Oracle Corp.’s NetSuite subsidiary today added cash flow and project management features to its enterprise resource management software for small and midsized businesses.

Cash 360 is the first in a line of redesigned dashboards the company plans to roll out over the course of this year. The configurable interfaces consolidate what were previously discrete functions in other modules into a single view that accesses NetSuite data.

“This is the next iteration of dashboard technology that builds on re-invigorating our analytics portfolio,” said Paul Farrell, vice president of industry product management at NetSuite. “The functionality has always been there, but it’s been in multiple places.”

Cash 360 provides a real-time view of cash positions and analytical tools that can be used for near-term forecasts. It includes links to cash management activities such as reminders of upcoming tasks, current cash balance, payable and receivable balances, cash flow trends and a rolling six-month cash flow forecast.

NetSuite said insufficient cash flow is the main reason new businesses fail in the first five years. The new cash flow forecasting tool incorporates multiple data points – such as funding sources, planned expenditures, sales forecasts and billing schedules – and applies historical averages to current transaction data to estimate collections and disbursements. Users can incorporate onetime cash inflows and outflows, such as financing or capital investments, into the forecasts to project cash needs and evaluate liquidity.

Another new dashboard – Project 360 – is based on NetSuite SuiteProjects, a component of the product suite that combines customer relationship management, human resources and accounting, and enterprise resource planning into a single view of key metrics, reports, statuses and resources to help users more quickly identify projects that need attention, the company said. SuiteProjects is not intended to be a standalone project management system but has features that are of greatest value to services engagements, Farrell said. “This brings everything together and makes it far simpler to show which areas project managers should be looking at,” he said.

The interface features several functional modules. A project budget analysis component shows if a sufficient budget remains to complete a project by analyzing spending and allocation. Project billing shows how much is currently billable and what has yet to be billed. A profitability module determines if a project is making the desired profit based on recognized revenue and total costs to date.

Project resourcing depicts the resources dedicated to a project with names and photos of team members, Gantt chart visualization and information about how much time each resource has spent on the assignment. Project health and status depicts such information as current billing and revenue, budgets, resourcing and financials.

All have drill-down functions as well as the ability to attach emails and documents to timelines.

Both of the new dashboards will be incorporated into existing NetSuite subscriptions at no additional charge.

Photo: NetSuite