How to Save Your Bottom Line with CORE Budget Tracking

As a successful business professional, you understand that time is money. This means you can’t afford to waste time using spreadsheets and outdated software.

For that reason, you made the right decision to switch your business management system to CORE – the most efficient, time and money-saving software in the market.

CORE is designed to help your company run as efficiently as possible and help with managing projects, clients, and the team while ensuring firm profitability. With just a few clicks, you can access real-time financial insights about your firm, see the progress of every project, and measure your staff’s productivity and efficiency.

To get the most out of your CORE experience, it’s important to learn about all the amazing features included in the software, and how to implement them best to work for your firm.

With that in mind, here are 3 ways to save big by using CORE.

1. Track Progress Using the Project Structure Tab

The number one reason why professional service firms don't make their target profit is poor project management. CORE is here to change that. The Projects Structure page has made the project management process easier and more efficient than ever.

When starting a new project (or task) with a client, you will go to this page to begin a new Project. These are the individual or collective tasks agreed upon by you and the customer. The Project screen will allow you to see all of your projects neatly organized in front of you, as well as who is managing and the tasks at hand.

Projects can also be broken down into Phases. Quickly toggle your mouse over a project line to see which projects include phases and which do not. By clicking on Individual Projects, you can see more specific details of the project like the project ID, project name, client information, and the manager’s name.

But for the sake of saving money, the most important field that you’ll see here is the Contract Amount. This amount, which was the projected cost originally negotiated with the client, is what you’ll want to track throughout the project’s progress. 

Utilizing the Project Phase feature will help you and other managers monitor the specific aspects of each project and how each area is progressing. This also means that when the bottom line isn’t adding up to where you originally projected, the Projects Phase tab will let drill down into the details to locate and fix the exact area that is slowing down progress.

One of the most helpful features of CORE is the ability to see into your projects and phases on one single screen. There, you can see all the phases for a certain project organized neatly in a free structure. You can track the content amount for each of the phases as well as the Spent data, which is the total labor hours spent on each contract. Tracking these numbers will help you stay mindful of often tricky overhead expenses while staying in control of your bottom line.

Using the CORE projects page will allow you and other managers to easily track individual tasks and see in real-time how your employees are contributing towards the project goals. CORE offers time-tested project management guaranteed to improve project profitability within a few weeks of implementation.

2. Utilize Project Performance Widgets

Another bottom-line-saving feature within CORE is the Project Performance Tab, which can help you monitor expenses.

Here, you’ll see an easy-to-read breakdown of the overall health of your projects. ON this page, make sure to pay attention to the Work in Progress KPI, which tells you the value of the unbilled time and expenses.

Project managers can make the most of this feature by checking in regularly. Doing so will help them be able to accurately gauge employee efficiency versus company expenses and make more accurate budget estimations in the future.

Time and money-saving features from the dashboard widgets give you the ability to set up and track due dates. Doing this will help your firm track your project and set notifications that optimize productivity. You can see what projects are approaching completion and which need more attention, and this feature will also help better keep your project managers in the loop.

3. Use the Project Time and Expense Report

One of the most vital resources to a company is the Project Time and Expense Report. Managing company time and expenses might have been painful before, but with CORE, it is simple, intuitive, and mobile.

Thanks to this feature, employees no longer need to manually record their hours. CORE's artificial intelligence pre-fills your timecard every week, which can save a tremendous amount of time. What’s more, the data is stored and saved for later reports which allow managers to see how much time is spent per employee, how that time is being used, and if it can be optimized.

The reports feature can also be used to analyze company budget projections and offer other useful analyses. Make sure to take advantage of this extremely profitable resource. By analyzing company data, you’ll be able to target in what areas you can enhance productivity – therefore becoming more profitable and showing better margins.

Using CORE to Boost Your Bottom Line

CORE naturally integrates your staff and all company projects. With less confusion and more project clarity, CORE enhances productivity and company communication. The software also allows managers to be more labor-conscious and shows them exactly where and how company time is being spent.

Being able to track all these details and focuses in one place will help boost the bottom line for your firm.