For Finance Teams & Finance Directors
Finance stays authoritative. The difference finally gets explained.
Foras compares the project cost position against imported Finance actuals per cost code, and keeps a recorded decision — with a reason and an author — behind every difference.
Northgate Logistics Park — Phase 2
Position · Aug 2026 · Demo data
Captured
£11.85m
Finance
£10.47m
Adjusted CTD
£11.97m
| Cost code | DiffDifference | CTDAdjusted CTD | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| 150Project Management | £60k | £1.84m | Timing |
| 210Labour | £262k | £2.96m | — |
| 311Shoring | −£115k | £1.54m | Match Finance |
| 707Subcontract | £158k | £3.18m | — |
Difference = Captured − Finance. A negative difference means captured cost sits below Finance. Shoring shows a Match Finance adjustment of +£115,000, so adjusted CTD equals the Finance position to date. Values rounded for display.
Why the gap persists
The difference is usually legitimate — and usually undocumented
Timing, coding and late postings all produce real differences. The problem is that the reasoning behind them is rarely captured anywhere durable.
Two numbers, no agreed explanation
The delivery team reports one cost position and the ledger shows another. The gap is usually real and usually explainable, but the explanation is not written down anywhere.
Accruals are estimated late and loosely
Work done but not yet invoiced is often a judgement made at close, without a dated record of the activity underneath it.
Reconciliation lives in someone's head
The person who worked out why the difference exists moves on, and next period the same analysis is done again from scratch.
Late postings reopen closed conversations
An invoice arrives after the delivery team has reported, and there is no clean way to show whether it was already anticipated.
How Foras helps
A reconciliation that is kept, not repeated
Finance stays authoritative
Posted actuals are imported from Finance and treated as the system of record. Foras does not post to your ERP and does not attempt to replace it.
Difference shown per cost code
Captured project cost sits beside imported Finance actuals so the difference is visible at code level rather than as one project-level number.
A recorded decision on each difference
Differences are settled with a decision such as Timing or Match Finance, carrying an adjustment, a reason and an author.
Adjusted cost to date as the agreed figure
Adjusted cost to date is captured cost plus recorded adjustments. It is the figure the delivery team reports and the one Finance can trace.
Dated site activity behind the position
Cost is captured against the day the work occurred, which gives the accrual conversation an underlying record rather than a round-number estimate.
The audit trail
Every adjustment carries a reason and an author
Reconciliation history stays with the project, so the explanation survives the person who produced it.
Position decision history
Aug 2026 · Demo data
311 Shoring · WBS 02.10 Retaining Walls
Match Finance- Captured TD
- £812,400
- Finance TD
- £927,400
- Difference TD
- −£115,000
- Adjustment
- +£115,000
- Adjusted CTD
- £927,400
Decided by Commercial Manager · 28 Aug 2026
150 Project Management
Timing- Captured TD
- £1,842,300
- Finance TD
- £1,781,900
- Difference TD
- £60,400
- Adjustment
- No adjustment
- Adjusted CTD
- £1,842,300
Decided by Commercial Manager · 28 Aug 2026
Actual Foras interface pattern. Entries are illustrative demo data from the Northgate Logistics Park demo project.
What changes in practice
The month-end conversation
- 01
Import posted actuals
Finance actuals are brought in from COINS. This is an import and reconciliation workflow, not a real-time two-way integration.
- 02
Compare against captured cost
Differences surface per cost code as soon as the import lands, before anyone has written a report from either number.
- 03
Record the decision
Timing where the cost is real but not yet posted, Match Finance where Finance is correct and the project position should follow it.
- 04
Keep the history
Each adjustment retains its reason and author, so the same reconciliation is not re-derived next period.
What Foras is — and is not
Clear boundaries with your finance stack
No write-back to your ERP
Foras reads imported actuals and reconciles against them. Nothing Foras records posts into COINS or any other accounting system.
Not an accounting system
Foras is project controls, not a ledger. It does not perform accounting treatment, journals or statutory reporting.
Import, not real-time sync
Finance data arrives through import. Any claim of live bidirectional integration would be inaccurate, so we do not make one.
Bring one closed period. We’ll reconcile it in front of you.
Use a real Finance extract and the delivery team’s reported position. We’ll show where the difference sits and what recording the decision looks like.