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Here’s Why NextProcess BPMS Is Better Than Excel at Managing Capital Expense Projects
Capital expense (CapEx) projects can be a challenge to handle efficiently. A lot is going on with these sorts of projects, and they typically involve large sums of money. Plus, they’re important for keeping your business running smoothly as your company grows. Managing CapEx well is essential for your business’ success and so is your choice of BPMS.
Many companies turn to Excel for managing CapEx. There are plenty of Excel project management templates available that claim they’ll make managing capital projects simple. And in some cases, these sorts of spreadsheets might be okay for helping you manage individual projects especially if the projects have a fairly small scale.
However, Excel is not the best choice for more challenging project management. There are much better options available for when you need to keep track of multiple projects, enable collaboration across departments, or look at how projects change over time.
Business process management software (BPMS) systems give you so much more control over CapEx projects that it’s surprising how many companies – even large enterprises – are still using Excel for their project management. If you’re one of the companies currently managing projects in Excel, now is a perfect time to upgrade to a more time and cost-effective solution.
Why Excel Doesn’t Work
Excel is a great program for making spreadsheets, but lucks many features as BPMS. But spreadsheets have their limits. Excel simply was not designed for tasks like capital resource management, creating timesheets, or managing billing. On top of that, spreadsheets are prone to human error. Studies show that up to 90% of spreadsheets contain significant errors which can cost your company thousands or even millions of dollars.
Spreadsheets also make it easy for you to end up with conflicting data. Multiple versions of the same file or multiple people editing a single file can quickly lead to confusion about what data is accurate. Excel is also a time-consuming program. It requires quite a bit of manual labor to enter data, manage files, and check for errors. Plus, Excel spreadsheets aren’t that secure. Using them may jeopardize your data security.
Project management is a complicated endeavor which often involves working with teams of employees and customized BPMS. Excel simply isn’t equipped to make it easy for you to make sure everyone involved in the project stays on-task. It takes hours to email everyone, generate schedules, and keep track of deadlines. And even though you can generate progress reports in Excel they usually take many hours to create.
How a CapEx Management System Can Help
Capital project software is specifically designed to help you manage your CapEx projects in the most efficient way possible. Where Excel relies on a variety of user-defined templates and manual data entry, CapEx software comes equipped to handle projects of all scales, relies on digital data capture technologies, and automatically checks data for errors.
The calculations required for cost worksheets and risk management are difficult in Excel but simple for a software system that includes features specifically to accomplish those tasks. Features included in NextProcess’s Capital Management Software provide you with capital budgeting tools with configurable levels and real-time reporting. It also makes routing projects and sub-projects for review simple. Plus, you can track each project from start to finish with event and change logging that’ll make your next audit run seamlessly.
CapEx software solutions like we offer here at NextProcess makes it easy for managers to enable collaboration, check on their team’s progress, and set up automatic reminder emails for approaching deadlines. You’ll also be able to generate reports about each project’s progress in a matter of minutes or seconds. It’ll speed up all the routine, but necessary, tasks involved in CapEx and free-up employee time. Now everyone can focus on making the project a success instead of on managing spreadsheets.
Enhanced Customization and Security Options
NextProcess’s software is highly configurable and flexible. Not only did we design it to handle CapEx projects more efficiently, but it’ll also adjust to your company’s specific needs. When you choose NextProcess, you’ll work with our team of experts to create a system that is tailored to your company’s processes.
We’ll show you how to use our software to incorporate custom fields, variable routing, automated reporting, and much more. Our software helps you take control of capital projects and efficiently manage your CapEx spend in a way that works best for your company. What makes this even better is that our capital budgeting software scales into your needs. It can grow with your company, without any extra hassle on your part trying to scale-up functionality. We’ll handle all that for you, and we’ll take care of software updates as well.
You also get to customize your security options. CapEx software already gives you tighter controls over viewing, editing, and reporting on budgets and projects than Excel can provide. In addition, you can choose to restrict visibility for each project to a single location, region or individual users. Approvers have the option of delegating their authority when out of the office to keep processes moving. They can also access the platform remotely and see real-time updates of each project’s status.
A Better Way To Do Things
When we take Excel’s limits into account, it simply can’t measure up to a dedicated BPMS system designed to handle capital project management. Process automation software specifically designed for CapEx makes project management much more efficient and cost-effective. There’s no reason to try and make Excel do something it was never designed to do when there are efficient, time-saving software options engineered specifically just for capital expense project management.
If you’re ready to see how much Capital Management Software can help your company, contact NextProcess and schedule a free demo. We’ll answer any questions you have and give you a first-hand look at how our software can enhance your company’s project management.
