Being agile is the name of the game in business. Especially when you work as a contractor on multiple projects. You must be able to adapt to economic changes and customer demands, fast. But, without a general guide map it may be difficult for your business to navigate unplanned events and expenses. This is where the art of forecasting and budgeting can help.
Not sure where to start? NetSuite’s abilities may be your saving grace. Our CPAs have seen far too many times how not having accurate oversight of the numbers can get contractors in hot water as they often overpromise and underquote the scope of the projects they take on. But, NetSuite’s forecasting abilities can help you navigate the intricate dance between expenses and profits and aid you budget effectively.
In this article, we take a look at how NetSuite can help contractors forecast costs accurately and with ease.
Forecasting and budgeting for contractor costs in NetSuite
Forecasting and budgeting are important ingredients to business success. These serve as a roadmap for strategic decision-making and financial stability. By anticipating future trends, businesses can optimize resource allocation, mitigate risks, and build investor confidence. Budgets also play a crucial role in performance evaluation and they ensure transparency and commitment to financial goals.
With NetSuite, you can make use of financial records and project data to assess the realistic financial and resource needs of a project. With this accounting software, you can track expenses and drill into specifics to understand exactly how your business spends money. This serves as a reliable foundation upon which to build your budgeting and forecasting strategy.
Understanding variable contractor costs
Because contractors work on various projects with differing outputs and goals, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to costing. From fluctuating market conditions to project intricacies, factors such as labor rates, material costs, and regulatory changes can significantly impact expenses. This is where NetSuite’s historical data analysis comes in handy. NetSuite allows you to view previous projects of a similar nature and pull customized comparative reports. Track previous payroll and subcontractor costs to gain invaluable insights into past expenditures. The best part is that the comparative ability of the reporting in NetSuite can help you identify trends to create more accurate forecasts.
Setting up budgets in NetSuite
The importance of monitoring actuals against budgeted amounts cannot be overstated. Setting a budget is one thing, but monitoring its precision and accuracy is another. Forecasting only works if it is as close to accurate as possible, and this is where doing a recon and reviewing the budgets of previous projects come in handy. This kind of insight will enable you to make real-time adjustments and optimize resource utilization to suit the budgetary goals of your projects.
NetSuite, with its advanced tools, enables businesses to make accurate predictions. Plus, you can set project-specific budgets within the software and manage expenses accordingly. Along with your CPA, using your NetSuite data will give you a strategic advantage that empowers you to proactively navigate the unpredictable landscape of contractor expenses with confidence and precision.
Forecasting techniques
Predictive analytics is a game-changer when it comes to forecasting. With NetSuite’s integration into financial foresight and business intelligence software, you have an added layer of precision when it comes to leveraging patterns to foresee a trajectory of future outcomes.
Contractor projects often require the flexibility to adjust budgets as project demands change. Recognizing when adjustments are needed is a key skill, and NetSuite’s insights can help you make decisions safely. Analyzing data in real-time data is key when having to make swift decisions that affect the budgets and timelines of a project. But, NetSuite’s real-time reporting ability can help you do so with confidence. This is because with NetSuite reporting you can get insights into project performance, expenditure patterns, and potential deviations from the budget.
Our CPAs have also built bespoke integrations to upgrade automation and the business intelligence ability of NetSuite and give you richer data to drive your project budgets forward. 
Partnering with a CPA to optimize actionable insights
While there has never been more tracking data available to businesses than now, being able to navigate this data successfully is crucial to taking the right steps for the growth of your business. Numbers without the ability to interpret them mean nothing. At Fusion CPA, we have found that our expertise aids clients in accurately interpreting financial intricacies to design reliable forecasting strategies. Our NetSuite-certified team has also found that oftentimes contractors work off pre-determined templates to cost projects. While this is not entirely wrong, it may be limiting your earning potential as there are very specific data trends that could help you calculate a realistic budget for high-risk projects. Contact us to assist today!
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