Predict Job Performance with WorkBook's Estimated Time to Completion Calculation

One of WorkBook’s most insightful features is the Estimated at Completion (EAC) algorithm. This metric shows you how WorkBook uses all the data you’ve put together in a Job plan or budget to essentially predict how your Job will turn out so that you can take preemptive action to mitigate overruns or maximize margin.  

The thing that makes WorkBook exceptional is the ability to calculate a key variable in this prediction: Estimate to Complete (ETC). ETC is a calculation of the hours and costs that are left to complete within the Job’s plan. When enabling ETC in WorkBook, you trigger the system to ask the users assigned to Tasks if they are on track in completing it within assigned number of hours, or if they expect to log more hours than planned. WorkBook then takes that input and calculates the cost of what is left in the budget in order to complete the Job. 

When ETC is combined with the hours and costs already incurred, you then have your predicted outcome or EAC.  

How to Enable ETC:

In order to enable this feature, you need to enable system variable 405 which has three settings: 

• Disabled 
• Enabled on billable jobs 
• Enabled on all jobs

Once enabled for instance on all Jobs, only new Jobs will have this setting enabled. For existing Jobs, you need to enable this manually.

So let’s say you allocate a Task to an employee for twelve hours.

The employee starts working on the Task, and if they want to make a request for more hours, they can do so by right clicking on the Task in the to-do list. The ETC filled in will be the total number of hours to complete the Task. 

For example, if the employee has been assigned for twelve hours and now uses two hours, and request twelve hours, then the total allocated time will be fourteen hours. In other words, the ETC request is the total hours needed.

Once the employee submits the ETC request, it will go to the Task Responsible on the job for approval. If no Task Responsible has been set, it will automatically revert to the Project Manager on the job.

If the ETC request is accepted, a notification will be sent to both the employee sending the ETC request and the Task Responsible/Project Manager.

The number of hours allocated will be increased upon acceptance of the ETC.

This new ETC calculation will then inform the EAC calculation, giving the Project Manager a new predicted outcome. At that time, they can take preemptive action and adjust the project plan to mitigate any potential overruns before it’s too late.