We report the cost but nobody forecasts the outturn
The month is closed and the question everyone actually wants answered - what will this job make - is still a guess.
What's happening?
Cost reports answer what has this job spent, which is the easy question. The one the business actually runs on - what will this job make - needs the other half: cost to complete, variations likely to land, risks likely to bite, the final account as a forecast rather than a hope. Where nobody owns that number, the reported margin is just the current score in a game with months left to play.
A forecast final account is a discipline, not a spreadsheet trick: cost to complete built from what remains rather than budget minus spend, the variation register carried at realistic values, known risks provided for, and the whole thing moved every month so the trend is visible. Jobs rarely surprise businesses that forecast; they ambush the ones that only report.
The template holds the shape; the maintenance service keeps the number honest month to month.
The solution
The final account forecast, not discovered.
If you would rather it were done for you, Forecast Final Account Maintenance is the service that does it.