You’ve probably heard this one before:
“The project finished close to schedule, but we still blew the budget.”
In shutdowns and turnarounds, this story is all too common. The problem isn’t poor planning or lack of control — it’s that schedules and costs often live in separate worlds.
Your schedulers live in Primavera, your finance team in SAP, and your field supervisors in spreadsheets. By the time data moves between them, it’s outdated — and so are your decisions.
Let’s talk about why that happens and how the right tools can finally bring schedule and cost together under one roof.
Why Scheduling and Cost Control Drift Apart
Turnarounds are complex by nature. Thousands of activities, hundreds of contractors, and millions of dollars move daily. But here’s the issue — most organizations still treat schedule and cost as separate silos.
Here’s what that looks like:
- Schedulers track progress by tasks and milestones.
- Finance teams track expenditures and purchase orders.
- Neither sees the full picture until it’s too late.
The root causes?
- Different tools that don’t talk to each other.
- Manual data transfers that create lag.
- Cost codes that don’t match schedule IDs.
- Delays and rework hidden until month-end.
💡 Result: Decisions are made on old data — and in a shutdown or turnaround outage, a single day’s delay can cost millions.
The Hidden Cost of Disconnection
When scheduling and cost control don’t align, problems multiply fast:
- Budget creep from untracked delays and overtime.
- Idle labor while materials or permits lag behind.
- Late cost visibility, turning financial control into post-mortem analysis.
- Mistrust between planners, finance, and field teams.
It’s not that teams are doing bad work — they’re simply working from different truths.
How to Connect Schedule and Cost in Real Time
Bridging the gap between scheduling and cost control starts with integration — not more spreadsheets.
Here’s what actually works:
1. Link Work Orders to Cost Codes
Each scheduled task should automatically tie to a cost element in your ERP. This gives instant visibility into what’s driving spend.
2. Use Real-Time Progress Data
When field teams update progress digitally, both schedulers and finance can see changes as they happen — not days later.
3. Sync Through APIs, Not Files
Modern systems integrate directly with ERP and CMMS tools, eliminating manual data entry and reducing errors.
4. Automate Forecast Adjustments
If a job slips by two days, your cost forecast should adjust automatically. No waiting for the next report cycle.
5. Use Unified Dashboards
A single dashboard that shows time + cost + performance gives management a real understanding of project health.
A Real-World Example
A refinery once used separate systems for scheduling (Primavera) and finance (SAP). Each team produced its own “truth” — reports never matched.
After implementing an integrated platform linking both systems, progress updates and cost impacts were visible in real time.
- Cost variance reporting improved from two weeks to same-day.
- Management gained a clear forecast of labor and material spend.
- Overall cost overruns dropped by 18%.
Integration turned firefighting into foresight.
How Teknobuilt’s PACE OS Solves It
With PACE OS, Teknobuilt unifies scheduling, execution, and cost management within one digital turnaround management ecosystem.
PACE OS bridges planning tools like Primavera with ERP systems, creating live cost and progress dashboards for every stakeholder. Whether during planning, execution, or close-out, you get one version of the truth — across time, cost, and risk.
That’s the foundation of a smart shutdown turnaround outage strategy: real-time visibility, predictive control, and data-driven decisions.
Conclusion: Visibility Is the New Efficiency
Finishing “on time” isn’t the same as finishing on budget.
When scheduling and cost systems operate separately, every update is a guess.
But when you connect them, your team stops reacting and starts managing.
You see risks early, adjust intelligently, and control outcomes instead of chasing them.
👉 If your project reports still come from multiple spreadsheets, it’s time to bridge the gap.
Integrated systems like PACE OS give you the control, accuracy, and insight to turn every turnaround into a success — from the first work order to financial close.
