Finances

When running a project, it’s easy for costs to run away from your control as there are so many different aspects to keep track of. It’s also tempting to spend on elements that might not be the most cost-effective option to choose. To help you have more control of your finances when running a project, we’ve listed some top tips below. Read on if you want to find out more.

Create A Budget Plan

The first step you can take to make sure your finances are under control when planning a project is to put together a budget plan. This should cover all the different areas of your project and the predicted costs you think will be involved. Split your budget plan into different sections of your project so it’s easier to keep on top of the finances involved in each of them. You can then focus on individual areas and their costs and come up with a budget plan for each that will come together to form your total budget plan. It’s worth getting the input of different departments of the project and asking for their feedback to help you get an idea of what the costs could be for different areas of the project.

Create A Contingency Budget

As well as your general budget plan, it’s a good idea to think about where or not you will also need a contingency budget plan. A contingency budget is what you will use should you run over budget when carrying out your project. It should be avoided if possible and other options such as cutting costs should be considered before using your contingency fund. The amount of contingency budget you decide to come up with is a matter of what you and your team think is best based on your individual project. However, generally, a contingency fund tends to make up around 10% of the total budget plan for a project.

Project Management Software

A useful tool to help you easily keep track of finances for your project is project management software. Using this type of software for your project from the likes of Kahua, allows you to work with your team from cloud-based platforms to oversee the running of the project. You can easily keep track of finances, spending, and invoices to give you and your team a better understanding of how the project is following your budget plan. As well as making finances easier to track, management software allows you to oversee various aspects of your project and makes sure it is running as efficiently as possible through better organization.

Identify Unnecessary Spending

To help keep on top of spending on your project, try and identify areas in which there could be unnecessary costs. Some costs for your project will be unavoidable, however, some could be unnecessary luxuries that aren’t completely necessary. Alternatively, you could still include elements of your project but just try and find them at a reduced cost. Compare the prices of things such as materials and products to help you find the best value for money without compromising on quality. It might be that there are alternative options out there for elements of your project that you were previously unaware of. The internet is a great resource to help you with finding different options and pricing for the elements of your project. Working with your team to research costs before purchasing items will help to make sure costs can be reduced.

Run Estimates For Costs

As mentioned previously, researching the estimated costs for elements of your project is important. When planning a project, make sure you do plenty of research into the general costs of different areas of the project. For example, the cost of contractors, materials, land, and planning costs. Once you have your estimates, you will be able to create a more detailed and useful budget plan for your project, making sure it runs more smoothly and finances are under control. Estimates for costs of different areas of the project should be based upon averages. For example, researching estimates and getting quotes will bring up variations in costs with some options being more expensive than others. Generally, aim for the estimate to be an average of these results or slightly towards the higher-end costs as it’s better to have money left over from a project than run out of it or into your contingency fund.

Ask For Quotes Before Choosing Contractors

A good way to help control finances and avoid overspending is to ask contractors and suppliers for quotes before using their services. Although contacting multiple different options for contractors and supplies can be a time-consuming process, it can go a long way to helping your project to follow the budget plan and saving funds. However, it’s important to bear in mind that you need to weigh up the benefit of saving money against the quality of the service you will be receiving. Lower costs don’t always mean a better choice.