How to Monitor Your Projects Using the Project Overview in Next Project

This article explains how to use the Project Overview in Next Project to monitor projects using real-time financial data. It covers how calculations and displayed amounts may vary based on your business configuration, and provides detailed descriptions of all available columns, including how to show, hide, and rearrange them to suit your monitoring needs.

One of the strengths of Next Project is that it's continuously updated with real-time information. Data is refreshed as hours, materials, and other items are reported, and as supplier and customer invoices are processed.

Calculations in Next Project

Depending on the type of business you run, Next Project can be configured in different ways. This, combined with how you use the tool, affects how amounts are displayed. If you're unsure about your setup, reach out to Next Support for help. For details on how amounts for gradual profit recognition (PPR) are generated in Next Project, refer to the separate quick reference guide.

Columns

In all modules in Next Project that include columns, you can choose which columns to show or hide. To do this, hover over any column header, click the small black arrow that appears, and select Columns.

Column header context menu showing sort and column visibility options.

In the dialog box that opens, check or uncheck the columns you want to show or hide.

Show/hide columns dialog with column checkboxes

Show/Hide Columns dialog — user can toggle visibility of available table columns.

You can also rearrange columns into an order that works best for you. Simply click and hold a column header, then drag it to your preferred position. Keep in mind that any column changes you make are saved to your user account only — not for all users. To save your changes, make sure you close the program properly by using the Log Out button.

Log out button — user should notice the logout control.

Column Descriptions

Below is a description of each column available in the Project Overview. You can use the filter and sorting functions on these columns to create different groupings for financial monitoring.

Note	A field where you can write your own comments in a popup box.
Created	The date the project was created.
Created by	The user who created the project.
Changed	The date the record was last modified.
Changed by	The user who last modified the record.
Project Number	The number of the project.
Project Name	The name of the project.
Project Manager	The person designated as the project manager for the project.
Project Start	The specified start date for the project.
Project End	The specified end date for the project.
Supervisor	The person designated as the site supervisor for the project.
Workplace ID	A description or identity of the workplace — a free-text field used in connection with Next Project's personnel ledger function.
Order Date	The specified order date for the project.
Customer Name	The specified customer for the project.
Customer Type	The specified customer type for the customer.
Project Type	The specified project type for the project.
Cost Center	The specified cost center for the project.
Project Category	The specified project category for the project.
Type of job	The specified type of assignment for the project.
Form of compensation	The specified compensation form for the project. Note: The compensation form and its underlying settings affect calculations in monitoring!
Project Status	The specified status of the project.
Status Period	The latest status for the project during the selected period.
Final Inspection	The date of the final inspection for the project.
Warranty Period	The warranty period for the project.
Warranty Inspection	The date of the warranty inspection for the project.
Budget Cost	The budgeted cost of the project, specified directly on the project card or from the Budget module.
Budget Revenue	The budgeted revenue specified directly on the project card or from the Budget module.
Budget CM	The budgeted contribution margin (budgeted revenue minus budgeted cost).
Budget CM %	Contribution margin based on budgeted revenue and cost (budgeted margin divided by budgeted revenue).
Budget Hours	Budgeted hours from the project card.
Forecast Hours	Forecast hours from the project card.
Current Forecast Revenue	Revenue forecast specified directly on the project card or from the Forecast module.
Current Forecast Cost	Cost forecast specified directly on the project card or from the Forecast module.
Current Forecast CM	Contribution margin (projected revenue minus projected cost).
Current Forecast CM %	Contribution margin (projected margin divided by projected revenue).
Forecast Period	Shows the current period for the current forecast, from the Forecast module.
Forecast Period Date	The last date for posted costs and revenues included in the forecast.
Booked Cost VO	All Variation Order costs in the project. This is the sum of supplier invoices and flat-rate costs for self-reported hours and order lines (own machinery, own material, own vehicles, etc.).
Booked Revenue VO	All booked Variation Order revenues in the project.
Sum Booked Cost	All booked costs in the project, including VO costs. This is the sum of supplier invoices and flat-rate costs for self-reported hours and order lines (own machinery, own material, own vehicles, etc.).
Sum Booked Revenue	All booked revenues in the project, including VO revenues.
Earned Revenue	Calculated differently depending on the project's compensation form. For ongoing projects: Booked cost + markup. For fixed-price projects, accrued revenue can be calculated in two ways: Completion degree * Projected revenue or Budgeted revenue. The completion degree is calculated: Booked costs / Projected cost or Budgeted cost. Alternative calculation of accrued revenue: Booked cost divided by (1 minus the forecast or budget TG%). Note that projects must have the correct compensation form specified and that these are correctly marked (as fixed price or ongoing) in the underlying settings under Administration > Settings > Types > Compensation Form.
Earned Revenue, not invoiced	Uninvoiced chargeable order lines, hours, and costs, including markup. Note: Used for ongoing projects. For fixed-price projects, Factual is used. See the quick reference guide for SVA.
CM	Contribution margin (booked revenue / booked cost).
CM %	Contribution margin (margin divided by revenue * 100).
Current CM	Accrued revenue minus booked cost.
Next Invoiced	Total invoiced from the Invoice module in Next Project — i.e., not invoiced in another system.
Booked Hours	Total number of booked hours in the project.
Booked Hours VO	Hours booked on VO.
WO Cost	Performed cost in the Work Order module. This includes only the cost of order lines and does not include costs for supplier invoices and reported hours.
WO Revenue	Performed revenue in the Work Order module. This includes only the revenue for order lines and does not include accrued revenues for supplier invoices and reported hours, including markup.
Work Order CM	Order line revenues minus costs.
Work Order CM %	Order line contribution margin (margin divided by revenue * 100).
Chargeable	Accrued revenue minus booked revenue. Mainly used for fixed-price projects. For ongoing.
Procurement Payment Amount	Sum of payment plans from the procurement module — i.e., the payment plan for costs to suppliers.
Payment plan invoice amount	Shows the total lift/drop from the payment plan to the customer for the project.
Payment plan withheld amount	Shows the content amount from the payment plan to the customer.
Payment plan outcome	Shows Income Payment Plan minus Purchase Payment Plan.

Period Columns

When you use interval filters, it's the period columns that display amounts for that specific period. The standard columns described above do not take the selected period into account.

Project list with date range filter toolbar

Project overview list — notice the active date range filter and column headers.

Filter Function

Use the "Show underlying data" function together with information on the project card and filters to retrieve information for your entire company or specific parts of it.

Select a folder in the Tree View, set or choose your filter in the project overview, and click the Look down icon (located above the Tree View). Next Project always summarizes upwards, making it easy to get a quick overview. The example below shows all ongoing projects under the folder "Contracts."

Project Overview tab with filtered project list

Project Overview tab showing date-range filter applied to contracts list.

Favorite Filters

Favorite filters let you save different column filter combinations for quick access. Note that this feature only saves which filters are selected — not which columns are active.

To create a favorite filter, set the filters you want on the relevant columns, click the Star icon, choose New filter, and give your filter a name.

Filter menu with New Filter option highlighted

Filter dropdown menu — note the highlighted 'New filter' option available to users.

New Filter dialog — user enters a name before saving the filter.

To open a favorite filter, click the Star icon and select the filter you want to activate. In the example above, the filter created using the Favorite Filter function is called Ongoing projects — you can see it's currently active because the box next to it is checked.

Filter menu with Ongoing projects selected

Filter dropdown showing saved filters; note the currently active filter selection.

Examples of Useful Filters

Projects with a Specific Compensation Form

Set your filters on the compensation form and, if needed, on the status as well. For example, to retrieve ongoing projects that are not completed or of the administrative node type across the entire company, you could set: Compensation form = Ongoing account and Project status not equal to Administration or Completed. (Alternatively, select the specific project statuses you want to display.)

Project list filtered by date range and status

Project list view — note the active date range filter and 'On going' status column.

Ongoing Projects during a Specific Period

To get an accurate list of projects that have been or were ongoing during a specific period, keep the following in mind:

Make sure projects are always in the correct status.
When a project is completed, accept the system's proposed project end date or enter your own.
In the Project overview, use range filters to specify a period.
The Project status column shows each project's current status.
The Status period column shows the status each project had within the specified period (not the current status).

In the Status period column, use the filter function to specify the project statuses that are relevant within the time range you've set. The list will then show projects that had any of those statuses within the specified range. In the example below, you can see in the Project Status column that two projects were completed after the period, and in the Project End column, the date each was completed.

Project Overview — Project Status and Status Period columns

Project Overview tab showing filtered results with Project Status and Status Period columns highlighted.

Projects with High Costs and Low Revenues – Possibly Eligible for Invoicing

To find projects where you may be behind or eligible for invoicing, you can use the following filters and sorting.

Set the relevant filters you want to use, then sort the Earned Revenue column (click on the column header once or twice) so that projects with the lowest Earned Revenue appear at the top. This lets you quickly review those projects and investigate whether they can be invoiced or whether there's a reason — such as an agreed payment plan — that prevents invoicing at this time.

If there are many projects in the list, you can narrow your search further by setting filters on costs above a certain amount and Earned revenues below a certain amount.

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