Seamless integration of finance and project management is the holy grail of business operations—desirable yet difficult to attain. Most growing businesses that aim to pivot their PM processes never gain the needed traction.
It's understandable why.
Most general PM tools are limited in scope and fall short when it comes to managing multiple projects with complex financial requirements. Intensive capacity planning, complex resource allocation, advanced analytics, and seamless integrations are often beyond their capabilities.
On the other hand, while powerful, high-end ERP systems can strain budgets and may not provide the flexibility and specialized features that dedicated PPM tools offer.
This is where advanced PPM tools like Clarity step in. Clarity excels at seamlessly blending financial oversight with project portfolio management, providing a comprehensive solution for your business.
Whether you are starting with Clarity or looking to optimize an existing system, this guide provides everything you need to simplify your journey.
New to Clarity? Our first section provides a snapshot of how Clarity transforms financial management within your project portfolio.
Ready to optimize your existing Clarity system? The second section explores the key integration components, showing how Clarity seamlessly connects with your financial systems to provide a 360-degree view of project finances. The third section explores common integration mistakes and offers straightforward ways to avoid them.
Imagine managing multiple projects with tight schedules and budgets. You need to track material arrivals, monitor stock, plan capacity, assign staff, and manage workshop timesheets and payroll. These tasks are usually split between disparate financial, accounting, and project management systems, forcing you to bounce between them to get anything done.
By integrating with your financial systems, Clarity creates a seamless flow of information between the financial system and the project management solution. This expressway syncs all essential data in real time.
As soon as materials are scheduled, costs update automatically, ensuring that your budget remains accurate and current without the need for manual adjustments or risk of mismatches.
Scheduling, staffing, and capacity are handled easily. Dynamic changes, such as staff shifts or new deadlines, are instantly reflected across all projects.
Seamlessly integrating your financial system with Clarity ensures the smooth synchronization you have always needed.
But it doesn't stop there. Harnessing this integration, Clarity unlocks a new level of financial optimization and efficiency in project management. With financial integration, you can:
Clarity provides a unified approach to managing project finances by seamlessly integrating with your financial systems. This unified method ensures complete control and visibility over every aspect of your project’s financials for optimal management.
This level of control and management is made possible by the foundational financial components of Clarity. These essential pieces fit together perfectly to offer a detailed and cohesive view of your project’s financials.
To give you a clearer picture of how effectively Clarity integrates with financial systems to deliver a 360-degree view of your project's finances, let's look into the key financial components that make this work:
With core financial components at the center, features like the Rate Matrix, Actual Costs, Cost/Budget/Benefit Plans, and Multi-Currency and Fiscal Period Support form the foundation of Clarity's financial management system.
These elements work together to create a seamless connection with your financial systems. They build a bridge that ensures free-flowing financial information, 360-degree visibility, and granular control of the project's finances.
Clarity excels in financial management thanks to a powerful set of financial components. However, the strength of its features doesn't automatically guarantee a smooth execution. The back end of any powerful system comes with its share of challenges, and things can go sideways quickly when the integration isn’t done right.
It’s not just about having great features—it’s about how well they’re implemented, integrated, and aligned with your processes.
As North America’s go-to experts in Gartner’s top-rated PPM solutions, Winmill PPM has worked with Clarity longer than anyone else.
With over 800 successful PPM implementations under our belts, we've helped many businesses integrate their financial systems with Clarity. Our experts at Winmill PPM have tackled many common issues and gotten projects back on track when they went awry.
Based on what we've seen so far, here are some of the most frequent mistakes and pitfalls in PPM implementations:
While the mistakes we've discussed are common, the biggest issue is often underestimating the complexity of financial integrations. Financial management features can be trickier than anticipated, so the integration process usually requires extensive customization and setup. If these aren't handled properly, they can lead to a cascade of problems, causing delays and impacting the overall project.
Many implementations must pay more attention to this complexity, creating a chain reaction of issues and setbacks. To avoid these problems, following best practices for PPM implementation is essential, especially regarding financial integrations.
The most effortless and straightforward way to avoid these pitfalls and save time and money is to work with experts with a solid track record with Clarity implementation, like us at Winmill PPM.
Every business is unique, with its own set of financial processes, requirements, and goals. This often leads to a need for customization, which can create challenges during PPM implementations.
Integrating financial systems with your PPM tool can feel like navigating a complex maze. Without the right approach and expertise, you risk encountering obstacles that waste time and complicate the process.
At Winmill PPM, we use a structured, strategic approach to ensure your financial integration with Clarity is smooth and successful. Here's how we can help: