Case study / Residential Development
Commercial Finance Dashboard: Live Cost Intelligence Across a Development Portfolio
Background
Cashflow curves, commercial reviews and finance data — all in separate places.
For a leading housebuilder managing an active portfolio of residential developments, commercial finance reporting was a fragmented discipline. Each project had its own commercial review process — conducted monthly by the commercial team and captured in Excel workbooks that varied in format from project to project. Cost forecasting was similarly inconsistent, with each quantity surveyor working in their own template. And the one source that held authoritative actual cost data — the finance system recording subcontractor and supplier invoices — was entirely disconnected from both.
The result was a commercial reporting environment where leadership and the finance team had no reliable way to compare margin performance, contingency positions or cost trends across the portfolio without manually compiling data from multiple sources. Cashflow curves — comparing forecast against actual spend — required a manual exercise that could only reflect the position at the point it was last updated. The business engaged Acumine to build the integrated platform that changed this.
No portfolio view of commercial performance
Each project's commercial review was a standalone Excel exercise. Comparing margin, contingency and prelims performance across the development portfolio required manually extracting and compiling data from separate workbooks — a time-consuming process that meant cross-project insight was rarely available in real time.
Actual cost data locked in the finance system
Subcontractor and supplier invoices were posted into the finance system as they were processed — but that data never flowed into commercial reporting. Cashflow curves and cost monitoring relied on manually assembled figures, meaning 'actuals' were only as current as the last time someone had prepared a report.
No standardised approach to cost forecasting
Each quantity surveyor used their own Excel template for cost forecasting — capturing build costs, prelims and fees in different formats and structures. Without a consistent input format, there was no way to aggregate or compare forecasts across projects, or to load them automatically into a reporting platform.
Trend analysis limited to month-on-month changes
The existing commercial review process captured changes from one month to the next — but there was no way to track how key metrics like WOL margin, contingency and prelims had evolved over a longer period. Long-run trend analysis was effectively impossible without a structured, historical data store.
What the platform connects
Three data sources brought together in a single commercial finance model.
The Commercial Finance Dashboard draws on three distinct data sources — live financial transactions, monthly commercial review submissions and cost forecasting inputs. Connecting all three into a single, governed model was the foundation that made portfolio-level commercial intelligence possible.
Finance system integration
Live actual costs from the finance platform — refreshed daily
Subcontractor and supplier invoice data is pulled directly from the finance system each night via an automated data pipeline, providing the 'actual' cost figures that underpin cashflow curve analysis. This eliminated the need for anyone to manually extract or compile actual cost data — the finance system became the authoritative, always-current source of actuals.
Commercial reviews
Monthly commercial review submissions via a standardised template
A standardised Excel template was introduced to capture commercial review data in a consistent format across all projects — covering PFA, committed percentage, remaining contingency, WOL and FY margin, prelims and completion date. Submissions are made via a Power App embedded directly in the dashboard, giving the commercial team a controlled and auditable input mechanism tied directly to the reporting environment.
Cost forecasts
QS cost forecasts standardised and loaded automatically
A standard front sheet was introduced to each quantity surveyor's existing workbook — capturing build costs, prelims and post-planning fees in a consistent structure without requiring a change to the rest of their working document. Forecasts are submitted via a dedicated Power App, allowing multiple forecast versions per project (start on site, re-baseline, three-year plan) and giving the commercial team full control over which version is active.
The solution
Portfolio commercial intelligence across three integrated reporting areas
Acumine built a Microsoft Fabric and Power BI dashboard integrating live finance data, commercial review submissions and cost forecasting inputs into a single, governed reporting platform. The dashboard delivered three core reporting views — giving the finance team, commercial team, quantity surveyors, project managers and leadership a consistent picture of commercial performance, cashflow and cost trends across the development portfolio.
Row-level security ensured the finance team and senior commercial staff saw the full portfolio, while project-level access was scoped appropriately for each user. The dashboard refreshed eight times each working day, keeping the commercial position current throughout the day without any manual refresh effort.
01
Commercial reviews — financial view
A portfolio matrix presenting the full commercial picture for each development — PFA with trend arrows, committed percentage with data bar formatting, remaining contingency, WOL margin and FY margin with diverging colour coding showing highest to lowest performance, month-on-month changes and movement versus budget. Prelims, prelims as a percentage of build costs and completion date are tracked alongside. Developments are split between high density and low density, the matrix can be scrolled back to any prior month, and drillthrough connects directly to the cashflow view for any project.
02
Commercial reviews — commercial view
A matrix focused on the operational commercial position — PFA, liability to date, liability movement versus the prior month, committed percentage, remaining contingency, prelims and completion date. Designed for the commercial team's day-to-day use, this view supports conversations about liability exposure and project-level commitment positions across the portfolio, with the same scrollable month-by-month history and project filtering as the financial view.
03
Project cost monitoring and cashflow curves
A project-level view showing forecast versus actual cost curves for build costs, prelims, post-planning fees and the total — with actuals driven automatically from the live finance system integration. WOL margin movement and remaining contingency are both tracked over time in dedicated line graphs, giving the commercial and finance teams visibility of how each project's position is evolving. A cost summary table shows forecast and actual figures for the current month and cumulatively, with variances in millions, for each cost category. Multiple forecast versions can be toggled to compare starting assumptions against re-baselined positions.
Outcomes
A single commercial finance platform where fragmented data once lived
Portfolio commercial performance visible in one place
For the first time, the finance team and leadership had a consistent, always-current view of margin, contingency and committed positions across all developments simultaneously — without opening individual workbooks or requesting updates from project teams. Month-on-month trends and budget variances were surfaced automatically as commercial reviews were submitted.
Cashflow curves driven by live financial data
By connecting directly to the finance system for actual cost data, the cashflow curve dashboard reflected the true financial position of each development as invoices were posted — not a manually assembled approximation. The comparison between forecast and actual spend became a live, reliable view rather than a periodic exercise.
Consistent cost forecasting across the commercial team
The standardised forecasting template and submission mechanism meant that for the first time, cost forecasts from different quantity surveyors could be meaningfully compared and aggregated. Multiple forecast versions per project gave the commercial team full visibility of how assumptions had changed over a project's life — from start on site through to re-baseline and three-year plan positions.
Long-run trend analysis became possible
Because each commercial review submission was stored and associated with a reporting period, the dashboard accumulated a structured historical record of commercial performance over time — enabling trend analysis across WOL margin, contingency and prelims that the previous month-on-month process could never support. Leadership could now see not just where projects were, but where they had been.
Technology
Finance system data and Excel submissions unified in Power BI
The solution integrated the finance system via an automated daily data pipeline, structuring actual cost data into a governed model alongside commercial review and cost forecast submissions managed through Power Apps and Power Automate. Microsoft Fabric provided the data foundation; Power BI delivered the reporting layer, refreshing eight times each working day and enforcing row-level security to scope each user's portfolio access appropriately.
This pattern — connecting a live finance system to project-level commercial submissions and cost forecasting inputs — is directly applicable to any housebuilder or developer looking to move from fragmented Excel-based commercial reporting to a single, governed intelligence platform. If your commercial reviews, cashflow forecasts and finance data all live in separate places, Acumine can build the layer that connects them.
Work with Acumine
Commercial reviews in Excel and no portfolio view across them?
If your finance and commercial teams are working from separate project files with no live connection to your finance system, Acumine can build the integrated dashboard that changes that — connecting your finance platform, standardising your commercial submissions and giving your leadership team a consistent, always-current view of margin, contingency and cashflow performance across the portfolio.