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FINANCE A SUPPLEMENT OF THE ZWEIG LETTER

How well is your financial staff utilized? Integrating financial staff with other parts of the firm is beneficial for everyone; here are some of the best ways to use them to their fullest potential. O P I N I O N

W orking with numerous architectural, engineering, and planning firms, we en- counter some extraordinary financial and accounting staff. As a strong and syn- ergistic compliment to well run firms, talented financial and accounting staff are able to provide extensive resources to the technical staff.

relevant financial information with the client from month to month. Invoice processing will become a smooth monthly transition and with their rela- tionship in place, many issues that might be prob- lematic are headed off due to these folks being connected at the very start of the project. The firm should also insure that all project fi- nancial correspondence flows through account- ing and not the project team. All sub-consultant agreements crafted by the project team should be directing all invoices to flow to accounting and not the project manager. This is critical to main- tain the correct revenue forecasting to all project costs. Once a contract with sub-consultants is in place, the accounting relationship insures that the sub-consultant invoice is always charged correctly to the project within the month, or an accrual is made to post the expense to the project, allowing the proper assignment of cost in the month of the expense. By insuring the timely entry of project informa- tion, the firm’s accounting staff can provide more accurate and updated info-metrics on the project. With the firm’s senior leadership creating the “As the project matures, the firm’s accounting staff becomes invaluable to the project team as their interaction with the client’s accounting staff gains trust and allows for a smooth transition of all the relevant financial information with the client from month to month.”

Their expertise as the keepers of the mission- critical financial software, process, and procedures that help keep the financial side of the practice running smoothly are sometimes thwarted by a lack of adherence to the very policies that senior leadership puts in place to allow the firm, princi- pals, and project managers to have access to infor- mation on projects. One of the first places that the financial staff should be integrated is at the kick-off meeting with the client. Introduction of the financial staff to the client allows for the technical staff to tran- sition part of the financial relationship. There “One of the first places that the financial staff should be integrated is at the kick-off meeting with the client.” should be a line item on the agenda that reviews contract financial terms and allows the technical staff to receive the client accounting staff’s names, email addresses, and phone numbers. Once all of these staff are aligned, all requirements of the contract related to financial terms, invoice review, and other facets of the financial side of the project can be sorted out between the financial staff. With the project matrix of responsibility in place with firm accounting staff aligned to client accounting staff, the firm’s PM and client PM can focus on the project, and the firm’s principal in charge can focus on the relationship with the cli- ent’s principal. As the project matures, the firm’s accounting staff becomes invaluable to the project team as their interaction with the client’s accounting staff gains trust and allows for a smooth transition of all the

See TED MAZIEJKA, page 4

THE ZWEIG LETTER OCTOBER 5, 2015, ISSUE 1122

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