Understanding how project-based work moves through the business | Part 3 of 3
In Part 1 we examined how operating models influence the way work moves through a business. Part 2 identified the information that management needs for understanding performance while work is underway.
The final question is: Who creates and maintains that information as work progresses?
Different business functions create and maintain the information required for project-based work. Quoting, planning, purchasing, operational delivery, commercial management and finance each contribute the information needed to understand and manage performance as work progresses.
Recording information once, against the relevant job, phase, activity or variation, helps reduce duplication and manual reconciliation while giving management greater confidence in the position being reported because each function contributes to a shared set of information rather than maintaining separate versions.
Connected information supports a consistent understanding of the work
Management relies on information from many parts of the business to understand the current position of a job or project. Some information originates during quoting and planning, some during purchasing and delivery, while commercial and financial information continues to develop as work progresses.
This information is most useful when it is shared between teams and remains connected to the job, phase, activity, or variation to which it relates.
When information is maintained within a shared structure, management can move more easily from an overall view of performance to the underlying costs, commitments, claims, variations, and activities that explain the position.
A shared view depends on information remaining connected as work progresses. Quoting, planning, purchasing, delivery, commercial management, and finance each contribute and maintain different parts of that information. Together, they help create a consistent understanding of the work, enabling management to identify issues and respond while there is still an opportunity to influence the outcome.
Quoting establishes the commercial expectation
Estimators, sales teams, and those responsible for preparing quotes establish the commercial expectation for the work.
They define the scope, resources, materials, subcontract work, and commercial assumptions that will guide delivery. The quote should do more than secure the work. It should provide a benchmark against which labour, materials, progress, purchasing commitments, invoicing, and profitability can be assessed throughout the life of the job.
The level of detail should also suit the way the work will be managed. An estimate that is too broad may become difficult to use once delivery is divided into phases or work packages. An estimate that is excessively detailed may create administration without improving decisions. The practical objective is a structure that can continue into planning and delivery.
The quote should remain a usable reference point beyond sales and estimating so that actual performance can later be compared with the assumptions on which the work was secured.
Estimators can also use completed work to improve future quotes. Supplier pricing changes, labour performance, delivery outcomes, and lessons from similar jobs help ensure new estimates reflect current operating conditions rather than outdated assumptions.
Planning translates the expectation into workable phases
Once work is secured, planners and project managers convert the commercial expectation into a structure the delivery team can use.
Planning often requires more operational detail than estimating. Planners and project managers may divide work into phases, activities, fabrication stages, installation stages, work packages, or milestones depending on how delivery will occur.
By establishing that structure, planners help ensure labour, materials, commitments, progress, and changes can be recorded consistently throughout delivery.
Although the plan may operate at a different level of detail, it should remain traceable to the assumptions used to secure the work. This connection provides the bridge between the original commercial expectation and delivery, enabling management to compare expected and actual outcomes more effectively.
Purchasing and production keep the information current
Information maintained through purchasing and production helps keep the current position up to date as work progresses.
Those responsible for purchasing contribute a forward-looking view of the work. Materials ordered, subcontractors engaged, and outstanding requirements reveal commitments that may affect the expected outcome before they appear as actual costs. Supplier price movements, substitutions, lead-time constraints, and external processing requirements may also change the expected cost or delivery position.
Much of the information required to manage performance is first seen where the work is performed. Supervisors, project managers, and operational leaders play a critical role in keeping information current as work progresses. Additional labour requirements, material shortages, scheduling issues, scope changes, production delays, and unexpected site conditions often become visible here before they appear anywhere else.
Their responsibility is to ensure that information remains connected to the work that created it. Labour, materials, progress, and activities need to be recorded against the correct job, phase, activity, or variation so that emerging issues can be assessed in their operational and commercial context.
Connecting both operational activity and purchasing commitments to the work allows management to understand not only what has happened, but also what has already been committed.
Capturing that information as work progresses provides a more current and complete view than attempting to reconstruct the position later.
Commercial management ensures changes are tracked
As work progresses, requirements change. Additional work may be requested, materials substituted, existing scope expanded, or site conditions discovered. Each change may affect labour, materials, subcontractor cost, scheduling, contractual obligations, and potential revenue.
Commercial managers and project leaders help ensure changes are tracked alongside both the costs they create and the revenue that may be recovered. They need to establish what caused the change, what it will cost, whether approval is required, whether it has been priced, and how it may be invoiced or claimed.
They also need visibility of the status of each change. A variation may be under assessment, submitted, approved, disputed, partially completed, or awaiting invoicing. Those differences influence both commercial exposure and recovery opportunities.
Their role is to ensure that claims, variations, milestones, and other commercial events are recorded with the related work.
Accurate recording of changes helps distinguish operational performance from scope movement and enables early action to protect the commercial outcome.
Finance validates the overall position
Finance teams contribute a different perspective. Their role is not simply to report what has happened. It is to check whether operational, commercial, and financial information tells a consistent story and whether the information is complete.
A project may appear expensive because delivery is ahead of an invoicing milestone. A contractor may be carrying approved variations that have not yet been claimed. A job may have significant purchasing commitments that are not yet reflected in cost. Equally, invoicing may be ahead of delivery in cases where invoicing is not based on completed work.
Finance helps identify these differences by checking reported costs and revenue against operational progress, commercial commitments, recovery status, and the work still to be completed.
Operational and commercial information need to be interpreted alongside the financial result. Timing differences can affect reported results, so reported profitability needs to be viewed alongside remaining obligations and outstanding commitments.
Month-end reporting should confirm a position already supported by current operational and commercial information.
Bringing the series together
Across this series, we have explored how different types of project-based work move through the business, the information needed to understand performance while work is underway, and the responsibilities that maintain that information throughout delivery.
When information supports the way work moves through the business, management gains valuable insights. Emerging cost pressure, unresolved variations, purchasing commitments, delayed claims, and changes in the expected outcome can be identified.
When information is recorded as work progresses and maintained within a shared structure, management can better understand the current position, focus attention where it is needed most, and take action while there is still an opportunity to influence the outcome.
Learn more
Explore how Abel supports different industries and operating environments:
- Building Products & Job-Based Manufacturing
- Engineering & Industrial Manufacturing
- Other Industries Supported by Abel ERP
Talk to Abel about creating a connected commercial view from quoting and planning through to delivery, recovery, and financial reporting.
