📅 Project Controls

When the schedule moves, the forecast should move with it

Activity-level critical path scheduling and budget control in one system, with full earned value analysis — so a slipping activity becomes a cost forecast you can act on, not a surprise you discover at month end.

Built for: Project directors, planners and project controls leads

The problem

The schedule is in one tool and the money is in another

The programme sits in MS Project or P6. The budget sits in Excel. Someone reconciles them monthly, by hand, and by the time the reconciliation is finished it describes a project that no longer exists.

The practical consequence is late warning. Cost and schedule variance are visible only after the reporting cycle closes, which is precisely when the window to do something cheap about it has passed. Earned value exists to give that early signal — but only if the schedule and the cost data are in the same place and current.

How duBizz handles it

One model for time and cost

duBizz calculates the critical path from your activity network — forward and backward pass, total and free float, resource calendars — and holds the budget against the same structure. Baselines are captured and retained, so variance is measured against what was agreed rather than what was last edited.

Earned value runs continuously on top: CPI, SPI, EAC, ETC and TCPI recalculated as progress and actuals land. Leadership sees the trend, not a month-old snapshot.

Capabilities

What you actually get

🧮

Full critical path calculation

Forward and backward pass across the activity network with total and free float, driving activities and critical path identification — not a Gantt chart with dependencies drawn on.

📐

Baselines and variance

Capture and retain schedule and budget baselines, then measure actual performance against them. Variance is against the agreed plan, not against last week's edit.

📈

Earned value, continuously

CPI, SPI, EAC, ETC and TCPI calculated from live progress and actual cost. The early-warning signal earned value was designed to provide, available between reporting cycles rather than after them.

💷

Budget spread profiles

Budget items distributed across months with configurable spread profiles, so planned expenditure has a shape you can forecast cash against.

👷

Resource calendars

Working calendars and resource allocation linked to the schedule, so availability constrains the plan rather than contradicting it.

🚦

Portfolio roll-up

Activity-level detail rolls into project health and portfolio RAG status, so the same data serves the planner and the board.

Land and expand

Where teams go next

Schedule and cost control is the wedge that most naturally pulls the rest of delivery in. Once variance is visible, the questions that follow are about why — which routes teams to the risk and issue register, and to the contract variations driving the cost movement.

📅
Scheduler & CPM You start here
⚠️
RAID Register Project Controls
📄
Contract Management Commercial & Contracts
Questions

Scheduler & CPM — common questions

Can we import an existing MS Project or Primavera P6 schedule?
Schedule import is handled during onboarding as part of the guided setup. Talk to us about your current file format and we will confirm exactly what transfers and what needs rebuilding before you commit to anything.
Is this a replacement for P6 on a major programme?
For a large, planner-heavy programme with a dedicated scheduling function, P6 remains a deeper scheduling tool and we will say so. duBizz is the stronger fit where the schedule needs to be connected to cost, contracts and reporting, and where the alternative today is a Gantt tool plus a spreadsheet.
Do we need a full-time planner to run it?
No. The scheduling engine handles the calculation; the discipline required is regular progress updates. Teams without a dedicated planner typically start with a lighter activity structure and add detail as the habit forms.
Next step

See Scheduler & CPM against your own data

Bring a real example from your projects to a walkthrough and we will show you the fix for your situation — not a generic demo.