In real estate development, managing project finances efficiently is critical—whether it’s a $10 million or a $100 million project. However, one common pain point that almost every team encounters is gaining access to accurate, real-time financial data. In fact, 60% of developers report that understanding project financials in real time is their biggest challenge.
Why Do Real Estate Development Teams Struggle With Financial Visibility?
The root of the problem? Lack of departmental alignment. Controllers typically rely on financial platforms like QuickBooks (QBO), Yardi, or MRI to track historical financials, while development managers tend to rely on spreadsheets—spreadsheets that quickly become outdated. When construction teams hand off Excel sheets to accounting, controllers have to manually enter the data into their systems. By the time the data is reconciled, it’s already stale. This delayed visibility hampers both teams, making it nearly impossible to have a clear understanding of the project’s current financial standing.
This lack of financial visibility also creates accountability issues. Have you ever seen a development manager make a snap decision, only to face the financial consequences later? It’s a common scenario when teams don’t have access to real-time budget data. While controllers are buried in outdated spreadsheets, development managers have no idea how much has been spent or what remains in their contingency funds.
With construction teams operating in the dark and accounting teams stuck reconciling past transactions, there’s little opportunity to catch errors or risks in time. Instead of being proactive, real estate development teams often find themselves in constant damage control mode—reacting to problems instead of preventing them.
These inefficiencies are hard to ignore, which is why more and more controllers are pushing their companies to adopt software specifically designed for real estate development. The right software not only bridges the gap between departments, but also provides real-time budget updates, eliminates manual data entry, and gives every team member clear visibility into the project’s financial status.
If your team is ready to move past Excel and outdated processes, we can help. Request a meeting with us today to learn how real estate development software can improve your project’s financial management and streamline your team’s workflow.
