Free AI skill

Historical Project Cost Analyzer

Cross-references several closed projects to find which cost categories systematically run over, and how much contingency to add to your next estimate.

Copy-paste ready promptRanking of recurring overrun categoriesRecommended contingency per category

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What's included

The full skill in MarkdownA real example report generatedSample data from 6 projects to test it before using your own

Who it's for

ManagementTechnical officeEstimating department

Every closed project holds a lesson about what got estimated wrong, but that lesson almost never makes it into the next bid: the job gets filed away and the next one gets priced with the same template and the same old unit costs.

The skill doesn't analyze a single project — it cross-references several closed projects by cost category, calculates the average deviation aggregated across all of them, and tells apart a category that overruns every single time (a recurring pattern) from one that overran once because that particular job hit an unusual snag (an isolated case). It also compares average margin by project type and proposes the contingency to apply in the next estimate, category by category.

It doesn't replace a proper cost study or a detailed budget, and with fewer than 2-3 closed projects sharing the same category there isn't enough sample to call it a pattern — the skill says so explicitly instead of drawing a conclusion from a single data point.

BLOQBASE builds this cross-project analysis automatically and continuously, job after job, without anyone needing to sit down and compare CSVs periodically. If you want to see it with your own project history, reach out through /contacto.

How to use it with judgment: start with one real, well-defined case, enter only data you can verify, and keep the reviewed version. The goal is not to fill in another document for its own sake, but to turn a project decision into a record that someone else can understand and review later.

Before making it part of your process, check three things: the inputs come from an identifiable source, the calculations or wording match the actual project, and it is clear who must approve the result. If one is missing, treat it as working material rather than final project documentation.

How to prepare the input: start with a real case and define which question the skill must answer, which period the data covers, and which fields cannot be missing. Mark estimates or incomplete sources before requesting the analysis.

How to review the output: check that conclusions can be traced back to your data, inspect the rows or documents behind each alert, and discuss priority cases with the person responsible for the project. A skill helps organize judgment; it does not replace technical, contractual, or financial approval.

How to make it part of the workflow: keep the prompt, the source data, and the reviewed result with the project. This lets you repeat the analysis when progress changes, compare periods, and explain why a recommendation was accepted, rejected, or sent for review.

How to put it to work on a real project

The idea isn't to download another file and forget it in a folder. Use it with a specific case: a pending certificate, a coordination meeting, a cost overrun or a handover to the developer. Fill in the resource with real data from your project, validate the result with your own technical judgment, and keep it as an internal reference to repeat the process next time.

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Historical Project Cost Analyzer | BLOQBASE