Naarvin reports profit by company, cost centre, project and customer. Where your ERP leaves lines untagged, it suggests the project or cost centre from the line's text, the supplier and the account, a person accepts the suggestion or turns it into a rule, and shared costs are spread by the allocation rules you set. Your ERP's own data is never changed: its tags always win.
Why is project profit so hard to see?
Many ERPs, or the way they were set up, record revenue by project but leave most costs untagged. Salaries, rent and overheads sit in one pool, and some journals carry no project at all. The project report shows high margins on paper, and the real answer is rebuilt in a spreadsheet every quarter.
- Journals and bills arrive without a project or cost centre.
- Shared costs, such as rent or a support team, are never spread.
- The ERP posts cost of sales as one figure, not by product or project.
- Retagging in the ERP is slow, and a re-sync can undo it.
- Department heads do not trust the numbers, so they do not own them.
How does profitability reporting run with Naarvin?
- See what is untaggedFor each company, Naarvin shows how much of the income statement carries a project or cost centre, and how much does not.
- Get suggestionsFor the rest, it suggests a value: a project code or name in the line or its description, the project this supplier's lines usually go to, or the one this account usually goes to.
- Accept or make a ruleA person accepts or refuses each suggestion, or turns it into a rule that tags future lines as they arrive.
- Spread shared costsAllocation rules spread shared costs across projects or cost centres by revenue, by direct cost or by fixed shares.
- Report the full resultProfit by project, cost centre and customer, before and after shared costs, in each company's currency.
- Give owners their numbersEach cost centre can have an owner who sees and explains their own results.
Does this change the data in our ERP?
No. Naarvin only fills a project or cost centre where the ERP left it empty, and it keeps the reason and who accepted it. If the ERP later tags the line itself, the ERP's value wins. A tag added in Naarvin survives the next sync, so the work is not lost when the books are read again.
| Signal | Example | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| Text in the line | The description mentions project code "P-114" | Strongest |
| Supplier | Most of this supplier's tagged lines went to one project | Strong |
| Account | Almost all tagged lines on this account went to one cost centre | Used when the others are silent |
What do you need to start?
- Your accounting system connected, with whatever projects or cost centres it already records.
- The list of projects and cost centres you want to report on.
- Your rules for shared costs: which pool, spread by what.
- An owner for each cost centre, if you want them to explain their results.
Who is this for?
Contractors, agencies, consultancies and any business that sells by project or runs several departments, especially when the ERP was set up without full tagging. A business with one product line and no departments may get what it needs from the income statement alone.
Questions people ask
Do we have to retag everything in our ERP first?
No. Naarvin works from what the ERP already records and fills the gaps in Naarvin, with a person accepting each suggestion or rule.
What happens when the ERP syncs again?
Tags added in Naarvin are kept. If the ERP later records its own tag on a line, the ERP's value wins.
How are shared costs spread?
By the allocation rules you set: in proportion to revenue, to direct cost, or by fixed shares you choose.
Does the AI decide which project a cost belongs to?
It suggests, and shows why. A person accepts or refuses each suggestion, or makes a rule.