Why We Needed a Financial Visibility Upgrade for Our Growing Construction Business
We were flying blind.
Not because we didn’t have the numbers—but because we had too many. Too many spreadsheets, too many versions, too many places to look. When you’re running multiple entities, juggling diverse services like insulation, concrete lifting, and roofing, etc. and trying to plan cash flow across all of them… spreadsheets break. Fast.
At Beyond Group, we’re not afraid of growth. But the truth is, our financial systems weren’t keeping up. We had grown from a single-entity trade services company to a complex group with multiple operational divisions, project types, and revenue models. And suddenly, what used to work—manual reporting, end-of-month roll-ups, QuickBooks exports—stopped giving us the clarity we needed to make confident decisions.
If you’re in construction, you already know the stakes. One bad forecast can jeopardize payroll, stall a project, or tank your reputation. And when you’re managing multiple entities, those risks multiply.
We needed a system that could consolidate, visualize, and connect the dots across the entire group. That’s when we started looking seriously at LiveFlow.
This blog post is for anyone in construction or a project-based business who’s outgrown spreadsheets but isn’t ready for a full-blown ERP system. I’m going to walk you through our honest, first-hand experience using LiveFlow, what worked, what didn’t, and whether we’d recommend it to other growing companies.
What Is LiveFlow and Why Do Construction Companies Use It?
If you’re reading this, you’ve probably already heard of LiveFlow. But here’s how I’d explain it to a project manager or controller over coffee:
LiveFlow connects your accounting software (QuickBooks Online, Xero, etc.) directly to Google Sheets in real time—so your reports always reflect live financials, not static exports.
That’s the pitch. But the real value shows up when you’re trying to do something that traditional tools make painful—like tracking net income across 4 entities, projecting cash flow across staggered jobs, or comparing margins by division.
For construction companies, where everything revolves around jobs, timing, and people, LiveFlow bridges the gap between bookkeeping reality and operational visibility. It gives leaders and project teams real-time access to actuals, budgets, and forecasts—without waiting on month-end.
We didn’t need another accounting system. We needed reporting without bottlenecks—and that’s exactly where LiveFlow fit.
LiveFlow vs. Traditional Excel, QuickBooks Dashboards, and Custom Reporting
Before LiveFlow, we tried all the usual suspects:
- Manual QuickBooks exports into Excel or Sheets
- Building templated dashboards with pivot tables
- Hiring a freelance analyst to build “automated” sheets (that broke monthly)
Each of these worked… until they didn’t.
The biggest issue? Time lag and human error.
By the time we pulled, cleaned, and formatted the data, it was already outdated. And if someone changed the chart of accounts or edited a line item? Boom—broken formulas, misleading reports, or worse, no report at all.
LiveFlow solved that by making the data source live. No more export/import cycles. No more reconciling errors between tabs. Just current numbers, feeding into one trusted source of truth.
For us, the ROI showed up in two ways:
- Speed: Reports that used to take 3–4 hours per week to build now take 15 minutes.
- Confidence: No more "who touched this formula?" or "why is this number off?"
How We Use LiveFlow to Manage Multi-Entity Cash Flow, Job Costing, and Forecasting
The magic of LiveFlow isn’t just in the connection—it’s in how you use it.
Here’s what we track weekly using LiveFlow:
- Cash position by entity (great for knowing who can fund who)
- Job profitability by service line (lifting vs. firestopping vs. attic insulation)
- Overhead ratios by month
- Forecasted expenses tied to known vendor cycles
- Payroll planning against project backlog
We’ve built templates that automatically pull P&Ls for each entity into one master sheet. From there, we compare margins, isolate variances, and make decisions faster.
One of the biggest wins? Forecasting cash needs before they hit.
When you’re running lean and growth is seasonal (hello, winter slowdown), being able to see the cliff before you’re falling off it changes everything.
What We Love About LiveFlow (and Where It Still Needs Work)
Let’s start with what’s working:
- Near real-time data = fewer surprises
- Google Sheets interface = zero training time
- Multi-entity support = perfect for companies with separate legal or operational divisions
- Templates = gets you 80% of the way to an executive dashboard
But it’s not perfect. Here’s where we’ve hit snags:
- User permissions: Fine for internal teams, but clunky if you want to share reports with outside partners.
- Formatting: Since it’s Google Sheets, you still need to manually clean up formatting for presentations.
- Learning curve: Setting up dynamic filters and custom roll-ups requires some spreadsheet chops.
That said, LiveFlow’s support team has been responsive, and their roadmap seems focused on the right pain points—especially for teams in finance-heavy, ops-driven industries.
The ROI of LiveFlow: What It Actually Saves Us (Time, Errors, and Headaches)
Let’s get specific.
For us, LiveFlow paid for itself in the first 60 days. Why?
- Eliminated ~15 hours/month of manual reporting
- Caught a duplicated vendor invoice that would’ve cost $6,200
- Prevented a near miss on a payroll shortfall due to faster visibility
The time savings from automating our consolidation and reporting workflows have been so significant that [Insert name] estimates we’ve avoided hiring a part-time finance assistant altogether.
More than cost savings, it’s a mental shift—from reactivity to proactivity.
Who Should—and Shouldn’t—Use LiveFlow in Construction
LiveFlow works best if:
- You use QuickBooks Online
- You have 2+ legal entities or cost centers
- You have someone who knows Google Sheets well
- You’re spending 5+ hours/month consolidating financials
It’s not ideal if:
- You use QuickBooks Desktop or Sage (limited or no support)
- You want slick dashboards out-of-the-box
- You don’t trust Google Sheets with sensitive data
It’s not a silver bullet—but it is a powerful middle ground between DIY reporting and full-blown ERP systems.
How Long It Took to Set Up LiveFlow (And Who Helped)
One of our hesitations going in was, “Will this take a whole quarter to implement?”
It didn’t.
From sign-up to live dashboards took us about one week. Most of that was:
- Connecting each entity in QuickBooks
- Choosing our core reports (P&L, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow)
- Testing data integrity
- Building dashboards and summary views
We didn’t need outside help, but LiveFlow does offer onboarding sessions and templates for common setups.
What Beyond Group Would Tell Another Construction Company Considering LiveFlow
If you’re a growing construction company stuck between spreadsheets and systems, LiveFlow is worth testing.
Start with just one dashboard—maybe cash flow or divisional P&L. Set it up, run it for a month, and watch what happens when your decisions get 10x faster.
For us, it wasn’t just about better reports. It was about better questions. When the data is clean and current, your leadership conversations get sharper.
Final Thoughts: Our Ongoing Journey to Financial Clarity and Confidence
We’re still building. Still iterating. Still growing.
But now, we’re doing it with radical financial visibility, not best guesses.
LiveFlow didn’t solve every problem—but it gave us something we couldn’t find anywhere else: confidence in the numbers, when we need them most.
If you’re serious about scaling, don’t wait until the chaos forces you to upgrade your systems. Do it before the breaking point.
Ready to Build Financial Confidence Across Every Entity?
If your construction business is growing and you’re feeling the weight of multi-entity financial complexity, it might be time to explore a better system.
Book a discovery call with our team to see how we’ve implemented LiveFlow and whether it’s a fit for where you’re headed.
We’ll show you exactly how we use it across our roofing, insulation, lifting, and firestop divisions—and help you avoid the common pitfalls we hit along the way.
Author: Kevin Boschee, CFO