How Growing Businesses Can Take Control of Project Spending
Published: 21/07/2025
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Project spending is an often-overlooked area, especially when businesses first start out. In this article, we will share tips on how growing businesses can harness it early on and why they should invest in digitising the process early.
Every project involves spending, hence there’s a pre-decided budget. However, due to the forecast inaccuracies, accounted for or not, it’s not uncommon for businesses, especially ones still trying to establish themselves, to burn through it. While there’s no way to fully eradicate the risk of it happening, there are measures to be taken to foresee it coming and, potentially, soften the blow and minimise losses. Keeping a consistent and documented track of project spending is one such way. However, your success depends on your approach to it, too.
With the high demands of today’s world for both quality and speed of delivery, your internal operations need to be quick and accurate. When it comes to project spending, traditional methods don’t tick that box. For growing businesses to take control of project spending, they need to digitise the process.
Absolutely. Having a defined process in place before the budget is assigned gives you the ability to plan ahead in order to avoid burning through your funds. It enables better-planned budget distribution and allows you to account for potential issues ahead of time.
The project’s success heavily relies on resource distribution as it’s key in staying within the budget, timely delivery and fluidity of the process as a whole. Given that expense management falls under the umbrella of resource distribution, it is absolutely vital in ensuring you successfully deliver the project.
One of the reasons why project spending is overlooked as a process that needs a lot of preparation is that the challenges related to it aren’t always associated with it. So, let’s talk about the areas it impacts.
Whether the business is utilising digital tools or handling cost-tracking using the traditional paper method, one thing is undeniable - there is some process in place. The question is how effective it is. The reason projects suffer from a lack of formal cost-tracking tools is that the impact cost management has on the overall success is often downplayed. Additionally, many problems and inconsistencies arise when there are several processes in place instead of a centralised one-for-all approach. When the business is starting up and most operations are only taking shape, the approach to cost management is often pushed out of the list of immediate priorities. Which, given projects are heavily reliant on keeping track of expenditure, is a vital mistake. Not keeping tabs on all expenses in a centralised place and easily accessible to all relevant parties is one of the quickest routes to burning through the budget and running into financial losses. This is particularly detrimental for startups.
A designated cost-tracking tool should be among the essentials every business starts off with. It’s not a pricey piece of software on its own, and very often it can be found as a module within other tools aimed at project management. For example, some digital time tracking solutions, like Timesheet Portal, have a cost-tracking feature as part of their basic plan, meaning it comes as part of the base platform and with no additional cost. It’s all a matter of research - no matter your budget or requirements, the right solution is certainly out there.
There are many moving parts when it comes to project management, and teams is one of them. There’s more than the executive personnel involved in carrying a project. Although barely taking a direct role, team members like accountants and HR are still contributors, and to a greater extent than they’re given credit for. However, it’s very rare for all of the teams involved in the project to work together.
The disjointment leads to department siloes, which means a lot of recorded data is not being utilised to its full extent. Sometimes, metrics that are seen to be only useful to a specific aspect of the business can transform the whole company when simply put in a different context. Not ensuring all teams are interconnected and have their insights visible is stripping you of this opportunity. The issue of disconnected teams becomes more glaring as the business grows, so it’s recommended you nip it in the bud from day one.
As concluded in the section above, traditional methods are not suitable for modern challenges. Digital solutions, on the other hand, are the way forward when managing project spend. In this part, we will review some features you can expect to find and how they are going to help your growing business embrace cost-tracking better. V Real-time Dashboards and Integrations
The beauty of today’s solutions lies within two factors: how it presents data and its ability to be stacked. When you log into most solutions, you will instantly be presented with the key metrics evaluating your project’s progress and help. As a rule, you choose what reports appear on the dashboard and in which order. But keep in mind that different solutions offer different degrees of customisation and depth, once again calling for thorough research before committing. If possible, an experience in setting it up, too.
Having already covered the importance of centralisation, you want to keep the trend across the entirety of your business. While having the project spending documented in one location is crucial, imagine having all of the data your tools record available in one place and therefore easily comparable in different contexts. Software integrations give you that. They link different solutions by allowing them not only to share data but also to put them in shared reports.
Considering you want your business to grow and scale, you need to be ready for the new challenges it brings along. The more projects you take on, the more moving plates you will have and the thinner spread your team’s time will be. In other words, there will be more planning, juggling and administrative work, all of which increase the probability of human error. And, as you undoubtedly know, those tend to get costly, especially if not spotted in a timely manner and corrected at once.
Digital tools will become a necessity as your business grows, and if you start looking for them when an immediate need arises, you’re more likely to dedicate less time to research and rush your decision. Most SaaS tools are designed to grow and scale alongside you, so it’s best to adopt them early on. The initial base price is usually startup-friendly too, and while upgrades will usually cost extra, you will also be generating more revenue by the time you need them.
If you’ve been burned by using more traditional methods or tools that weren’t perfect for you, you may feel lost and out of control, as well as unsure of where to begin in order to get things back on track. Here’s the good news. There are methods aimed at both starting and struggling businesses, and instead of being a quick fix, they will serve you in the long term.
It’s understood that every business is interested in growth, be it quick or gradual. It is therefore counterintuitive to pay for the tools that are only able to get you so far, and once you hit a specific threshold, you will need to replace them. A much better idea is to instead invest in solutions that are capable of scaling alongside you.
Most SaaS solutions are built in a way that they can accommodate companies as they grow, offering upgrade options on demand. Some vendors, like Timesheet Portal, allow you to downgrade if needed, too, and you can do it straight from the system itself, without having to involve our sales team. The point is, SaaS technology is generally created with longevity in mind, making it highly adaptive and therefore fit to match your pace, growth and the existing setup. Naturally, not every SaaS tool is like that, and you will need to do your research to understand whether it’s something you will find useful five years down the line. Adaptability normally comes at an extra cost, especially as you add upgrades, but that’s cheaper than having to change the whole system every few years. Especially when you account for time costs here, ranging from how long it takes to find the new solution to setting it up and training your teams.
Project management is a learned skill, and the curve is often steep. With many aspects to cover, it can be difficult to work out what the priorities are, leading to oversights of key processes such as cost-tracking. Yet, this is the key component in establishing a firm grip on project spending processes, which will shape the future of your whole company. A tool centralising both project costs and other company-related data is a cornerstone for a business optimised for growth. However, many companies overlook it, leading to their failure as soon as they begin scaling.
The market is brimming with tools that will match every need, want and a uniquely specific requirement a company may have. It takes time to find THE one, but the awards you reap from that justify the time expenditure. As your business scales, the operations become more complex, and at some point, adopting a digital solution will be inevitable, leading to a rush based on an immediate need. Naturally, it invites muddled judgment, which is why it’s suggested you start looking for relevant tools from the get-go. Especially the variety that’s capable of scaling alongside you, meaning you won’t outgrow them and require a new solution in a few years' time.
Are you a growing business that needs a reliable tool? Try Timesheet Portal today.