This is a guest blog post from Missy Stein with Procore.
Project managers need accurate financial data to help inform and influence project related decisions from the field. Often these decisions need to be made quickly and if the data is not readily available, field staff must contact accounting to obtain that data. This can cause costly delays that can negatively impact the project.
Financial details are pertinent whenever decisions need to be made in the field. Without access to current accounting data, users must instead rely on guesswork from manually entered information. Accounting integration allows teams to be confident that accurate financial data is available instantly from any mobile device or web browser.
Contract Management
One of the main advantages of accounting integration is the ability to enter subcontracts and purchase orders within your project management solution and push that data directly to accounting. An accurate reflection of committed costs will then be visible in accounting without any need for duplicate data entry.
The older method for duplicating accounting data involved entering commitments in your project management solution and then going to the accounting system to retype the same information. This obviously takes more time, but also results in the risk of incomplete or incorrect data.
Reduction of manual data entry reduces the risk of errors.
Cost Management and Forecasting
Project managers out in the field need to manage costs and create forecasts. Once the cost of a particular piece of a job has been estimated and a dollar amount has been committed, project managers need to see how much has been paid on commitments to make budget projections. Immediate, accurate data reflecting the current budget and what has been spent thus far makes forecasting more efficient and accurate.
Having access to this accounting data in real-time also increases flexibility and preparedness for people out in the field. Since all data is accurate and current, employees can be certain that it can be used to positively inform any decisions that have to be made while on location.
For example, take a hypothetical scenario where a project manager is looking at costs. The project manager knows that they are 85% complete with the current section, but costs are already at 90% of what was estimated. With accounting data available in your construction software, he will have the ability to see a red flag—cost to complete is likely going to exceed the estimate, and cut into profits. With constant access to this on this real-time information, intelligent decisions can be made much faster with more accuracy and confidence.
Every time a contract adjustment is made, a commitment is entered, or a change order is submitted, integrated accounting data allows all steps to be completed entirely within one database. The beauty of cloud-based construction project management software is having the power and efficiency to provide your entire field staff and office staff with vital project information all in one centralized repository. Learn more about our products such as our RS means cost data today!
