As we all know cost and expenses management are sensitive tasks in any project. Cost Management Plan Template Excel is equally important and essential for all categories and types of projects. As it should be handled with great care to keep your project’s budget under control.
Therefore, an effective cost management plan focuses mainly on required expenses and the ways they are achieved. Cost management basically is planning and managing the project costs to complete the project within the approved budget mentioned in the project charter document.
- Complete project costing according to project life-cycle
- MS excel format
In this article, you can easily download related templates through TEMPLATE124.
Related Article: Project Transition Plan
Project managers often spend lots of time calculating and managing budgets. This process can get quite easy and less time consuming by using an effective project cost management plan. These templates make sure that you have a plan on hand when it comes to cost management.
In this article, we will see what is cost management planning, and what are its benefits? We will also discuss the main components and steps of this process.
What are the Categories of Project cost management plan template excel?
The project cost planning mainly includes cost estimation, cost tracking, and cost monitoring of the project costs. Cost management is very important as it directly affects the project’s overall progress. The process of the project management plan provides an explanation and a chart for the managers to manage the project budget and costs.
The major categories of project cost planning are:
- Cost Estimation:
Cost estimation is very crucial in expense planning. First, the components are divided by using the technique of the work breakdown structure. And then after that, the estimation is done for the individual tasks in the project. The process of estimation uses three different types of estimation which are analogous, parametric, and three-point estimation.
- Cost Tracking:
After the estimation, the next step is tracking the cost estimations. First, all the estimations are collected, and then the estimates are tracked and followed up throughout the project. This process is very crucial as it balances out the risk in the cost management process. To have better control over the project cost managers often go for earned value management.
- Cost Monitoring and Control
The last stage is keeping a hold on the cost by doing accurate supervision and to watch it properly. The project managers use the phenomena of cost variance and cost performance index at this point. This will allow them to monitor and regulate the overall cost of the project successfully.
Cost Plan Template (PMBOK Guide)
According to PMBOK 6, the process of cost management planning is divided precisely into four steps. Those four steps are
- Cost planning
- Cost estimation
- Cost and budget determination
- Cost control
In the project cost management planning, the expected and actual costs are compared parallel. Therefore, this will allow providing a standard scale for future cost management.
Construction project cost management planning
In a construction project, cost management is a must and very important. As we all know construction is a big industry and during a construction project, quite a lot of money Is needed. Because in construction you need to buy things like cement, bricks, wood, and many other things.
Related Article: Project Status Report Plan
The cost management and estimation of the cost are very necessary to stay on budget and avoid overspending. Because in a construction project it is very easy to go overbudget. So, to avoid this problem a good cost management plan should be in place beforehand. This will allow you to keep firm control of your project budget and saves you money.
What are the Types of Cost Management Plan Template Excel?
Following are Some of the most used types of Cost Management Plan:
Project Cost Tracker Template
This template allows you to track and control the cost of the project. With the help of the Project Cost Tracker Template, you can estimate the available resources and where to use these times to time for payments of stakeholders, employees, vendors, and suppliers, etc. You can also read: https://projectemplates.net/project-tracking/
Project Cost Baseline Template
Baseline= Approved Project Plan +/- Approved Changes
This is an approved budget plan which is designed to determine the cost during a project proceeding. This is a time-based estimation (time to time usage of expenses).
Construction Cost Estimate Checklist Template
Construction Cost Template is very simple and easy to use which helps to discover the estimation cost and time of the project, this included information regarding the type of job, persons connected with the project, admin fee, engineering cost, labor, materials, etc.
Cost change request template
Cost change request template is used when there’s a need to make any change in an existing plan at any phase, this helps to determine and estimate the changes in budget, cost, and set timelines.
Project Cost Trend Analysis Template
This template is used to create and design multiple data at the same place. It is very useful to evaluate and track the data effectively.
Project Cost Management Plan Template Excel
This template offers various approaches to manage the throughout cost of the entire project.
Project Manager Budget Template
Project manager can manage budget and expenses daily to a weekly basis from this template. You can also download this budget template for project costing.
What are the Benefits of using a Project cost management template?
A project cost management plan clearly describes the techniques used for the planning and monitoring of expenses. The efficiency of the cost management plan is directly influenced by project costs and budget.
- It helps you save money by proper planning. It also saves your quality time.
- Reduces the chances to go over budget because of the proper framework in place for money management.
- This template keeps you up to date and has a birds-eye on the financial health of your project. Which results in keeping you and your project right on track.
- It is a user friendly and most effective approach for expenses and cost planning.
- This planning template provides a clear infrastructure to help you manage your business and project costs.
- This helps in creating a balance in your business budget.
Conclusion
Consequently, we have seen the importance of the project cost management plan template is unquestionable. It is the most effective way to keep your budgets and expense under control at every stage of the project.
Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
Q. 01 Which type of Projects can I manage with a Cost Management Template?
Ans. These templates could be used in construction cost/ budget planning, product development, computer software programming, and development meant, research purpose plans, events organizing costing, transportation business, new admin system setups, IT, architecture, and engineering costing purposes to plan cost and budget for effective output. These types of templates also used for any costing change management in the project lifecycle.
Q. 02 Who can use Cost Management Templates?
Ans. These templates are typically designed for Project Managers, PMP specialist,s and specialized project key persons, and these templates also cover stakeholders, vendors, and suppliers who are connected with the project.
Q. 03 Is there any expiry date or renewal period for these templates after purchasing once?
Ans. No, you can use these templates for a lifetime after purchasing once. There’s no time limit for renewal or expiry date.
External Sources:
https://www.wrike.com/project-management-guide/faq/what-is-cost-management-in-project-management/
https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/cost-management-9106
