Planyard helps contractors track expected final cost, margin, and cash impact using live budgets, committed costs, variations, valuations, and invoices instead of spreadsheet guesswork.
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Most teams do not struggle because they lack data. They struggle because the budget, committed costs, variations, invoices, and reporting all sit in different places, so nobody fully trusts the picture.
By the time someone has pulled the numbers together, the forecast is already behind the project. What looked like a healthy margin can quietly erode until the team notices too late.
Budgets are updated in one file, orders in another, and invoices in accounting, so the forecast goes stale fast.
You only see what has been invoiced, not what has been committed. The real exposure stays hidden.
By the time someone rebuilds the picture, the damage is already done and there is no time to act.
PMs, QSs, and finance all work from different versions of the truth instead of one shared forecast.
"With our old system, all the data we were looking at were yesterday's numbers. Construction works on very tight margins - costs can run away with you quickly. By the time we'd navigated the software and got a report out of it, we could find that our project was making a loss, and it was too late."
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Planyard turns budgets, orders, variations, valuations, and invoices into a live profitability forecast. Instead of asking what has already been spent, teams can see where the project is heading and what that means for the final margin.
As orders are raised and costs move, the forecast moves with them. That gives teams a much better chance to respond while there is still time to fix the outcome.
"We can spot the budget risks several months in advance and have a real-time forecast for end costs and profitability."
The problem is not that spreadsheets are useless. The problem is that they depend on someone manually rebuilding the story every time something changes. A live workflow keeps the forecast connected to what is actually happening on the job.
| Spreadsheets | Planyard | |
|---|---|---|
| Keeping forecast current | Manual updates after every change |
Forecast updates alongside project activity |
| Committed cost visibility | Easy to miss until invoices arrive |
Committed costs visible before invoices |
| Tracking variations | Variations tracked separately |
Budget, changes, and commitments in one view |
| Spotting margin drift | Profit issues spotted late |
Margin drift visible earlier |
| Single source of truth | Time spent reconciling files |
One shared commercial picture |
"We are now able to forecast and see exactly how we performed against our original estimates. It keeps all of our documents and financial data in one central place, which allows anyone on the team to jump in and instantly see the status of any line item, when it was paid, and the actual documentation behind those payments."
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This is not just about producing a cleaner report. It is about helping PMs, QSs, commercial teams, and finance work from the same commercial picture while the project is still moving.
Every order, variation, valuation, and invoice ties back to the budget, so cost-control meetings become less about chasing numbers and more about deciding what to do next.
"What makes Planyard so effective is how it presents the critical data. It links cost codes directly to the budget and current costs, while providing a clear forecast for what's ahead. Being able to see the variances between the original budget and the actual spend-to-date at a glance is exactly what we need to stay in control."
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Teams can get started quickly, standardise the process, and build confidence without months of disruption. Start with one champion, upload budgets, train the team, and build from there.
"We migrated all our ongoing projects to Planyard in about a week.
There was some trial and error figuring out the best approach, but Planyard is a user-friendly system — once you know how to do it, it's easy to keep doing it."
Replace delayed reporting and spreadsheet forecasting with one live view of project cost and profit.
We've got your questions covered. If you can't find the answer below, then feel free to contact us via the chat.
Xero tells you what has already been invoiced and paid. It does not give you a live view of budgets, committed costs, variations, and expected final margin on each project. The forecasting layer is where you see where you will finish if you carry on like this, not just what you have spent so far.
Spreadsheets work until they do not. As soon as you have multiple live projects, variations, and a mix of POs and subcontract orders, someone has to constantly rebuild the picture by hand. That is where mistakes creep in and margin issues only show up at the end. A live system updates the forecast as orders, valuations, and invoices move, so CVRs are based on the current reality, not last month’s copy.
It is built to surface issues earlier by tracking committed costs and revised budgets against the original targets. When a package or cost code starts drifting, you see it in the forecast before the final invoices land, which gives you time to challenge, re-scope, or adjust elsewhere instead of finding out when the job is already finished.
They keep doing the same core tasks – raising orders, managing variations, signing off valuations, and approving invoices – but those actions now update the forecast automatically. That means less manual reporting work and fewer conversations about what is actually going on with this job, because everyone can open the same live view.
Yes. You can import the current budget and cost position for a live job, then start managing new orders, variations, valuations, and invoices through the system from that point onwards. You do not have to wait for a brand-new project to get the benefit of cleaner forecasting.
No. Subcontractors still send their quotes, valuations, and invoices as usual. The difference is that your team records and reviews them in one place, linked to the right budget lines. That makes approvals faster and reduces back-and-forth, while also keeping overbilling and missed costs under much tighter control.
No. The idea is to start with one champion and one or two projects: import the budgets, agree how PMs and QSs will use it, and plug it into your existing accounting flow. Once the team is comfortable and the numbers match what you are expecting, you roll it out to more projects rather than switching everything in one go.
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