If financial forecasting scares you more than supports you, your GovCon needs to tap into scenario planning and turn the great unknown into a strategic strength.

That may feel like an impossible task when you’re faced with the volatility of current federal policy and funding. Add to those your ongoing market challenges—complex contract structures, compliance demands, and competition—and even the most carefully crafted forecast feels fragile.

GovCon experts at Nue built our Scenario Planner so GovCons can run endless, real-time, “what-if” scenarios as often as needed for financial forecasts that are both accurate and agile. Our financial planning and analysis (FP&A) system enables you to anticipate risks, test assumptions, and easily refresh data as soon as conditions shift.

Tackle the Top 7 Challenges to Financial Forecasting

1. Uncertain Government Funding & Budget Cycles

Challenge: Federal budgets are tied to political gridlock, economic fluctuations, and evolving government priorities, any of which can shift funding availability and with it, contract pipelines and procurement volume. GovCons must react quickly to these evolving conditions.

Solution: Leverage Nue’s unlimited scenario-planning tool to build “what-if” cases that incorporate external variables—such as delayed contract awards, new business opportunities in your pipeline, contract cancellations, and compare them side-by-side in real time. Instantly see the impact on cash flow, operating margins, and other KPIs. Leadership can prepare mitigation plans before a budget crisis hits.

2. Contract Diversity & Payment Terms

Challenge: Different contract vehicles—fixed-price, cost-reimbursable, time and materials—carry distinct cash flow profiles. Multiple contract types mean different billing rules and timelines, which can complicate liquidity forecasting.

Solution: Nue’s platform integrates contract data from ERPs, allowing you to simulate milestone delays and payment timing in your scenarios. The working capital assumption functionality simulates payment lags or delays.

3. Cash Flow Volatility

Challenge: Your GovCon may experience a cash crunch from fronting labor, materials, and overhead before client agency reimbursements kick in.

Solution: Nue lets you model working capital and cash conversion cycles across scenarios using built-in support assumptions so you can proactively manage credit lines and cash flow.

4. Forecasting Methodology Limitations/Data Silos

Challenge: Many firms rely on disconnected spreadsheets, which can frustrate prompt scenario adjustments in response to shifting market conditions. Disconnected silos between finance and project teams hinder forecasting accuracy and timely decision-making. According to the GAUGE report, nearly 70 percent of firms still use spreadsheets, and only 18% rate their pipeline forecasting as “very accurate.” This over-reliance on spreadsheets can often lead to errors, versioning issues, and slow updates.

Solution: Nue replaces spreadsheets with scalable, auditable, collaborative scenario planning that works across teams, with centralized assumptions and models for data consistency. You can duplicate plans, make tweaks, and sync assumptions—all within one platform. Import your ERP and CRM data into Nue for seamless forecasting visibility with version control.

5. Compliance, Audits, & Oversight Risk

Challenge: Forecasts must produce information that is audit-ready, compliant with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA), and traceable to assumptions.

Solution: Nue’s system captures assumption libraries, audit trails, and embedded compliance checklists for streamlined oversight. The platform produces DCAA-compliant indirect rate forecasts that meets The Estimating System criteria.

6. Cost Pressures & Competitive Bidding

Challenge: GovCons are always working to strike a balance between bid prices that are low enough to win, but high enough to ensure profitability—an especially challenging task with unpredictable indirect cost rates.

Solution: You can test bid strategies with Nue’s Scenario Planner under shifting indirect rates and scopes to examine the ripple effects on margins and enterprise value. Nue’s Scenario Planner and integrated dashboards simplify immediate margin recalculation.

7. Technology & Adoption Gaps

Challenge: AI, data analytics, and ERP/CRM integration offer opportunities to improve forecast precision. A GovCon may be slow to adopt these modern forecasting tools because of cost and change resistance.

Solution: Worried your systems aren’t ready for a new FP&A tool? Nue integrates smoothly with existing ERPs and evolves with your needs—making adoption faster and less disruptive. Nue also offers expert guidance through onboarding and implementation of its Scenario Planner.

Are you facing another agency policy change? Uncertainty over a contract renewal? Upcoming audit? Talk to our GovCon experts at Nue today for a free demonstration at your convenience. See how scenario planning with our FP&A platform can put you ahead of the ever-changing government landscape—and your competitors.