Project Forecasting made simple with Cora PPM

In this video, we share how centralizing and digitizing Project Forecasting using Cora PPM can help the whole organization

Meet Marie, a project accountant with Sharps, a large Mechanical and Electrical contracting firm, and her colleague Arthur an Engineering Manager. One of Marie’s primary tasks is forecasting: making sure that cash flow is in a good place. Her biggest challenge used to be having to constantly contact Arthur to ask what needed to happen to get invoices issued but that changed after implementing Cora PPM. Here is their story:

Transcript

Arthur is the Engineering Manager for Sharps, a large Mechanical and Electrical contracting firm. At any point in time, Sharps has about 55 jobs running. Arthur’s colleague, Marie, is the project accountant in Sharps. One of her primary tasks is forecasting: making sure that cash flow is good. That means creating invoices on time and having low WIP (work-in-progress) days – that’s the number of days between work being completed and invoices issued.

Marie struggles with clients who try and delay the issuing of invoices. Arthur is constantly asked by Marie what needs to happen to get the next invoice issued, which puts pressure on Arthur.

Marie struggles with clients who try and delay the issuing of invoices. Arthur is constantly asked by Marie what needs to happen to get the next invoice issued, which puts pressure on Arthur.

Part of Marie’s job is to update Sharps’ company cash flow for Alan, her CFO. Alan has his own headaches – he has to make investment decisions. In order to make the right ones, he needs to have an accurate view of what’s in his cash flow at any moment in time.

Getting that project data together for forecasting is a bothersome, paper-based exercise. There are bottlenecks everywhere. Marie can’t get an immediate view of when invoices are due. It’s impossible to get a quick handle on cost estimates, change requests on a project, and the revised Project Costs to date.

But after installing Cora PPM, Marie now has a digital view into the financial health of the projects on Sharps’ books. It’s transformed her working day. She can see costs for a project – which are linked to cost codes in SAP, Sharps’ financial system – when they’ll be incurred, as well as Estimate At Completion figures.

She can get an immediate handle on skill requirements by the hour and currency – all cost-coded and linked back to SAP. She can also easily forecast, seeing revenues coming from the Gantt chart payment milestones filled in by Arthur’s project manager on the Gantt Chart, with displays of gross margin figures, under- and over-billings – and whether or not projects are in negative or positive cash flow. She can also see what tasks need to be completed by looking at the Gantt chart before she sends the client an invoice.

She’s got control back in her life. Now she no longer needs to phone or email Arthur to update Sharps’ company cash flow for Alan, the CFO. This is a big relief to Arthur. He can get on with the work he does best – managing his team and making projects happen, and it’s made it easy for Arthur’s project managers to complete their forecasts – it’s just like filling out an Excel sheet, but with far more intelligence behind it.

Everyone is in a better place. Marie has a command of invoice delays and is managing company cash flow much better. Alan, her CFO, is making investment decisions with greater confidence. The senior management team can see what’s going on in an instant because dashboards provide them with summary views of project finances and normal and payment milestones.

Now that’s how to get your arms around forecasting so you can better run your business!