Know whether each project is making money

What this module does

A controller asks why margin moved on a project between January and March. Without a dated trail, the answer takes two days of spreadsheet archaeology and a story that keeps changing as more people are asked. With one, the answer takes five minutes and lands the same way every time: scope change in February, a vendor quote came in 12% over budget in March, here is where the margin moved. The project manager keeps the controller call short and the project sponsor unsurprised. The story the controller takes back to the CFO is the same story the project manager tells the customer. The numbers, the dates, and the reasons all match.

Key pages

Finance gives every project a dated record of what was planned and what actually happened. When the scope shifts or an estimate moves, the new version is recorded with a date and the old one is preserved. Actuals flow in from the same Business Central postings the finance team already trusts. The result is a continuous, defensible picture of margin per project, kept current without anyone running a manual reconciliation. At year-end the auditor is handed dated revisions, not a binder of spreadsheets and an apology.

Project Managers stop spending Monday compiling status. The controller call at month-end becomes a five-minute look at the dates. Project sponsors and finance leads start their week in the portfolio view, knowing which projects need attention before the customer asks. Sales answers “where is my order's margin?” without putting the customer on hold. And the project manager stops being the person who copies status from Business Central into a planning sheet, a budget tracker, and an email to the controller every Friday afternoon.