In the fast-paced world of project management, streamlined financial management is essential for success. This article delves into the advantages and features of utilizing an all-in-one enterprise resource planning (ERP) tool for managing project finances. From seamless integration of financial data to real-time insights, discover how an ERP tool can optimize resource allocation, enhance decision-making, and drive project success like never before.
What is project finance management?
Project management is the process of planning, organizing, monitoring, and controlling the financial resources and activities of a specific project. It involves managing the budget, tracking expenses, forecasting financial needs, and ensuring that financial resources are allocated appropriately to achieve project goals. Project finance management is a critical aspect of project management as it ensures that projects are completed within budget and on schedule.
Benefits of good project finance management in your company
Managing project finance well can provide numerous benefits to a company. Here are some of the main benefits:
1. Improved financial planning: Project finance management enables companies to plan and allocate financial resources more effectively, leading to better budgeting and cost control. This can help organizations to reduce cost, maximize profits, and optimize financial performance.
2. Enhanced project performance: Effective project finance management ensures that projects are completed within budget and on time. By monitoring expenses and managing budgets, project managers can identify potential cost overruns early and take corrective action.
3. Better decision making: Project finance management provides real-time financial data and analytics that enable managers to make informed decisions. By having access to up-to-date financial information, managers can adjust financial plans as needed and make more accurate projections for future projects.
4. Increased accountability: Good project finance management helps to increase accountability for project expenses and financial performance. By establishing clear financial controls and tracking expenses, organizations can hold project teams accountable for their financial decisions and ensure that resources are being used efficiently and effectively.
5. Improved communication: Project finance management provides a centralized platform for financial data and reporting. This improves communication between project teams, finance teams, and executives, leading to better collaboration and more effective decision-making.
What is Vault ERP’s financial package and how can it help your organization?
Vault ERP is a modular, cloud-based ERP software designed to help organizations to manage their financial resources and activities related to operations and projects. Vault ERP provides a centralized platform to track expenses, monitor budgets, manage financial transactions for individual projects, invoices, and GL. Additionally, the software provides real-time data and analytics and streamlines and automates financial processes. Project managers will be empowered by having access to everything from project hours, expenses, incoming invoices, milestones and more.
Project finance management features you can use
Vault ERP has a number of features that you can use to streamline and improve your organization’s project finance management. Learn about them below.
Project basic info
This is a form that contains all the essential information about a project such as the name, client, phase, status, start and finish date, project coordinators and project members, and whether the project is billable or not. You can assign a color to each project, so that you can spot it on the dashboard quickly, and you can make changes to the project info from here any time you need to.
Project dashboard
Vault ERP’s dashboard allows you configure widgets according to your preferences. You have all the critical information at your fingertips on your dashboard, including project information, the time off roster, KPIs, and much more. You can instantly view whether the project is on track in terms of budget. And depending on your module configuration, you can access integrations, contacts, time tracking, documents, schedules, and many more functions from the project dashboard.
Access control
You can easily decide what level of access you grant to each Vault ERP user and to which company by adding a role from the dropdown menu. The roles will be defined by the system administrator.
Project transactions
From the project dashboard, you can access project transactions, where you can view dates, type of transaction, estimate, commitment and actual spending, transaction status, and last change made, and also view any attached documents. You can record estimates, submit transactions for approval, or create a purchase order from here.
Budgets & forecasts
You can view budget graphs showing the sum for transaction budget, commitment, actual, spend per month, and budget remaining.
Project budgets
Project budgets can be created in the transactions tab. You can attach files, select budget type (defined by system administrator), set amount in chosen currency, add description, enter a value for planned monthly expenditure, and set budget period.
Read on: Maximize profit with effective project cost management
Client profiles
The project client info widget allows you to access client profiles from the project dashboard. You can view clients’ information, location, contacts and email templates. Contacts can be viewed in a list or by cards. The client dashboard allows for view customization, and you can select from a large number of fields, including boards, last change, managers, master client, name, top project, open invoice amount, and more.
Vendors
All your essential information about vendors can be viewed at glance. The view is customizable, so you decide how much information you want have displayed by selecting fields such as description, contract end, last change, last transaction, and more. Clicking on any vendor in the list will take you to the vendor’s page.
Contacts
The vendors module allows you to create contacts. Contacts can be viewed in a list or card view. Creating a contact is easy with Vault ERP - a form will pop up where you can enter all the key information, like the prefix, first name, middle name, last name, nickname, company, department, job title, notes, and much more.
Purchase orders
The purchase orders module gives you a comprehensive overview of all purchase orders. KPIs show the value of POs by various statuses. You can select from various fields to customize the purchase order view, including number, date, vendor, status, type and more. Financials in each item line show a bar representing the total amount, invoiced amount, and commitment. You can export the data in an Excel format and add new POs here. Additionally, clicking on a PO opens its details.
Financial workflow
With Vault ERP, you can create budgets to achieve your financial goals, authorize pending transactions, record purchases, sales, and payments, and allocate transactions to correct accounts.
Read on: Your guide to the project management workflow
Incoming center
The incoming center centralizes incoming items in one place. You can configure multiple channels to receive invoices and other items, import everything, or import items from a chosen date. The incoming center dashboard displays all channels, indicating a value for open and new items.
Decision center (email notifications)
In the decision center, you can view a column with all pending and resolved transactions. You can see the details of the last submitted transaction, its description and any documents, if attached. Transactions can be approved or denied here. You can also set a budget limit for approvers in this module.
Project finance management is a critical aspect of any business venture. The success of a project often depends on the effective management of financial resources and the ability to mitigate risks throughout the project life cycle. With the right technology and strategies in place, businesses can achieve success in their projects and maximize their returns on investment.
To learn more about Vault ERP and how it can benefit your business, take a look at our website, or get in touch with any questions you may have.
