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Merlin Project: Cost Increase

Cost increase

Unexpected changes pop up in projects all the time. Be it a container ship stuck in the Suez Canal and the associated disruption of supply chains, the Corona pandemic or the war in Ukraine… in recent years, business around the world has had to cope with the vagaries of globalization and the risks that come with it.

In this blog post you will learn how to record and document cost increases arising throughout the course of a project in Merlin Project.

Cost increase

Cost increases always occur during long-lasting projects and not only during economic crises. Currently, however, especially the construction industry is struggling with the cost explosion of valuable materials. Best example, the lumber prices hitting a record in recent months.

With Merlin Project such cost changes unfortunately cannot be eliminated, but you have the possibility to document them clearly and transparently in the project.

Budgeting view

In the "Work Breakdown > Budgeting" view, you can see budget relevant information in the project compared to the expected costs. Expected costs add up the costs of attachments, base and labor.

Perform a secondary click on any column header and select "New Column" from the context menu.

New column

Then click on "For existing field" and on "Continue".

In the following dialog click on "All fields" as shown and enter the term "Actual Costs" in the search field.

Then select "Actual Costs" from the hits.

Actual Costs

Now the column "Actual Costs" appears in the budgeting view. Here, again, actual costs in attachments, base costs, and due to labor, will be added.

Repeat the insertion of a new column, this time for the "Planned Costs".

Difference between planned and actual costs in the project

This allows you to clearly identify the differences between the previously planned (estimated) costs and the actual costs, and thanks to Merlin Project to plan your projects in a both realistic and practical way.

Merlin Project on the Mac and iPad

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