Cost Loading for Contractors

Whether you need schedule-generated Pay Applications or you need to verify Contractor Pay Applications, we can provide all of you Cost-loaded services.  Our Earned Value Management professionals can help you track costs any level. This also serves as a secondary indicator of overall progress at any given point in the project.

Cost-loading is not for every project and there are some project where cost-loading should not be implemented. Cost-loading is highly technical and requires a large amount of work. Schedule a phone call with one of our cost-consultants to see if cost-loading could be useful for your project.

A major advantage to cost-loading a schedule is it provides the ability to forecast cash flow. This gives the project team the ability to identify where money is being spent. While many contractors are slow to implement cost-loading on their project there are major benefits to cost-loading the right project. Cost-loading is the most efficient and accurate means of forecasting costs. However, it is critical that cost-loading is not neglected. Each activity requires a cost associated with the task’s work, simply assigning costs to a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) level would hinder the benefits of Earned Value.

Tracking Earned Value

By cost-loading your schedule a form of Earned Value Management is integrated. Contractors can utilize Earned Value Management by tracking performance instead of comparing planned dates to actual dates.

Cash flow and Income

The cost-loaded schedule includes planned costs from the initial bid of the contractor.  This gives the contractor the ability to forecast payments from the owner based on the contractor’s performance. Cost-loading aids the contractor in managing cash flows and tracking a project’s progress. If correctly done the cost forecast report can be utilized as a negotiating tactic when discussing funding for a project. It may seem like a difficult decision when deciding on cost-loading your schedule. Contact one of our cost professional consultants to discuss your project.