Why is managing multiple projects so difficult without a construction-specific financial management system?
This is the same question asked by our founder when deciding to start solving this problem with Contractable. As recently as only a few years ago, it became clear that this was a critical blind spot affecting the entire construction industry.
Construction technology has been rapidly evolving now for over 20 years. Huge progress has been made in how projects were designed and managed, but something crucial was being overlooked.
We often hear similar versions of the following story from new customers that understand the value of implementing a system that can deliver visibility of financial health and control over every aspect of running multiple complex projects.
A construction business owner sits at their desk reviewing the company’s yearly financials: On paper, everything looks spectacular – a Million-dollar plus profit. But something feels off.
“I can’t shake this feeling that we aren’t seeing the whole picture,” They ask themselves.
After spending weeks digging through individual project data, meticulously analysing where money was coming in and going out, what they discovered is alarming. The company was haemorrhaging money on two projects while one project was carrying the entire business. The worst part? Their financial systems never showed this critical insight.
Traditional financial systems like Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks provided high-level company overviews but left construction businesses completely blind to individual project performance. Ultimately, they have been built for taxation reporting and compliance, not designed to solve the challenges faced by growing project-based businesses.
The consequences of this type of financial blindness have been devastating across the industry:
- Companies repeatedly made the same costly mistakes on similar projects.
- Estimators lacked historical performance data to accurately price future work.
- Cash flow crises appeared without warning, especially without visibility of committed costs and supplier material price hikes.
- Project managers couldn’t identify which job sections were profitable and which weren’t.
At Contractable, we have been determined to solve these problems.
For our new customers, the transformation is often immediate and profound:
“We have identified exactly where labour costs were exceeding our allowances on project estimates.”
“Finally, I can see how price changes affect my profit margin on every section of a progress claim within a live budget.”
Most importantly, Contractable allows users to make data-driven decisions that can transform and grow their business.
“It was like someone finally turned on the lights after years of working in the dark!”
Delivering purpose-built financial management software that gives construction businesses complete visibility into project performance.
What makes our approach unique is that we built it from a construction contractor’s perspective.
We understand the nuances:
- The complex cash flow challenges & how to plan around the volatility of income.
- The need to track costs by specific project sections & tasks.
- The value of historical data for accurately pricing similar future projects.
What is most enjoyable for us is where new business managers using Contractable experience that same moment of clarity our founder had years ago. Like the lights have just flicked on for the first time.
