The Good Economy

The Good Economy is an impact advisory consultancy that helps organisations make investment decisions with social impact at their core.

Working with local authorities, cities, private equity firms, pension funds and advisors, the team helps clients understand where investment can create the greatest social value. Their work ranges from housing and infrastructure planning through to advising on social investment opportunities and measuring long-term impact.

As the business continued to grow, leadership needed better visibility across projects, people and financial performance. The challenge wasn't a lack of systems. It was bringing information together in a way that supported better decision-making.

At a Glance

• One connected platform: CMap replaced a mix of spreadsheets, Zoho, Xero Projects and manual reporting processes, bringing project, resourcing and financial data together in one place.

• Better forecasting: Revenue forecasts can now be viewed month-by-month, supporting both cash flow and P&L planning.

• Greater visibility: Teams can track utilisation, project profitability and pipeline performance with reporting that was previously difficult to produce.

• Reporting that reflects the business: Custom reports give leadership a clearer view of performance across sectors, projects and individuals.

The Challenge

When Ken Hart joined The Good Economy in 2024, critical business information was spread across several different tools.

The business was using Xero for accounting, Xero Projects for timesheets and project management, Zoho for pipeline management, and multiple Excel spreadsheets for pricing, planning, and reporting.

Each system served a purpose individually, but information was fragmented.

"Everything was separate. If you wanted information, you would have to go into each tool to pull it out."

Generating meaningful management information often required pulling data from multiple sources, making it difficult to get a complete picture of business performance. Forecasting future revenue was particularly challenging.

"I couldn't really work out easily what was coming down the pipeline, what the revenue forecast was, and what the P&L forecast was."

Understanding utilisation, project profitability and resource allocation was equally difficult. Leadership wanted better visibility across the business without relying on manual reporting processes.

Why Change?

Rather than trying to improve individual systems in isolation, The Good Economy took a step back and looked at how information flowed across the organisation.

The leadership team identified an opportunity to consolidate key operational and financial processes within a single platform.

The objective was clear: reduce manual effort, improve reporting confidence and create a more connected view of the business.

As part of the evaluation process, the team reviewed four different solutions.

For Ken Hart, several capabilities stood out as essential:

• Revenue forecasting

• Resource planning

• Project profitability reporting

• Native Xero integration

• Flexible reporting and analytics

Ultimately, CMap stood out because it combined these requirements within a single platform.

"We needed to replace what we were using with something that's unified to the maximum degree you could possibly get."

What Changed?

As operational data began flowing through CMap, The Good Economy gained a much clearer understanding of future performance and resourcing requirements. Revenue forecasting became a core management tool.

Leadership could review month-by-month projections, analyse secured and potential pipeline revenue, and build a stronger view of future business performance.

"The revenue forecasting is really useful for me, both for cash and P&L."

The team also introduced regular utilisation reporting, helping managers better understand capacity and resource allocation across the business.

At the same time, custom reporting gave teams the flexibility to analyse performance in ways that reflected how they actually worked.

Working with the CMap team, The Good Economy built reports tailored to their specific needs, covering:

• Revenue forecasting

• Project profitability

• Utilisation analysis

• Operational reporting

• Data hygiene monitoring

"I use a lot of the CMap reports and those custom reports. Everything is month on month, sector by sector, person by person, so we can get all that information out."

Results

Today, CMap plays a central role in how The Good Economy plans, monitors and manages performance across the business.

Improved Revenue Forecasting

Revenue forecasting is now a critical part of both financial and operational planning.

"The revenue forecasting is really useful for me, both for cash and like P&L."

The team can analyse future revenue month-by-month and review performance across sectors, projects and individuals.

Better Visibility into Utilisation

Utilisation reporting has become a regular management process.

What was once difficult to monitor is now reviewed monthly, helping leaders make more informed resource planning decisions.

Greater Understanding of Project Profitability

Project profitability is now reviewed far more closely than before.

The team can assess how projects are performing and use those insights to support future planning and decision-making.

"Project profitability and utilisation are probably the main kind of three ones that I use."

Reporting Built Around the Business

One of the most valuable outcomes has been the ability to create reporting tailored to the way The Good Economy operates.

Ken highlights revenue forecasting, project profitability and utilisation reporting as some of the most valuable reports used across the business today.

What's Next?

As the market continues to evolve, The Good Economy is focused on maintaining its position as one of the leading voices in impact advisory.

Internally, that means continuing to refine the way the business measures performance, plans resources, and understands profitability across projects.

Recent work has focused on conversion reporting and deeper profitability analysis, with further opportunities to build on the reporting capabilities already in place.

"The markets are moving all the time, and we want to be ahead of the curve."

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