How Can a CFO Team Help My Project Manager?

As a construction business owner, you rely on project managers (PMs) to keep your projects on track, on time, and within budget. But even the best PMs can struggle when it comes to the financial complexities of managing a construction project. That’s where a CFO team comes in. By supporting your project managers with strategic financial insights and processes, you can enhance their performance and, ultimately, improve the profitability of your business.

Let’s break this down into three key areas: what a CFO team does, actionable tactics they bring to your PMs, and the specific insights your team can use immediately.

What Does a CFO Team Do for Project Managers?

A CFO team specializes in managing the financial health of your construction company. For your PMs, this translates to:

1. Providing Accurate Budgets: A CFO team ensures budgets are not just estimates but data-backed, realistic, and broken down to reflect the true costs of labor, materials, overhead, and contingencies.
2. Delivering Financial Forecasts: Forecasting cash flow is critical in construction. A CFO team gives PMs visibility into when funds will come in and go out, so they can plan accordingly.
3. Improving Financial Systems: They introduce tools and processes that simplify reporting, helping PMs spend less time on paperwork and more time on the job site.
4. Standardizing Communication: They act as a bridge between accounting, field operations, and leadership, ensuring financial language is clear and actionable for PMs.

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Tactics For CFO Teams To Directly Support PMs

1. Real-Time Project Tracking

A CFO team introduces systems that enable PMs to track costs in real-time. When every expense is categorized and updated daily or weekly, your PMs no longer need to guess how a project is doing. They’ll know:

• Are we over budget on materials?
• Are labor costs trending higher than planned?
• Do we have enough contingency left to handle unexpected changes?

With this clarity, PMs can take corrective actions before small problems snowball into expensive ones.

2. Aligning Project Budgets with Cash Flow

A CFO team ensures that your PMs understand how their budget interacts with cash flow. For example, if payments from clients are delayed, your PMs can plan staggered material orders or adjust labor scheduling to reduce strain on working capital. This prevents delays caused by cash shortages and keeps projects moving forward.

3. Enhancing Job Costing Accuracy

PMs often rely on rough estimates for job costing, but inaccuracies can eat into profit margins. CFO teams implement systems that refine job costing by pulling data from past projects. This helps PMs estimate more effectively and price projects to ensure profitability.

4. Standardizing Change Order Processes

Change orders are a fact of life in construction. A CFO team helps PMs establish clear, standardized procedures for documenting and pricing changes. This ensures that every additional scope of work is accounted for—and billed—accurately and promptly.

5. Improving Vendor and Subcontractor Negotiations

PMs frequently deal with vendors and subcontractors. A CFO team can equip them with financial benchmarks and negotiation strategies to secure better terms or avoid overpaying. They can also analyze subcontractor performance to ensure PMs are working with reliable, cost-effective partners.

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Actionable Insights for PMs

To start seeing benefits immediately, consider these steps:

1. Leverage Technology: Use cloud-based tools like Procore or Buildertrend integrated with accounting software. These tools give PMs instant visibility into budgets, schedules, and expenses.
2. Establish Weekly Cost Reviews: Set up a weekly meeting between the PM and your CFO team to review job costs, identify variances, and adjust plans as needed.
3. Analyze Past Project Data: Have your CFO team create reports from completed projects that detail where profits were made or lost. Share these insights with PMs to help them avoid repeat mistakes.
4. Adopt a 3-Point Forecasting Model: For every major project component, consider the best-case, worst-case, and most likely financial scenarios. This empowers PMs to plan for uncertainty without jeopardizing profitability.
5. Develop a PM Financial Playbook: Work with your CFO team to create a simple guide for PMs that outlines budget management, cost tracking, and cash flow principles.

The Bottom Line

By embedding a CFO team into your construction business, you empower your project managers with the financial tools, insights, and support they need to excel. With better job costing, smarter cash flow management, and clearer financial oversight, your projects are more likely to stay on time, under budget, and in the black.

Ready to Level Up Your Project Managers?

Your PMs are already great at what they do—let’s make them unstoppable. By partnering with a CFO team like ours, you’re not just improving project outcomes—you’re building a more resilient, profitable construction business. Reach out today to see how we can help.

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