The Urgency of Real-Time Financial Insights for Manufacturing and Construction CFOs

If you're feeling whiplash from economic policy changes, executive orders, and tariff uncertainty, you're not alone. Manufacturing and construction firms are navigating an economic landscape where uncertainty is the only constant. Rising material costs, labor shortages, supply chain disruptions, and shifting trade policies have turned financial planning into a high-stakes challenge.

Traditional forecasting methods – relying on static, historical data – are no longer sufficient in a world where conditions change overnight. For CFOs, real-time financial insights have become a necessity, enabling smarter decision-making, faster pivots, and greater financial resilience.

The Financial Pressures Reshaping the Industry

Manufacturing and construction have always been cyclical, but today’s challenges are unprecedented. Key factors driving financial volatility include:

• Supply Chain Disruptions & Trade Uncertainty – Tariffs, geopolitical tensions, and raw material shortages have led to erratic cost structures and unpredictable delivery timelines. The 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports alone has driven up costs, with companies reporting some projects are seeing an 8-10% rise in steel prices.
• Rising Costs & Inflation – Higher wages, material expenses, and borrowing costs mean tighter margins. Construction costs in the U.S. have surged between 25–40% since 2020, with no return to pre-pandemic levels in sight. In 2025, costs in Europe are expected to rise by 2–4% across major markets.
• Regulatory & Compliance Shifts – New labor laws, safety mandates, and environmental regulations require continuous operational adjustments.
• Labor Shortages – A persistent lack of skilled workers is inflating wages and delaying projects. The U.S., EU, and Canada are all experiencing historically low unemployment rates, further exacerbating labor costs.

For CFOs, these disruptions aren't just operational hurdles — they carry serious financial consequences, from inaccurate forecasting to cash flow shortfalls.

The Case for Real-Time Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A)

Static financial models leave businesses exposed to risk and slow to react. In contrast, real-time financial insights, powered by modern FP&A tools, such as Prophix One FP&A Plus, give CFOs the agility needed to manage uncertainty proactively. The benefits include:

• Faster, More Strategic Decision-Making – When tariffs increase supplier costs or project delays threaten revenue, finance leaders need immediate data to act. With tools like Prophix One, real-time insights enable rapid adjustments, whether renegotiating supplier contracts, reallocating resources, or adjusting pricing strategies.
• Improved Cash Flow & Working Capital Management – Real-time visibility into cash flow ensures businesses can optimize capital allocation and reduce reliance on expensive short-term financing. Construction financial management tools provide live insights, ensuring better control over project costs and profitability.
• Dynamic Forecasting & Scenario Planning – Predictive modeling allows finance teams to simulate different market scenarios — rising material costs, interest rate hikes, or supply chain disruptions — helping companies prepare before crises hit. Prophix One FP&A Plus, for example, empowers finance teams with advanced scenario modeling to adjust to economic fluctuations in real time.
• Stronger Risk Management – Margin compression, supplier instability, and liquidity issues can be anticipated and mitigated before they escalate. Real-time analytics help CFOs detect financial warning signs early and implement proactive risk management strategies.
• Greater Operational Efficiency – Automating financial workflows reduces errors and frees finance teams to focus on strategy rather than manual reconciliation. An integrated financial system ensures procurement, operations, and finance work from the same data, minimizing costly misalignment.

Overcoming Barriers to Real-Time Financial Insights

Despite the advantages, many firms struggle to implement real-time FP&A solutions. Common roadblocks and challenges include:

• Siloed Data & Legacy Systems – Disconnected ERP, accounting, and project management tools make it difficult to gain a real-time, company-wide financial view. CPMs like Prophix One integrate seamlessly with existing ERP systems, eliminating silos and ensuring finance teams work from a single source of truth.
• Manual, Spreadsheet-Heavy Workflows – Overreliance on Excel leads to slow, error-prone forecasting. Automating key financial processes unlocks faster, more accurate insights. By adopting a cloud-based solution, organizations can reduce manual errors and accelerate decision-making.
• Organizational Resistance – CFOs must secure buy-in from leadership and operations teams to embrace real-time analytics as a competitive necessity.
• Cybersecurity & Compliance Concerns – Moving financial data to cloud-based platforms requires robust governance, data security protocols, and internal controls.

These are common pain points we see across the manufacturing and construction sectors. UHY’s Technology Bundle, for example, helps clients address these issues by improving data governance, aligning technology decisions with business priorities, and managing the change process in a way that supports long-term adoption.

The Path Forward: How CFOs Can Drive Change

To successfully transition to real-time FP&A, CFOs must take a structured approach:

1. Assess Current Financial Processes: Identify inefficiencies, data bottlenecks, and areas where real-time insights would have the greatest impact. In our work with clients, we often begin by assessing whether existing financial workflows are aligned with broader strategic goals. The UHY Technology Bundle provides a framework for doing this systematically –  clarifying the "why" behind technology investments before implementation begins.
2. Invest in Modern FP&A Tools: Cloud-based financial platforms like Prophix One FP&A Plus offer predictive analytics, automated forecasting, and dynamic dashboards, giving finance teams instant access to critical data.Read this blog for tips on what to look for in an FP&A solution to ensure you choose the right one for your business needs.
3. Integrate Financial and Operational Data: A seamless connection between finance, procurement, and operations ensures a unified data source, eliminating costly information gaps.
4. Foster a Data-Driven Culture: CFOs must lead training initiatives, ensuring finance teams embrace real-time insights for strategic decision-making. A company-wide shift toward data-driven operations will maximize impact.
5. Strengthen Governance, Compliance, and Security: Cloud-based financial systems must be protected with strong cybersecurity and compliance frameworks. CFOs should collaborate with IT and risk management to ensure seamless, secure implementation.

Many of the barriers to real-time FP&A – from siloed data to change resistance – are addressed more effectively with a structured approach. UHY’s Technology Bundle brings together services that support each step of this transformation, from early-stage strategy to post-implementation sustainment.

The Cost of Inaction: Can Your Company Afford to Wait?

Failing to adopt real-time financial insights carries major risks:

• Inaccurate Forecasting & Budgeting – Relying on outdated data can lead to misaligned projections, increasing financial instability.
• Missed Growth Opportunities – Businesses that lack real-time visibility may fail to capitalize on market shifts or adjust pricing strategies in time.
• Cash Flow Disruptions – Poor cash flow management can result in higher borrowing costs, liquidity issues, and delayed projects.
• Inability to Pivot Amid Economic Uncertainty – Slow reactions to inflation, trade policy shifts, and supply chain disruptions can weaken competitive positioning.

Conversely, organizations that embrace real-time FP&A gain a decisive competitive advantage. Prophix One empowers businesses with the tools needed to optimize resource allocation, identify risks early, and make data-driven decisions that protect margins and drive profitability.

The CFO’s New Mandate: Financial Agility in an Uncertain Economy

Economic uncertainty isn’t going away. If anything, it’s accelerating. CFOs in manufacturing and construction must lead the shift to modernized financial planning to ensure their companies can adapt, optimize, and thrive in unpredictable conditions.

By leveraging real-time financial insights, predictive analytics, and automated workflows, CFOs can enhance cash flow management, mitigate risk, and improve operational efficiency. Companies that embrace these capabilities won’t just weather economic turbulence – they’ll outperform their competition.

That said, adopting real-time financial insights is rarely a plug-and-play exercise. It touches data structures, reporting processes, team workflows, and organizational readiness. Companies that succeed in this shift often approach it in phases, supported by experienced advisors who understand how to sequence change effectively and sustainably. UHY’s Technology Bundle was designed to support that process – aligning strategy, systems, and people to help finance teams lead with clarity and confidence.

In 2025, fortune doesn’t just favor the bold – it favors the agile. The question isn’t whether real-time financial insights are necessary. It’s whether your company can afford to operate without them.

Read the article published by CPA Practice Advisor