How to track project money in Validate

Validate gives you three views of the money, from a single project up to the whole company, and every figure ties back to a real record: a certified AFP, a purchase order, an invoice, a logged hour. Nothing is typed into a spreadsheet on the side. This guide shows where to look and what each number actually means.

Before you start

• Projects need a contract value set, otherwise the percentage figures have nothing to work against.
• The money views only get interesting once work is being logged, approved and certified. Empty is normal on day one.

Step 1: Check a single project on its dashboard

Open the project. The overview shows the four headline numbers: Contract value, Certified to date with the percentage of contract it represents, open commercial items (variations, risks and instructions), and open critical or major snags. The What needs you panel below lists the work waiting on a decision, including the validation queue and unsigned RAMS.

Certified to date is the latest cumulative figure from your certified (issued or paid) Applications for Payment on this project. Each AFP is cumulative to date, so it is the most recent certified one that counts, not all of them added together. If it looks low, the usual reason is work sitting unapproved in the validation queue or an AFP still in draft.

Step 2: Read the company-wide commercial dashboard

Go to Commercial. The dashboard rolls every project together: total contract value, total certified to date with the outstanding balance, open commercial notices, and the value of live tenders in the pipeline.

Two panels matter for cash: Upcoming payment certs lists certified AFPs by their payment due date, and Cash flow forecast totals what should land in the next 30, 60 and 90 days. Both are driven by each cert's payment due date, which Validate sets automatically when you issue the AFP (the period end plus your contract's payment terms), so keeping the cert lifecycle moving keeps the forecast honest. See How to raise an Application for Payment.

Step 3: Open the Project P&L

From the commercial dashboard follow the P&L link, or open Project P&L directly. The portfolio totals sit at the top, then one card per active project. If a project shows no snapshot yet, click Refresh on the card, or Refresh all snapshots at the top of the page to recompute everything.

Step 4: Read the four figures on each project card

• Priced is the contract value you locked in.
• Committed is what you have promised to spend: purchase orders for materials plus subcontractor contracts.
• Actual cost is what you have actually spent: supplier invoices plus payroll. Payroll comes from the hours your team logged, costed at their rates, so it moves as real time is recorded.
• Revenue is certified AFPs only. Applied-for money does not count until it is certified.

The Forecast row estimates the final cost, and the badge tells you which method produced it. Two variance badges keep you honest: commitment variance compares what you have committed against what you priced, and realisation variance shows how the actuals are tracking. Anything drifting past ten percent gets flagged at portfolio level.

Step 5: Drill into the breakdown

Click Breakdown on a project card for the full split: materials against subbies inside committed, invoiced against payroll inside actual, and the snapshot timestamp so you know how fresh the numbers are.

If something looks wrong

• Labour shows zero. No approved time has been logged against the project yet. The payroll figure builds from logged hours at cost rates, not from estimates.
• Revenue is behind the work done. Revenue counts certified AFPs only. Raise and progress the AFP for the period and the revenue follows.
• The snapshot looks stale. Click Refresh all snapshots. Snapshots are computed rollups, and the timestamp on each card tells you when it was last run.