In the Spitfire Project Management System (sfPMS) your budget is entered, viewed, and maintained in the Budget, Forecast, and Analysis (BFA) Workbook. BFA is a Microsoft Excel workbook with multiple worksheets and is designed to provide a single tool to create project budgets, forecast projections, and analyze your projects’ budget vs. expenses within the classic Excel format.
Depending upon which access points in sfPMS you use to open the BFA workbook, BFA will open in one of the following modes:
| Mode | Access From… | Purpose |
| Initial Budget | Budget document | Enter original Budget |
| Budget | Budget document | Update, revise Budget |
| Forecast | Forecast document | Enter, update, and review Forecast |
| Analysis | Options menu on the Project Dashboard | Review current Budget, Forecast, Actuals, Commitments, and Pending Change Orders |
The BFA Workbook consists of a main worksheet – Data – as well as a Setup worksheet, which affects the Data worksheet, and Executive Overview, Cost Analysis, Division Totals, Account Category Totals, and Billing Code Totals worksheets. The workbook is loaded via the web connection from the server. There is no local copy, and no data is saved directly in the workbook to the user’s computer.
The ability to access, read, edit, and save information in a BFA workbook is determined by each user’s Spitfire permission levels, as set up through roles.
The BFA workbook consists of worksheets, multiple Spitfire-generated forms, wizards, and views designed to streamline operations and present information efficiently.
While in the BFA workbook, you can use some normal Excel menus and functions. Some functions have been disabled in order to ensure data consistency. If you attempt to use a disabled function, a message will alert you to its disabled status.