— Capex Software for Cost Control —
How a global enterprise finally managed to control its Capex costs
Challenge: A Performance Drain
Budgets were set, projects approved, and work had begun. Yet by mid-year, costs were routinely exceeding forecasts. No single overrun was eye-opening, but together they were.
Because project owners worked from disconnected spreadsheets, they lacked a centralized portfolio view. Cost pressures on individual projects quietly cascaded into the broader capital plan, unseen until it was too late.
Meanwhile, the FP&A team spent the first week of every month reconciling actuals from multiple systems. Decisions to continue, pause or cancel underperforming investments were made late, or not at all.
Opportunity: Cost Visibility
This manufacturer didn’t have a spending issue; it was a visibility and governance problem. Missing: the links between project-level execution and portfolio-level oversight.
With Finario, everyone works from a single trusted system. Approved changes, contingencies, and actuals are tracked separately, so variance is always visible and attributable. And actuals reconcile automatically, freeing FP&A from manual consolidation.
At the portfolio level, a consolidated view of every project, with real-time budget status, milestone progress, and flagged risks, allows leadership to intervene early and redirect capital from stalled investments to higher-priority ones.
A 5-Point Cost Control Action Plan
Standardize the project request and budgeting process
Require every capital request to include a full budget build: baseline costs, contingency, and phasing by period. Eliminate the variability that invites scope creep and makes comparisons impossible.
Separate baseline, approved changes, and contingency
Structure budgets in distinct layers. Approval changes should require authorization before being added; contingency gets released only when justified.
Automate actuals reconciliation
Connect Finario to your ERP and financial systems so actual spend is matched to project budgets in real time. Replace the monthly manual cycle with live variance visibility.
Set variance thresholds that trigger early alerts
Configure automated alerts for cost, schedule, and milestone variance at defined thresholds. Know about a developing overrun at 10%, not at 30%, when options are limited.
Require reforecasts at defined project milestones
Don’t wait for year-end. Require updated cost forecasts at design completion, contract award, and major procurement so the portfolio view always reflects current reality.
Trusted by industrial enterprises worldwide
The ability to track actual costs against what’s been approved in Finario has been great. Previously, it was difficult to understand which projects were responsible for any unwanted or unplanned deviation in our capital budget. It could be done, but required a lot of manual effort.
GROUP CFO, Medical projects
Finario gives us the visibility and control we’ve always needed over our Capex portfolio. We now have a single, consistent view of every project – from initial request through post-completion review.
VP, Capital planning, Specialty chemicals
Every project now has to earn its place. You have to defend every project on ROI now, Sperl says. Solventum tracks the share of capital spend that’s driving a return versus simply maintaining the business, using project categorization inside Finario to keep the portfolio weighted toward projects that pay off.
Global Director, Capital Engineering, Healthcare
Solution Plan: Schedule a Demo
Get a guided walkthrough of Finario, tailored to how your leadership team prioritizes, chooses, manages and tracks strategic capital investments.