Cost Actual

Definition

The real cost of work, captured from real sources — timesheets/payroll allocations, cloud bills, vendor invoices — as the work happens.

Worked Example

Same task, three weeks later:

Backend engineer  102 h x $60 = $6,120
QA engineer        18 h x $45 =   $810
Cloud (test env)               =   $470
                                -------
Total actual                    $7,400

Interpretation & Pitfalls

Actuals must carry their source (payroll, AWS, invoice) — an actual without lineage is just another estimate.

In TupicFinance

Actuals are a separate table (Layer 2), fed from payroll allocations and source-tagged cost items.