A very frequently requested use case is the monitoring of target and actual costs of projects at multi-project or portfolio level. In this way, it should also be possible to see at a glance in the portfolio how the costs stand in which project or whether there are already overruns.

In this best practice, we explain how this can be mapped in smenso Cloud.

What you need

Formulaflavors

🌐 Planned costs

persist(sumAll('cost',1))

In this formula, the sum of all planned costs is determined and written to the database (persisted).

🌐 Actual costs

persist(sumAll('actualcost',1))

In this formula, the sum over all actual costs is determined and written to the database (persisted).

Monitoring in the portfolio

If the planned and actual values of the costs are maintained in the project, they are now automatically summed up and the new flavors can be shown directly in the portfolio list.

So you have a direct comparison between budget, plan and actual.

Optical warning (optional)

By adding another formula flavor, you can very easily add a visual cue, such as a red light, when the planned cost is greater than the budget.

To do this, simply create the following formula flavor:

Budget ⚠️

if(budget>flavor("🌐 Planned costs"),"✔️",
if(budget==flavor("🌐 Planned costs"),"⚠️",
"🛑"))

The formula determines the following:

If the budget is greater than the planned costs, then a green tick is displayed ✔️

If the budget is the same as the planned costs, then a warning is displayed ⚠️

In all other cases, a red traffic light is displayed 🛑

The note can now also be displayed in the project list. This then looks like this:

Divide costs into cost groups (optional)

It is also possible to split the costs into different cost groups instead of one sum as shown above and to display these as an evaluation in the portfolio.

To do this, however, the assignment to the cost type must first be made within the tasks. To do this, we create a new list flavor in which the desired cost types are stored:

💰 Cost type

e.g.: Capital expenditure (CAPEX) | Operating expenses (OPEX) | Material costs | Personnel costs | Revenues.

This flavor can then be used per task in the board or in the list.

To display the sum of the individual cost elements in the portfolio, a flavor must be created for each cost element with the following formula, e.g. flavor "Capital expenditure (CAPEX)"

persist(sumAll('if(flavor("💰 Cost type")=="Capital expenditure (CAPEX)",cost,0)',0))