Choosing the right software for budgeting, cost control and resource management
Exhibition management software available on the market today is either incredibly limited or isn’t right for the exhibition industry. Ticketing and asset storage software applications are common, however project management software applications aimed at the exhibition industry often only address in a very limited fashion, the need for budget creation, cost control including automated purchasing approval and resource planning. These functions however form an important aspect of exhibition management that is worth considering when searching for the right software.
Budget creation and estimation
Unless the right software has been purchased for the management of exhibition budgets, producers often still create budgets for their exhibition projects in unsecure outdated spreadsheets. A much more efficient and secure approach is to implement budgeting processes and software that provide a more secure alternative to formula-based spreadsheets. Exhibition budget management software should include budgeting templates specific to exhibitions, allowing budgets to be quickly and effectively created with less risk of missed costs.
Actual costs should be displayed against budgeted line items
Raising a purchase order or expense shouldn’t be a fragmented administrative exercise that isn’t connected to your prebuilt budget. Every expense or purchase order raised should in some way display against the budgeted line item, so that you can at an early stage, catch and prevent overspends.
Client estimates
Project management software aimed at budgeting and cost control for the exhibitions industry should be able to turn a budget into a well-presented client estimate. As the scope of work often changes between client approval and reconciliation, the software should track these changes and automatically create a client estimate revision document that highlights budget lines where those changes have occurred. Budgeting for an exhibition project can become a much more accurate exercise when historic budget information is easily retrievable.
Project timelines, resource management and time tracking in one system
Project management software should in general facilitate the creation of timelines and project plans with the ability to assign resources and distribute time allocations against activities defined in the plan. Time can then be entered against those activities within the system, making time tracking an easy fuss-free process. Mobile friendly timesheet entry is critical for project team members to easily track and enter time spent on the exhibition while working onsite or on the move.
Software that works for you
Your project manager, logistics co-ordinator, managing director and account manager should all be able to access the same budget information at the same time. The software should therefore have full multi-user capabilities. When everyone’s connected, workflow processes are more seamless, efficient and profitable.
The right software should integrate with the tools you need, in the way you need. It should help with your resourcing, billing, invoicing and reconciliation and provide flexible, insightful reports that help you make the right decisions.
Software that works should reflect your needs as well as that of your exhibition through easy to understand and informative screens that help you deliver your project on time and on budget. Don’t settle for less.
About Procim
Procim is a multi-functional project management software application specifically designed to assist front office project team members to control and manage their project budgets. It is not registration or exhibition booth management software but was designed for creative, event and exhibition management agencies. It is a front-end tool that covers all aspects of the project life cycle from sales forecasting through to project budgeting, reconciliation as well as resource planning.
At Procim we’ve been working with creative agencies and exhibition companies for 30 years, so we understand exactly what is needed when creating and managing exhibition budgets. Procim’s resourcing features connect to and flow from our budget management and planning features. We also integrate with industry standard accounting software, so you never have to duplicate work, everything is connected, everything is designed for you.
To find out more about how Procim can help you manage exhibition budgets and resource management, give us a call or book a demo. We’d love to hear from you.