As a project accountant, how do you set priorities and drive execution when overseeing project costing, forecasting, and billing for several concurrent projects with competing deadlines? Provide an example of a time you led that execution and the outcome.

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VirtualInterview.AI · Accepted Answer

I typically start by mapping all deliverables and deadlines across projects and scoring them by revenue impact, contractual risk, and resource constraints. For example, I was managing costing, forecasting, and billing for six concurrent construction projects with a four-person accounting team. I created a priority matrix and weekly 30-minute standups, automated a forecasting template that pulled from our ERP, and delegated reconciliations by complexity level. Within three months we cut forecast variance from roughly 8% to 2%, sped up monthly close by 20% (saving about 16 hours a month), and improved billing accuracy to 99.5%, which reduced collections lag by two weeks. I track metrics, escalate early, and reallocate people based on the matrix so high-risk items get attention first.

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