Every construction company has a work backlog but usually lacks an understanding of how it will spread out over future months. It is impossible to predict work surpluses and shortages in the future without timing out revenue and costs. But now you can with Job Margin and Job Cash Forecasting.

As part of a PM’s forecasting process, they will time out contract revenue and costs in their choice of groupings of contract schedule of value items and their choice of level of job cost forecasts. Future month amounts can be entered and spread in dollars or percentages. This results in a Gross Margin Forecast.

Anterra automatically converts your Gross Margin Forecast into a Cash Flow Forecast. We know the customer’s average days to pay to time out cash receipts. We also know the percentage of the forecast cost at complete that is labor (cash is expended in the month it is incurred), material (cash expended 30 days after an expense is incurred), subcontract (paid when paid), equipment, and other costs. This Cash Flow Forecast will apprise you of upcoming cash surpluses and droughts, allowing you to hold onto or disperse cash as required.

The next step will be comparing your forecast gross margin to the GL budgeted margin; the difference is work needed to win to hit the budget. Finally, add a bid job upload to define jobs bid on with contract value, start date, duration, job type, and probability of winning the bid.

Ultimately, you will have a windshield view of your business instead of the rearview mirror you have today.