The Month-End Process in a Third Generation Project Business System

Most project-driven companies struggle to complete month-end reporting, including financial and operational KPIs. As a result, many completely forego it altogether, missing out on crucial business performance metrics and making regulatory reporting extremely difficult.

The lack of real-time tracking of costs and commitments from production, procurement, timesheets, expense reports, and inventory consumption means it takes too long to conduct the month-end process because companies have to gather this information manually. Without a truly integrated project business system, not only is it difficult to analyze critical performance metrics, but also to compare trends to previous month-end results when there’s no standardized month-end process.

Many don’t know if their project is profitable until after the project is complete. And for projects that last longer than a month, it’s critical to recognize revenue on a monthly basis as the project progresses.

Month-End Process in a Generation 3 Project Business System

Successful project-driven companies understand the importance of knowing the status of their project at every step, whether it’s on budget and on track.

As part of Adeaca Project Business Automation, the month-end process in a third-generation system provides unique capabilities that go beyond other solutions on the market. Due to its integrated nature, the month-end process in Adeaca PBA enables project-driven companies to continually evaluate project productivity, schedule, and cost performance indexes, and compare trends to previous month-end results.

What is the Month-End Process in Adeaca PBA

The month-end process describes a set of processes undertaken periodically, typically at the end of each month. These processes are mostly tied to closing out monthly financials so companies can recognize revenue, report profits and start the invoicing process. There may also be additional operational checkpoints as well including closing outstanding issues or change sets.

The month-end process in Adeaca PBA provides real-time tracking of costs and commitments, so companies have control and visibility into the status of all projects.

Adeaca PBA has built-in processes for the month-end procedure, automating much of the work involved so companies can compare trends to previous month-end results.

This includes:

• Automated reforecasting (EAC)
• Operational and financial risk reviews
• Operational financial to-do checklists
• Formal approval of work breakdown structure changesets
• Billing & revenue recognition

Benefits of the Month-End Process in Adeaca PBA

Adeaca PBA provides structure and format to the month-end process. The period close framework allows companies to set up mandatory risk reviews and checklists to complete before a project is closed off for the month. In addition, the costing sheet must be completed and signed off along with the work breakdown structure (WBS) change sets and recent developments in project health indicators.

In addition, the month-end process in Adeaca PBA allows you to generate reliable and comparable performance KPIs. It combines actual costs and commitments with quantitative progress indicators, enabling controllers to analyze critical performance metrics such as productivity indicators, completion degrees, budget variances and margin at completion. Real-time data tracked against a multilevel cost breakdown structure means variances are instantly identified.

Evaluate Revenue on a Monthly Basis

The month-end process in Adeaca PBA allows you to continually evaluate project productivity, schedule and cost performance indexes with processes that include reforecasting (EAC), financial risk reviews, financial to-do checklists, and billing and revenue recognition. In a generation 3 project business system, project-driven companies can know what’s going on with their projects, and how their business is doing overall in real time. This guarantees your projects are delivered on time and on budget.

To learn more about the month-end process in Adeaca Project Business Automation, download the Month-End Process feature brief.