We’re Here for You, Project Finance Team!
Ah, the plight of our fellow project accountants. They have an (almost always) thankless job, but also one that’s critical to any digital consultancy’s health and performance.
These folks are responsible for going deep on data. They assess profit margins, compare trends across teams and services, forecast costs and revenue, and work to keep teams on track and budgets balanced. And they continually collect and send this detailed reporting to management, finance, delivery, sales…the list goes on.
Ever data-driven and analytical, they’re responsible for collecting and reporting across a number of KPIs to keep track of business performance and forecasting. Then, they’re at the center of conversations that are more existential in nature, too, sparking questions like: Are we selling correctly? Are we resourced appropriately? Are we delivering on plan and on budget?
The project accounting point of view is not only critical in answering these questions, but in providing data to inform decisions. And I’m here to tell you it’s HARD work!
Stuck in the status quo
The vast majority of these pros are managing all of this tracking and analysis with manual, cumbersome spreadsheets that are not only prone to human error, but are time consuming to produce. Once this static data is finally captured, populated, and reviewed, it’s probably out of date by the time it’s even reported. 😫 (Read more on why spreadsheets are a bummer).
What’s more, this time consuming and manual data entry forces these experts to work reactively and in the past, and it inhibits them from proactive forecasting and assessing business performance for the future. In other words, a lack of visibility into performance for tomorrow creates a lack of action today in this manual world. The struggle is real!
No one wants to live in the past and work in a reactive-only mode. But it’s this manual approach to financial tracking that keeps us stuck in an outmoded method. Being bogged down looking at actuals prevents project accountants from providing actionable guidance to heed off issues early. It reduces an ability to provide smarter and more accurate forecasts that can inform business decisions and assess overall project health. It limits insight.
Let’s be honest: Managing a digital services consultancy is operationally very challenging, labor intensive, and time consuming. This status quo approach is preventing project accountants from working smarter and more strategically. But there’s a better way.
Drive proactive, real-time reporting with Parallax
The beauty of Parallax is its ability to easily integrate the tools and platforms you’re already using to provide better visibility into project finance and overall business performance. Through a project accounting and finance lens, this solves two issues:
First is the labor-intensive tracking and reporting needed to assess project and team health. All the complex spreadsheets, time-consuming data entry, hours of validation and reporting? They’re a thing of the past! Info is available real time and it’s accurate. It doesn’t rely on manual data entry either. Parallax inputs real data from the real tools your teams are using for more instant visibility into project costs and revenues – with the ability to work across a number of billing models including variable rate cards, time and materials, fixed bid, or retainers.
Parallax also empowers project accountants to work more proactively and strategically. It enables better business analysis to help companies run more efficiently by integrating data from CRM, time management, and delivery platforms. With instant, reliable, and accurate access to project P&L and financial charts, project accountants can help adjust resources or re-align project goals and expectations – before it’s too late and there are concessions or change orders on the way.
Want to learn more?
Whether it’s your sales, delivery, operational, or accounting staff, we believe that Parallax can unlock the potential of your people. Giving them the right tools to succeed allows them to spend more time doing higher-value and more gratifying work.
With a more proactive approach through reporting and project forecasting, digital services shops can run healthier and happier. Project accountants can easily understand and report on business performance across projects and teams, and they can move away from frustrating, time consuming, and reactive reporting struggles. They get the visibility needed to overcome this reactive-only reporting and free up the time for better and smarter business forecasting.
Hey, project accountants! Go deeper on Parallax and tune in to a live demo on delivering more actionable, proactive reports.
