As a small business owner, you are constantly juggling priorities, but keeping track of the health of projects shouldn’t keep you up at night. You need visibility into the services you deliver to ensure your projects are completed on time and under budget.
Timesheets for your employees are in one spreadsheet, while an entirely separate spreadsheet is being used to track time spent on the same project for your contractors. The team is left to manually consolidate the information at the end of the day.
Does this sound familiar?
Manual consolidation of data across multiple data sources isn’t very efficient. But while the inefficiency of copying/pasting data is frustrating, the real challenge is the lack of visibility and insight you need to keep your customers up to date and your business up and running.
Imagine running your business in a system instead of a spreadsheet. A tool that gives you–and your customers–access to all your data in one place.
The Key to Completing Projects on Time and Under Budget
Completing projects on time and under budget is the goal of every professional service organization, whether the services you offer range from website development to software implementation to system upgrades.
Regardless of the type of projects your business undertakes, a management tool such as Business Central gives you visibility into what is happening day in and day out on the projects that keep your business afloat. A management system eases the burden of accounting for time, expenses, and reporting back to customers on the status of the project.
As a business owner who is no doubt wearing multiple hats–and maybe even working on the projects yourself–you need to know answers to questions like:
- Where are employees, consultants, and contractors spending their time? How do they align with our priorities?
- Where are we from a revenue or cost perspective? Is it aligned with the customer’s expectations?
- When it comes to a fixed-price project, where are we related to our milestones? Do we need additional resources to meet our upcoming milestone? Is the project on track?
Reduce the Friction of Doing Business
Having the knowledge about whether or not you are under budget, and the ability to track project process, prepare for upcoming milestones, and review and pay invoices all in one convenient location makes it easier to do business.
“Ultimately, a management tool like Business Central reduces the friction of doing business–and that is invaluable to small and midsize business owners,” shared David Eckel, Senior Vice President of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Practice for Intellint.
Improve Project Costing and Accounting
Dispersed systems–from spreadsheets to accounting systems that require manual copy/pasting of information–may be common in your business, but with the right tools, there is a better way to manage projects. Project costing and accounting tools enable better management of projects and eliminate dispersed systems. Imagine what you could do if you replaced hours of admin work with time focused on adding value to your customers or the project.
Increase Profits Through Project Monitoring
Real-time insights on a project’s status, profitability, and resource utilization allow you to make informed decisions about how to move forward–whether you are course correcting or ahead of schedule on any given project. With access to data and the insights it reveals, you can quickly understand if you are under or over budget, if too many hours have been logged, and where you are in the project process.
Manage Resource Utilization
With access to information that reveals the current state of the project, you can manage resource utilization. Tools that offer the ability to track customer invoicing against planned or actual costs on orders and quotes keep both your team and the customer up to speed and ready to evolve if the project does.
Fewer Surprises Through Project Visibility Leads to Success
Visibility into a project’s current state from the perspective of both the delivery team and the customer is what ultimately ensures a project’s success. With access to data that results in usable insights, using a tool like Business Central results in fewer surprises.
No one likes to hear the words “over budget,” “behind schedule,” or “this milestone has been delayed.” With the right tools in place, the system can provide insight into challenges that are occurring before they put a halt to project progress.
Find out spending is higher than it should be? You could conduct an inquiry to find out what is going on, as well as dive into system insights to help figure out why. Did the customer change scope? Do we not have the right resources? Enjoy a reduction in surprises through increased visibility.
How We Can Help
Finishing projects on time and under budget is advantageous for every organization, and is especially the case for small and midsize businesses. Regardless of project size, every endeavor is critical to the success of your organization as you grow–and every project whether internal or external should be achieved on time and under budget. Contact our team to learn if Business Central is a good fit for your small or midsize business.
