When it comes to managing construction finances, tracking margins and controlling costs isn’t something you can afford to do at the end of the project.
If you wait until the final bill, it could be too late to spot cost blowouts or forecast necessary adjustments. The key to keeping projects on track and profitable is real-time financial reporting.
These four reports give your team the visibility they need to make smarter decisions, adjust forecasts in real time, and avoid surprises that eat into your margins.
This is the first report you need to understand where you stand in terms of progress. The Claimed vs. Spent report compares the amount of money you’ve billed (or invoiced) against what you’ve actually spent on the project.
This comparison helps you see if your project is on track or if there’s a gap that needs attention.
If there’s a growing difference between what you’ve billed and what you’ve spent, it signals that costs are getting ahead of revenue. This gives you the opportunity to address issues early before they spiral.
But here’s the real power of this report: cost codes. Instead of just relying on GL codes, which give you broad strokes, cost codes let you drill down into the details.
You can pinpoint where overspending is happening — whether it’s materials, subcontractors, or labour — without having to dig through invoices in Xero.
This level of granularity lets you spot cost blowouts early, so you can course-correct before things get too far off track.
Tracking costs isn’t just about what’s been spent — it’s about knowing what’s still to come.
The Cost to Complete report lets you see exactly how much is left to finish the job. At any point, you can say, “Here’s what I’ve spent, and here’s what I expect to spend to finish it.”
This gives you a new, forecasted margin based on the remaining work. The best part? You can adjust these forecasts if you see costs about to rise, giving you a chance to course-correct early.
For instance, if you see a price increase for materials or anticipate more labour hours, you can adjust the forecast, reducing the risk of cost blowouts.
More visibility into your cost-to-complete means you can make smarter, real-time decisions. It also helps you stay on top of how accurate your original pricing was, so you can refine your estimates for future jobs.
Lentune lets you document and update this forecast live, so you always know where your project stands financially.
The total cost at completion report in Lentune. The red line reflects the projects original budget.
Now, let’s take it a step further: cashflow forecasting. This is about knowing when your future costs will hit, not just how much they’ll be.
Cashflow Forecasting takes your Cost to Complete data and spreads it over a selected time period, giving you visibility into when expenses will occur. This allows you to plan ahead and ensure that you’ve got the liquidity to meet future financial obligations.
With Lentune, you can manually input forecasted values or hit the ‘Spread’ button to automatically allocate costs over time using different methods, such as linear (spread evenly over the time period) or S-curve (a more gradual ramp-up).
By using cashflow forecasting, you’ll gain a clearer picture of how your project’s costs will unfold, which helps you stay ahead of payments and avoid cashflow crunches.
Retentions are an essential part of construction contracts, but managing them effectively can be tricky. The Retention Report gives you full visibility over both held and released retentions across all projects, including head contracts and subcontracts.
Here’s how it helps:
Tracking retention balances and releases is essential because it ensures that you’re aware of how much is still pending and which amounts need to be released without digging through spreadsheets.
Real-time financial reporting is critical for keeping construction projects on track and profitable.
By leveraging the Claimed vs. Spent, Cost to Complete, Cashflow Forecasting, and Retention Reports, you can stay on top of costs, forecast accurately, and make smarter decisions as the project progresses.
Instead of waiting until the end of the project to check the numbers, you’ll have live data that helps you spot issues before they become problems. This is the key to delivering projects on time, within budget and with healthy margins.
With Lentune, you get the tools to manage project costs in real-time and streamline your financial reporting. Want to see how it works in action? Book a demo today and let us show you how we can help you stay on top of your construction project finances.