Cash Flow Tip 9 - The Project Schedule and Cash Flow

The smoother the project schedule is, the smoother your cash flow will be.

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Large variations in the resource loading across a project’s duration impact cash flow and field productivity.  

Cash Flow: Tip 9 The Project Schedule and Cash Flow

Labor intensive contractors are impacted the worst because there is zero cash flow float on labor costs. Labor is paid within days of being incurred without any ability to stretch the payments out at all.  

The best schedule you can have for cash flow is one that ramps up smoothly, holds at peak production for a period of time, and then ramps down smoothly. The closer you can get to this schedule flow on your projects, the smoother they will run.

Schedule management starts with making clear production assumptions during the bid process and where applicable, getting those integrated into your contract.  

From there, focus on planning your project and keeping a level schedule flow in mind.  

Plan your Schedule-of-Values (SOV) for maximum cash flow based on the project schedule. 

Leverage your relationships to negotiate the best schedule flow and SOV you can.  

We are revamping our publicly available cash flow workshop that includes these 18 tactics that contractors can use to accelerate cash flow. Stay informed of updates on release.


Cash Flow Tip 9 - The Project Schedule and Cash Flow
Great cash flow is a key driver of valuation and successful successions. Running out of cash is is the #1 reason contractors fail. Improving cash flow improves your Return on Equity. Protect yourself and never let cash flow be the limitation to your profitable growth....

Cash Flow Tip 9 - The Project Schedule and Cash Flow
Great cash flow is a key driver of valuation and successful successions. Running out of cash is is the #1 reason contractors fail. Improving cash flow improves your Return on Equity. Protect yourself and never let cash flow be the limitation to your profitable growth....

Tactical and Strategic Question Categories
When planning, separate the questions you ask yourself into tactical and strategic categories. Answer the strategic ones first, back-checking them against the tactical ones to evaluate the viability of your plans.
Executive Toughness and Focusing on Process
When leading any team to victory, you can’t underestimate the value of strategy or that burning desire to win built deeply within yourself and everyone else on the team. They only represent a small part of what it takes to win consistently.
Time-on-Tools and Minimum Required Installation
Labor productivity IS NOT the biggest problem with field productivity. Under similar conditions the variation in how fast two crafts people actually “turn wrenches” is about 2X but there are far bigger problems to tackle. Focus on these three areas.