How to Manage Entire Construction Budgets Without the Nightmare

Since many construction companies typically have more than one job underway simultaneously, it can create logistical nightmares for the accounting teams who need to manage, coordinate, and divvy up the funds necessary for each individual project. With so many moving parts involved in a single construction project, it can be difficult to keep track of every expense, invoice, and cost.

Keep your eye on the budget (even when times are good)

The sheer amount of information that construction companies need to administer budgets requires an immense commitment of time, manpower, and funds.

Someone has to capture all of the data, then organize and store it, and finally analyze it to produce a flow of reports and documents. During this long, convoluted process, it’s almost guaranteed that not only will the construction firm end up paying for duplicative and redundant processes, but information will get lost.

Data management systems cost construction companies significant amounts of money even when times are good, and when inaccuracies or mistakes inevitably arise, it ripples throughout the entire enterprise. In addition, the usage of outdated and modular single point solutions means, more often than not, the distinct departments that comprise a construction company are cut off from each other and unable to share the necessary data required to make accurate on-the-job financial decisions.

Spreadsheets can be very unforgiving of errors. Users have a huge chance of making an error per cell. Multiply that by hundreds and thousands of cells and you end up with a big mess. What makes matters worse is that there is no automated self-checking process with spreadsheets. These are not only opens the door for a lot of mistake to occur, but to compound and spiral out of control. However, construction software with mobile applications are helping companies manage their data safely and effectively. Don’t settle for anything less. Find a software you can trust.

The actual construction phase of any project should not have to include creative budgeting solutions. Field teams often cannot wait for someone back at the office to respond to an urgent request for additional resources to purchase new materials or take on a much-needed subcontractor. The job’s foreman is already busy with supervising subcontractors and maintaining a high quality of work, and if this individual is also tasked with locating ways to trim expenses or shuffle around capital to pay for unforeseen expenses, it will detrimentally affect the finished product.

With so many moving parts involved in a single construction project, it can be difficult to keep track of every expense, invoice, and cost.

In a situation like this, either the field team ends up finishing the job without the necessary tools or the job runs considerably over budget, either of which can seriously damage the construction firm’s reputation and/or the project’s profit margins. Worse, these late-stage changes lead to cost overruns that will be felt throughout the entire company.

Ensuring that all departments and team members have real-time access to data and are actively communicating with each other remains a key objective for construction firms. Nowhere is this open communication more important than in the way the accounting team deals with other departments.

Rather than filling out paperwork and having it processed later by support staff, implementing a single platform that disseminates real time access to all accounting information to all team members allows everyone to accurately forecast project costs, and provides the construction firm with solid insight into the financial impact of every project.