Case studies / Real Estate Development
Case studyProject cost and collections tracking for a residential developer
An Egyptian residential developer replaced monthly cost reviews with weekly tracking against budget, linked instalment collections to cash plans and spotted overruns and arrears early.
Overview
A listed residential developer building gated communities and apartment schemes in Greater Cairo and on the Mediterranean coast, selling units off plan on instalment plans of up to eight years.
Scale. Fourteen active projects at different stages, more than 9,000 units sold or reserved, tens of thousands of scheduled instalments a year, and dozens of main contractors and suppliers, delivered as a phased, multi-location programme.
The challenge
Costs were reviewed monthly. Each project team kept its own budget workbook, updated when contractor valuations and supplier invoices had been checked, usually several weeks after the month closed. By the time an overrun on concrete, steel or finishing works appeared in the group report, the money had been spent and the contractor had moved on to the next phase.
Unit inventory and bookings were handled differently by each sales office. Some recorded reservations in the sales system; others kept lists of units held for brokers or senior management. Twice in one year the same apartment was promised to two buyers, which cost money and reputation to resolve.
Instalment collections were the developer's main source of construction funding, yet they were tracked separately from the build programme. Collections staff chased overdue payments from spreadsheets, and nobody could see which projects were drawing on cash that buyers had not yet paid. When the Egyptian pound weakened sharply, construction costs rose while instalments stayed fixed, and the gap went unmeasured until it was large.
The solution
Every project now has a budget by work package, updated weekly with committed orders, certified progress and forecast cost to complete. Site engineers record progress from the field application, quantity surveyors check it, and variances above an agreed threshold go to the project director with a short explanation and a proposed response.
One unit register covers every project. A unit can be reserved only once, holds expire automatically, and contracts generate the buyer's instalment schedule directly. Sales teams see live availability and price lists, and management can see absorption by project and unit type.
Instalments are matched to bank receipts each day. Collections officers work from a prioritised list, with reminders sent by text message and e-mail before and after each due date. Most importantly, collections and construction cost sit side by side in the cash plan for each project, so leadership can see where spending is running ahead of the money buyers have paid. Shared master data for projects, units, buyers and contractors underpins group reporting and management dashboards.
The engagement
- Eight months
- Five specialists, with project controls, sales, collections and finance leads
- Process mapping, project budgets and cost tracking, unit inventory and bookings, instalment collections, shared master data, pilot and phased rollout.
Integrations
- Project and document systems
- Banks and payment services
- Field and mobile applications
- Management dashboards
How we delivered it
- 01
Map the work with the people who do it
Six weeks
We spent time with site engineers, quantity surveyors, sales advisers, collections officers and accountants on four projects. With the chief executive and finance director we agreed the scope: budgets and cost, unit inventory and bookings, and collections against cash plans.
- 02
Design common processes and integrations
Eleven weeks
Quantity surveyors and project controls agreed one budget structure by work package and a weekly cost update from contractor progress and committed orders. Sales and legal agreed a single unit register in which every reservation, contract and cancellation is recorded. Bank and payment data were connected to the instalment schedule.
- 03
Pilot on one project
Seven weeks
A large community in New Cairo piloted the processes. Site engineers suggested recording progress on mobile devices during their walks rather than on paper. The pilot also found budget lines coded differently between phases, which were aligned before rollout.
- 04
Roll out in waves and track results
Ten weeks
The remaining projects followed in three waves. The executive committee reviewed cost, collections and inventory monthly.
Results
- Overruns spotted earlier
- Collections tracked against construction cash plans
- Double bookings of units eliminated
- Teams worked from the same data across 14 projects
Overruns were spotted earlier. Weekly tracking surfaced cost pressures on finishing works and external infrastructure weeks before they would have appeared in a monthly report, giving project directors time to re-tender packages or adjust specifications.
Tracking collections against the cash plan let the developer act early. On two projects where arrears were building, it slowed the next phase of construction and offered restructured plans to buyers in difficulty, avoiding expensive borrowing. Arrears over ninety days fell substantially within a year.
Double bookings stopped. Teams on every project work from the same data, and leadership reviews results monthly.
We used to find out about a problem when the month was closed and the money was gone. Now we discuss it while there is still something we can do.
What made the difference
The developer tracked collections against plans and acted early. Involving the people who do the work early made adoption easier: site engineers designed the mobile progress updates they now use.
