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The more your money works for you, the less you have to work for money. – Idowu Koyenikan
Belts are tightening across the construction industry as the economy shows signs of a recession. Quality financial managers know how to make current spending work for their firms. They have the drive to succeed.
A good construction financial manager:
- Respects the need for compromise when sharing responsibility
- Understands the need to maintain historical records
- Prepares accurate, timely, and complete reports
- Ensures the availability of financial reports
- Takes charge of variances
- Maintains confidentiality and privacy
Finding and conveying efficiencies is the key to keeping your cash flow forecast positive. Discover, own, and present cash flow insights that matter.
- Respect the Need for Compromise
In construction, general contractors and subcontractors often perform different audits. Learning to work within this system and share responsibilities produces numerous benefits. Among the advantages are an appreciation for another company’s books, a reduction in the time an audit takes, and an increase in the amount of available data you can use to make informed decisions.
- Maintaining Historical Records
Financial managers have responsibility for the outcome of any audit. Keeping records limits problems if anyone questions your books. They help compare past projects against construction in progress as well. For these reasons, the estimating department and your lawyers expect you to maintain data. Oftentimes though, data is unstructured, and information can be hard to find. Electronic data storage eliminates cost and clutter by keeping all your information under one roof. Some platforms, like Briq, can not only store this data, but can also form deep insights through predictive analytics.
- Creating Timely and Accurate Reports
Reporting is the mainstay of accounting. Timely and accurate reports allow your business to react quickly to changes in cash flow. Advances in construction data analytics make it possible to condense previously costly and time-consuming reports to real-time at the touch of a button. Construction work in progress reports now take minutes instead of 90 days to complete.
- Make Reports Available
Reports should not only be accurate and timely, but available at all times. Knowing who to distribute information to is the key to success. Keep the people who sign off on your recommendations in the loop. This is not only good for the business but builds your credibility as well. Using an analytics tool with real-time dashboards that can be accessed at any moment, from the field or the office, is the next step for advanced construction financial managers.
- Take Charge of Variances
When records and analysis show unusual variances in your cash flow forecast, it is the responsibility of the financial manager to explain them. Bosses expect you to own and help solve any problems. The problem with this is simple; humans are not perfect. There will always be a change order missed, or data entered incorrectly into an Excel file. Data analytics tools not only spot deviations, but offer insight into why they occur. They condense the analysis of multiple variables to a digestible format with powerful visuals.
- Maintain Confidentiality
Management is a position of trust. Your managers rely on you to avoid disclosing trade secrets and vital company information. This is no small issue, as the cost of a data breach in 2020 alone has already reached $3.86 million. It is easy to avoid encryption and passwords in Excel, but not a modern accounting tool. Data must be stored in a safe place, like a data cloud, with advanced security features to keep your money and your operations in safe hands.
Qualities of a Successful Financial Manager
Successful financial managers take charge, own variances, and provide accurate and timely insight. They understand the needs of their company and keep their best interests in mind. Briq construction technology supports managers with fast and timely information, data management, and sharing capabilities. Get in touch with us for more information.
