Wheelhouse

Projects and tasks

Type a physical % straight into the table for fixed-price tasks. Press Enter to save and move down. T&M tasks don't need one.

Project When Project manager Work

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Group by Sort AroFlo status Work type Hide non-project jobs Hide tasks with no budget

Key to the colours and bars

Fixed price:
Top lane: physical % complete
Bottom lane: cost % of budget spent
Cost ahead of progress (watch)
Cost ahead of progress (at risk)
Cost past budget
No physical % entered
As-at date
+2 linkedLinked job: a base task and its growth tasks, measured as one

T&M:
Top lane: invoiced, as a % of the estimate
Bottom lane: T&M work done (at actual rates where the AroFlo lines are loaded)
Past the estimate
Still running after the planned finish

How the numbers are worked out

Budget cost: The task's quoted cost from AroFlo: Quote Material Cost plus Quote Labour Cost (the quoted sell price less quoted profit).
Actual cost: Task Total Cost from AroFlo: labour, materials and expenses booked to the date the AroFlo report was run. Each new report replaces it; reports are never added together.
Physical %: Your team's estimate of how much work is physically done. It comes from the Gantt Task Progress field in AroFlo, or from an update typed into this tracker. A tracker update stays in place until the AroFlo value changes; then AroFlo takes over again, so the team can update in either place.
Cost %: Actual cost divided by budget cost.
Earned value: Physical % multiplied by budget cost: what the work done so far was quoted to cost.
CPI: Earned value divided by actual cost. 1.00 means work is costing what was quoted. 0.80 means every $1 spent has only earned $0.80 of quoted work.
Cost variance: Earned value minus actual cost. Negative means over budget for the work done.
Planned value and SPI: Planned % runs in a straight line across the Gantt start date and duration (calendar days), or the approved baseline dates where there are some, up to the As at date. Planned value is planned % × budget cost. SPI is earned value divided by planned value; below 1.00 means behind the Gantt plan.
Forecast final cost: 100% complete: actual cost. Under 10% complete: actual cost plus the remaining budget. From 10% on: budget cost ÷ CPI, so the remaining work is forecast at the task's current efficiency. No physical % entered: the larger of budget and actual cost.
Materials bought: When every PO is raised and all the materials and expenses are booked to a job up front, its cost jumps ahead of the physical % and CPI drops, even though nothing is wrong. Tick "All bought, no more to come" in the task's panel. The quoted materials then count as fully earned, and the physical % is measured against the quoted labour only: earned value = quoted materials + physical % × quoted labour, and CPI = earned value ÷ actual cost. The forecast final cost holds materials and expenses at what was actually booked, plus the labour forecast. Planned value treats the materials as planned up front. If more materials or expenses are booked after the box is ticked, the data checks flag it. If only part is bought, type the share under the tick (for example 80%): that share of the quoted materials counts as earned, the physical % measures the labour, and the forecast adds the quoted materials still to buy.
Margin at completion: Quoted sell (ex GST) less forecast final cost, as a % of quoted sell. Compare it with the quoted margin.
Health: Over budget: actual cost is above budget cost. At risk: CPI below 0.85 and cost % more than 10 points ahead of physical %. Watch: CPI below 0.95 and cost % more than 5 points ahead. Cost on track: everything else with progress entered (it is about cost; a late finish is its own data check). No progress: cost booked with no physical % entered. Not started: nothing booked or entered. No budget: no quoted cost. A finished job over budget shows grey as Finished over budget: it still counts in the totals. Project OH, T&M, T&M past estimate and T&M losing money: see below.
Linked tasks: When a job grows, a separate quote and task is raised and linked to the base task in AroFlo (the Linked Task Jobnumber column). Linked tasks are shown as one linked job under the base task (the lowest job number). By default the linked job is measured as one: budgets and costs are added together and there is one physical % for the whole job, because the team usually books its time to the base task. Until someone enters a % for the linked job, it is worked out from each task's own progress, weighted by its budget. A linked job can be switched to measure each task separately from its panel. Links to job numbers that aren't in the export are listed in the data checks.
Time and materials (T&M): T&M work is billed at the agreed schedule of rates and invoiced at each month end. It needs no physical %, and works out its own numbers from the AroFlo lines: nobody enters or maintains a T&M setting. T&M is kept out of the fixed-price figures (CPI, SPI, forecast).
Which tasks are T&M: A task is T&M when the AroFlo report's Contract Type column says so, or when it is in the AroFlo T&M reports that are loaded (the T&M Labour Only Tracker and T&M POs/WOs Tracking), or when it is set by hand in its task panel (Treat as T&M or Treat as fixed price). There is no rule by client or task name. Our own jobs (client WA, GMS or Griffin) are never T&M.
AroFlo T&M lines: The AroFlo T&M Labour Only Tracker (date, work type, hours, cost, charge) and T&M POs/WOs Tracking (date, quantity, cost and sell line totals). Choose them with the WIP and invoiced reports in Load AroFlo reports. Labour rows with a work type are hours billed at their charge. Rows with no work type are allowances: LAFHA when charged (billed at cost, nil margin), site allowance when the charge is 0 (cost only, never billed: the non-billable cost). Materials sell is Mat Sell Ex Total: a negative sell is a credit and is kept, and a line with no sell (blank or 0) is valued at cost plus 20%. Cost is the lines' own cost; nothing is scaled, spread or added. AroFlo's Expense Cost Total on a T&M job is the LAFHA plus the site allowance, the same rows, so it is never added on top.
Lines against AroFlo's totals: Each job's lines, all dates, are ticked off against AroFlo's own totals: labour cost and hours, the allowance rows against Expense Cost Total, materials cost, and sell where the report has Task Total Sell Ex. Money agrees within the larger of $100 and 0.5% of AroFlo's figure, hours within the larger of 1 hour and 0.5%; a credit on one side only never agrees. When AroFlo has cost the lines do not carry, it is counted in cost at both dates as cost with no date, so GP is never overstated; where the lines are higher, nothing is taken off. Until they match, the job reads Not reconciled and its GP is provisional. Export the T&M reports and the Earned Value Tracker on the same day: the task panel says when they were made more than a day apart.
Month end and as of today: Two views from the same lines. Month end runs to the last day of the month before the As at date and rolls on by itself; it reads provisional until an administrator closes the month, unless the AroFlo invoice list dates the job's invoices. As of today (in progress) runs to the As at date, which is today unless you change it. For each date: earned is labour, LAFHA and materials sell dated on or before it; cost is all cost dated on or before it; lines dated after it are booked ahead and left out. Invoiced is the running total of invoices on the task in AroFlo at the report date. Month-end gross profit is on the invoiced basis (invoices against cost to the month end); as of today it is on the earned basis. Work done since month end is invoiced on the last day of the month.
Awaiting AroFlo lines: A T&M task whose AroFlo lines are not loaded shows invoiced and cost booked only. Nothing is estimated from the quoted margin, and GP % is hidden until the lines are loaded. A job with labour in AroFlo but no labour lines waits for the Labour Only Tracker; a job with material cost waits for a POs/WOs Tracking export that covers it.
Closing a month: AroFlo gives invoices only as a running total, so the month end reads provisional (invoiced to the AroFlo report date) until an owner or administrator closes it in the T&M figures at the top of Tasks (while the As at date is today), once the month's invoicing is in AroFlo. Closing keeps each T&M job's month-end invoiced, earned, cost and GP; later invoices and lines do not move them, and a note says if lines dated in that month change. An administrator can reopen it.
AroFlo invoice list: Optional. An owner or administrator loads AroFlo's list of invoices (invoice date, job number, amount ex GST, and the invoice number, status and type when the export has them) from Data → AroFlo invoice list. Credit notes count as negative; void and cancelled invoices are left out. Each job's invoices on the list are matched with AroFlo's invoiced (Task Invoices Total Ex) within the larger of $1 and 0.1%. Where they agree and no invoice on the list is dated after the AroFlo report, the T&M month end uses the invoices dated on or before it, so it is no longer provisional, and closing the month keeps that exact figure; this needs the AroFlo report and the list both exported on or after the month end. Otherwise (for example a list filtered to a date range, an invoice dated after the AroFlo report, or a report run before the month end) invoiced stays the running total and reads provisional, and a data check names a job that does not match. As of today always uses AroFlo's running total.
Monthly invoicing plan: Optional, for a T&M task. An owner or administrator enters in the task panel the revenue (ex GST) to invoice in each month, with an optional forecast cost. It is tied to the job: left to invoice is the forecast total (or the estimate) less invoiced to date, and what is planned from this month on shows as unallocated or over-allocated against it. Each month shows its forecast against what was invoiced (from the AroFlo invoice list or the month closes, never estimated), its earned and cost from the lines, and GP. Forecast invoicing uses the plan for that task, capped at left to invoice. No other figure changes.
Difference at month end: Earned to the month end less invoiced. Within $1,000 it reads On track. Above it, it is explained when the known reconciling items dated to the month end account for it (within $1,000); otherwise the task is flagged for review. Not yet invoiced and invoiced ahead are added job by job, and the net is shown beside them.
T&M losing money: Red when the work on a T&M job earned less at the agreed rates than it cost, at the month end or today. Work that is only waiting to be invoiced is not a loss: it shows in the month-end difference. Check the charge rates, the lines and the invoicing.
Known reconciling items: A note on the task, for example a hire car recovered elsewhere. They never change a figure.
Quoted margin (reference only): Shown on T&M tasks for reference. It is never used in a calculation.
Estimate and forecast: The estimate is the quoted sell. The forecast total is earned to today plus the forecast still to come from the roster. FORECAST EXCEEDS ESTIMATE shows when it is higher: not a loss on T&M, but check the PO or contract value covers it.
Start of a T&M job: The first activity (the earliest AroFlo line), not the Gantt date. The average earned per month runs from it.
Project overhead: Our own jobs (client WA or Griffin) that name a project, such as a vessel or “Project OH”. The cost is ours, so it is not recoverable and never T&M. It counts against that project: on a project with fixed-price work it goes into actual cost, CPI, forecast final cost and margin; on a T&M-only project it is shown as project overhead and taken off the T&M gross profit. It earns no value. Our other jobs (capex, company overheads) stay non-project. Any job can be switched in its task panel.
Missing progress: A task with cost booked but no physical % earns no value, so it pulls CPI down until someone enters a %.
Tasks with no budget: Tasks with no quoted cost (for example extra work not quoted yet) are shown, but their cost is kept out of the earned value totals and reported separately. The forecast at completion adds a line including unquoted work (forecast final cost plus that cost), with the margin if that cost is not recovered. Project overhead is different: see Project overhead.
Projects: Tasks are grouped by the project they sit under in the AroFlo export (the group rows in the AroFlo report, or a Project column). Projects with the same name, such as one project per client for the same vessel, are shown together. A task that isn't in a project in AroFlo ("No Group") is grouped by the vessel code in its name (such as WAR, TOO or ARA) or by its client, and can be moved to a project here by ticking it.
AroFlo's own totals: When a report is loaded, each task row is checked against AroFlo's own sums, where the report has the columns: Material + Labour + Expense = Task Total Cost; Invoiced − Task Total Cost = Profit Or Loss; Quote Total Ex − Quote Material − Quote Labour = Quote Total Profit. A difference over $1 usually means the file was cut short or edited. The rows are listed, the upload needs a tick to say they were checked in AroFlo, and the task shows a data check.
AroFlo report date: The day the AroFlo report was run, asked for when it is loaded (it starts at the newest file's date). The data line shows it as "AroFlo report of …". T&M invoiced runs to this date, and the Overview's data age counts from it.
Needs attention: On the Overview: one row per open job (or project), worst first, with its worst problem in plain numbers, whose it is and how old the AroFlo data is. Red comes before amber: over budget, T&M losing money, at risk, then no progress, T&M past estimate, T&M invoicing, over the quoted hours, hours ahead of the work, watch, AroFlo totals and past planned finish. Completed work, fixed-price work already 100% done and non-project jobs are left out.
Hours ahead of the work: The Smart Board's warning, also listed in Needs attention: once a quarter of the quoted hours (Quote Total Hours) are used, the hours used (Labour Hours Total) are 10 or more points ahead of the work done, for example "50 of 100 hrs used · 10% done".