Sometimes the stressors of the workday can keep us up at night as we think about the email we didn’t send or the report from the job site we didn’t file. It’s easier said than done to shut down the work portion of our brains once 5:00 hits and not bring them home to pop back up as we settle into bed. Here are some of the most common reasons why CFOs are having a hard time getting a restful night’s sleep and a few tips to help eliminate the problems to banish those nasty nightmares for good.

Safety

At all levels and roles within the construction industry, the number one concern on everyone’s mind is safety – safety for those working out in the field as well as in the office due to the ongoing COVID threat. One way to alleviate some of the fear is having office workers work from home, but this is not possible for all employees, especially for those operating heavy equipment or managing on-site. Construction brings a unique set of risks associated that a lot of industries might not have, so those in charge of keeping their workers safe lose sleep over the little things out of their control that could go wrong.

“I do always pay attention to whether or not it seems like we have the most proactive safety program,” said Amanda Raman, CPA, CCIFP, CFO at Therrien Waddell. “I’m always asking, are there things in the industry that are happening that we need to focus on? Do we have enough inspections that are occurring on a random basis to audit our processes? This last year added a whole new dimension to worrying about safety and if we’re covered everywhere. We've had most of our employees working from home during the pandemic, but obviously, our field workers are still out on projects, so we want to make sure that people are following those on-site precautions and that we're staying on top of CDC and local guidance.”

Financial Accuracy

Just below safety comes hours spent by CFOs tossing and turning over worrying about the accuracy of financials. The threat of a total financial bust happening to a job that could destroy a company because something was missed in the estimating process is a tiny possibility, but one that nags many CFOs.

“In my experience, the more that I can be collaborative with the project management team and the estimating team to understand things right out of the gate, the more that helps make sure that I'm translating reports and job cost reports accurately based on the deliverable that the project manager is giving us and getting that translated on to our web schedule,” said Raman. “The answer to being unsure is always to go and start talking to people.”