The project is spending faster than planned. What should I check first?
Unexplained cost varianceCompare spending with the work actually accomplished and the timing of commitments. Early spending can be legitimate, but it needs explanation before concluding that the project is over budget.
What to do now
- Reconcile actual and committed costs
- Compare them with achieved work
- Identify timing differences and genuine overruns
- Update the forecast to complete
When to escalate
Escalate when
The forecast exceeds authorized funding or cash availability.
Who decides
The budget owner and authorized finance representative
Example
An early equipment purchase explains some spending, while repeated rework explains a genuine forecast increase.
Mistake to avoid
Judging performance from expenditure alone.
Prevent a repeat
Review remaining cost and commitments, not only money already spent; reconcile with the authorized finance source.
Related cases
- How can we tell whether a budget variance is temporary or permanent?Variance timing ambiguity
- A milestone is complete but cannot be invoiced. What should we check?Delivery-to-billing gap
- A vendor change order is much higher than expected. How should we review it?Unexplained change pricing
- AI usage costs are rising faster than adoption. What should we examine?Uncontrolled inference consumption