GovCon: Contract Budget Log (CBL)
The Contract Budget Log aligns the financial model around CLIN records and improving system-driven synchronization between scheduling, budgeting, and the CBL, this feature enhances auditability, enforces data integrity, reduces manual effort, and improves compliance with earned value management (EVM) best practices. It provides stakeholders with a reliable and automated way to trace budget impacts from planning through approval and change management.
How to Use This Function or Component (End User)
Enabling Contract Management on Project
To ensure Contract Management is active for your project, follow these steps
Navigate to Properties > Settings
Locate the Contract Management checkbox and ensure it is selected.
Note: If this feature is not enabled, attempting to access the Contract Budget Log will trigger a notification stating that the module is inactive for the current project.
Generating Month End Record
Navigate to the Contract Budget Log on the Project Toolbar.
Click Create Month End Record at the top-right (below toolbar) to generate log data.
The “Create Month End Record” generates a Summary row for all of the entries to the Contract Budget Log since the previous Month End Record was created.
Similar to the Register, users can customize their view using the following features:
Column Kabob Menu: Use the three-dot menu on each column header to filter and/or sort data within that column
Show Columns: Customize the view by displaying only the most relevant data
Export to Excel: Download data for sharing with non-Cora users
Save Views: Save customized views (filters, columns, and layout) for quicker access in the future
Horizontal Kabob: Displays option for downloading data in XML format for sharing with non-Cora users
Additional Information:
Generated data will reflect delta value from the original and the newly updated amounts either based on Source of Change (PMB approval, BCC Request, Manual Change to WBS or CLIN Register).
For every action—such as a PMB Baseline Approval or Approved BCC—that generates records on the Contract Budget Log (CBL), a summarized record for each Contract Line will be added.
Example Logic: If a baseline change affects the budget across five work packages all linked to a single CLIN, this is processed as one update to that CLIN, resulting in one entry in the CBL.
Changes via PMB approval, Approved BCC and/or Manual Change to CLIN will automatically update the WBS Register.
Note: WBS register will only be updated based CLIN records that are linked to a corresponding WBS record.
? Items to be aware of (Gotchas!)
Item | Admin, End User, or Both |
|---|---|
Contract Budget Log references the WBS & Contract (CLIN) Register and Baseline Change Control Register therefore all are required. | Both |
? Understand the Data
Each row on the Contract Budget Log is one budget-change event. Numeric columns total automatically in a footer row, and rows are read chronologically — a bold row is a period checkpoint (see Close a Period below), not an ordinary change entry.
Every column on the Contract Budget Log grid, in the order they appear.
Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
Date | The date this budget-change entry was recorded. |
CLIN ID | The internal identifier of the Contract Line Item Number (CLIN) this entry relates to. |
CLIN Reference Number | The actual contract-facing CLIN reference or number, as it appears on the contract itself. |
Description | A free-text description of the change. Click it to open the full read-only detail view. |
Source Of Change | What triggered this entry — one of PMB Approval, BCC Request, Manual Change - WBS, Manual Change - CLIN, or Month End Period. See the table below. |
Contract Price | The contract's total price as of this entry. |
Target Price/Fee | The negotiated target price and fee for this entry. |
Negotiated Contract Cost | The negotiated cost baseline as of this entry. |
Original Negotiated Cost | The cost as it was originally negotiated, before any of the changes tracked by this log. |
Total Allocated Budget | The full budget allocated to authorized work as of this entry — typically the Performance Measurement Baseline plus Management Reserve. |
Change Cost | The cost impact of this specific entry — how much this event changed the budget by. |
Authorized Unpriced Work | The value of work that's been authorized to proceed even though a firm price hasn't been negotiated yet. |
Contract Budget Base | The overall budget base for the contract at this point — broadly, allocated budget plus authorized unpriced work. |
Management Reserve | Budget held back by management for unforeseen work that's still within the contract's scope. |
Performance Measurement Baseline | The time-phased budget plan that performance is actually measured against — the total allocated budget minus Management Reserve. |
Undistributed Budget | Budget that's been recognized but not yet pushed down to specific control accounts or work packages. |
Distributed Budget | Budget that has been pushed down to specific control accounts or work packages. |
Overrun | The amount by which actual cost or budget has exceeded the plan as of this entry. |
OTB | A budget figure tied to this entry — the abbreviation is not spelled out on screen. In standard contract-budgeting terminology this reads as Over Target Baseline, a formal reset of the Performance Measurement Baseline above the original contract target when cost growth is significant and unavoidable. Confirm this with your contracts/EVMS lead before relying on it externally. |
Comment | A free-text comment on the entry. Click it to open the same detail view as Description, landing on its Comments tab. |
Source Of Change Values
Value | What produced this entry |
|---|---|
PMB Approval | A Performance Measurement Baseline approval was recorded elsewhere in the system. |
BCC Request | A Baseline Change Control request went through. |
Manual Change - CLIN | A field on a CLIN-type custom register record was edited. |
Manual Change - WBS | A field on a WBS-type custom register record was edited. |
Month End Period | Someone clicked Create Month End Record on this screen to close out a period. |
Before you rely on this guide: most column and status labels above are confirmed directly from the product's on-screen text.
OTBis the one exception — it appears on screen only as the bare abbreviation, so its expansion here is inferred from standard EVMS terminology, not confirmed in the product itself.
Know where a new entry actually comes from
There's no direct "add a row with whatever numbers you like" action on this screen — that's deliberate, since it's meant to be a trustworthy audit trail. To get a new entry onto the log, make the underlying change in the place that actually owns it:
Edit the relevant field on a CLIN-type or WBS-type custom register record for a Manual Change entry.
Go through your organization's Baseline Change Control (BCC) process for a BCC Request entry.
Have the appropriate baseline approval recorded for a PMB Approval entry.
Click Create Month End Record on this screen yourself for a Month End Period checkpoint.
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