Project
financials

Project financials

For professional services firms that rely heavily on project-based work, visibility into each project’s financial performance is critical. Yet, the management of project financials – including specific costs, revenue, budgeting and forecasting for individual projects – reveals similar inefficiencies to cash flow processes.

On average, senior finance decision makers report losing 44 hours per week across the finance team investigating and updating discrepancies in project financials.That is the equivalent of more than one full-time finance employee dedicated entirely to resolving issues that should be preventable – 84% recognize that their finance team spends too much time on manual processes that could otherwise be automated.

25
^hours

per week spent investigating discrepancies in project financials

+

19
^hours

per week spent updating/correcting discrepancies in project financials

=

44 ^{hours combined}

44 ^hours

_combined

More than one full time salary

Project financials

Project financials discrepancies

And despite there presumably being fewer projects to reconcile, the smaller organizations struggled with this even more, perhaps due to less dedicated finance resources, fewer specialized tools, and heavier reliance on basic software:

Average time spent investigating and updating project financial discrepancies by organisation size

Project financials

Finance teams are weighed down with inefficiencies, wasting time here that could be better spent on strategic planning, financial forecasting, and identifying opportunities for growth and margin improvement.

These challenges are compounded by the lack of a unified financial view: 73% of respondents believe that their organization lacks a single source of truth for its financial data. This means teams are working from potentially different numbers, increasing the error risk and creating that need to spend 44 hours reconciling discrepancies. It’s no surprise 92% of respondents recognize that consolidating their financial data would improve the accuracy of financial reporting. Without centralized financial visibility, confident decision-making is near impossible.

73%

My organization lacks a single source of truth for its financial data

92%

Consolidating data would improve the accuracy of my organization's financial reporting

Project financials

In order to build financial processes with clarity and control, investment in integrated financial solutions bringing project-level and company-wide data together is needed.

With this right investment, businesses can reduce manual intervention and duplication, improve reporting accuracy, and free up finance teams to focus on insight and innovation.

Project financials

For professional services firms — where people are usually the primary asset and salary, sub-contractor fees, and operational costs must be tightly managed — inefficient cash flow management processes can have a significant impact on performance, profitability, and planning.

While financial management processes with partial automation and disparate systems can be inefficient, leaving gaps for lost time and errors to occur.

To truly unlock value, organizations need cash flow management solutions that seamlessly integrate and provide real-time visibility, reducing the time finance teams spend reconciling figures, and allowing them to proactively manage working capital, forecast accurately, and drive stronger financial outcomes.