viewed and/or printed. Each cost code can be used to report overall costs and/or be split between internal and external materials and labor.

budgets

Having established a cost code structure, the user is then able to allocate budgets to each cost code. Budgets can either be divided equally across all calendar periods or individual amounts may be entered against each period provided the accumulative amounts total the correct budget figure for the calendar year. Each period can have an overall budget and/or be split between internal and external labor and materials. Budgets can be allocated at any level and will also be accumulated up the costing structure. It is therefore possible to collect costs from a lower level than your budget level.

cost transactions

Whenever a cost transaction is generated within IMPACTxp by recording material or time against a work order, a cost record for that period and code is updated in the costing and budgeting module. No month end processing is required to post these costs to the costing and budgeting module, which means that the management figures are as up to date as the last transaction.

budget against cost report

The budget against cost report is a graphical presentation of cost expenditure for each budget and calendar period. By clicking on a period, the user is able to see a detailed analysis of total expenditure and/or internal and external labor and materials expenditure. This highly visual management report is drill down enabled, like many other reports in IMPACTxp. This means that any trends or exceptions noted on the graph can be quickly examined in detail. The user is able to track a transaction back to its source by clicking on the chart and then “drilling down” wherever an eye icon appears. In the budget against cost report the user is able to drill all the way down to individual work orders and the associated cost transactions.

easy administration

Even if the costing and budgeting module is not installed at the start of the project, all costs are automatically logged in a suspense file, which allows the user to track costs that do not have a cost code or an allocated budget. This ensures that no transaction is lost while the user makes a decision on the correct allocation and means that the costing and budgeting module can be introduced at a later date without loss of data.