Smart MTD hours (month-to-date) and Smart Month-End hours represent different time perspectives of the same Smart forecast.
Smart MTD shows the cumulative Smart hours up to the current date, while Smart Month-End shows the full-month projection.
The way these hours are calculated may differ depending on how your Smart forecast is configured — either using a primary cost driver only or machine learning (ML).
These two calculation approaches result in different daily distributions and therefore may lead to differences in calculation approaches between Smart MTD and Smart Month-End values.

Total monthly SMART hours calculation:
If the Target is set to Productivity, then the formula used will be:
Total month Cost driver divided by Forecasted Productivity. This is true for either of the two settings described below.

SMART calculation options

Scenario 1: When Smart uses a Primary Cost Driver only

• In this setup, Smart forecast calculates daily hours directly from the selected cost driver.
• Formula:  Daily Smart hours = Cost Driver value ÷ Forecasted Productivity
• Each day’s Smart value is determined only by that day’s cost driver, and the MTD (month-to-date) total is simply the sum of all daily Smart hours so far.

Scenario 2: Smart forecast calculated using Machine Learning (ML)

• In this setup, the Smart forecast on individual days is calculated by machine learning (ML) rather than relying only on the primary cost driver.
• Each day’s Smart value is based on historical patterns, trends, and seasonality, allowing the system to reflect realistic fluctuations in workload across the month.

Because of this:

• You cannot calculate Smart MTD hours by dividing the MTD cost driver value by the forecasted productivity.
• The correct Smart MTD value comes from the sum of daily Smart hours generated by the ML model.
• During the month, MTD productivity may differ from the forecasted productivity because of how the model distributes expected workload.

Tip

To confirm which setup your Smart forecast uses:

1. Go to Cockpit → Tools →Settings.
2. Check if Use only primary cost driver in SMART is selected.

If ML is used, differences in calculation approaches between Smart MTD and Month-End hours are expected and do not indicate an error.