Managing draw requests from multiple projects requires using a centralized system giving you visibility into all active draws across your entire portfolio at once. You need centralized dashboards, project-specific templates, team member assignment, automated prioritization, bulk operations, project-level budget tracking, portfolio reporting, and communication templates.
Managing Multiple Projects: Building a Portfolio System
Construction lenders managing 10+ active projects face a critical challenge: maintaining control without drowning in administrative work.
The solution is a centralized portfolio management system that gives you complete visibility across all projects simultaneously.
The Complexity of Multi-Project Management
With 1-2 projects: You can manage manually With 5-10 projects: You need systems but can still manage With 20+ projects: Manual management becomes impossible
At 20+ projects with 4-6 draws per project, you have 80-120 active draws at any given time. Without centralized visibility, you don't know:
- Which draws are pending approval
- Which are stuck in inspection
- Which projects are trending over-budget
- Which contractors are waiting for payment
- Which deadlines are approaching
Result: Delays, missed deadlines, contractor frustration, over-funding incidents.
The 8-Step Framework for Multi-Project Draw Management
Step 1: Implement Centralized Portfolio Dashboard
Single dashboard showing all projects at a glance.
Dashboard displays:
- All active projects
- Status of each project (on-track, at-risk, over-budget)
- Total capital deployed across portfolio
- Total remaining commitments
- Number of draws: pending, in-progress, completed
- Red flags: delayed draws, budget issues, compliance issues
Result: You understand your entire portfolio exposure instantly. No digging through emails or multiple spreadsheets.
Step 2: Create Project-Specific Draw Templates
Different projects may need different draw schedules. Create templates for each project type.
Example templates:
- Residential under $500K (5 draws)
- Residential $500K-$1M (6 draws)
- Commercial under $2M (8 draws)
- Commercial $2M-$5M (12 draws)
- Renovation/remodel (4-6 draws)
Benefit: When a new project kicks off, you don't build a new draw schedule from scratch. You use the template and adjust only for project specifics.
Result: Consistent process; faster project setup.
Step 3: Assign Draws to Team Members
With 20+ projects, no one person should handle all draws. Distribute work.
Assignment strategies:
- By geographic region (Team A handles eastern projects, Team B handles western)
- By project type (Senior lender handles commercial, junior handles residential)
- By project size (Large projects go to experienced staff, small projects to less experienced)
- By dollar amount (Draws over $100K get senior review, smaller draws go to approvers)
How system supports this:
- Draw automatically routes to assigned team member when submitted
- Team members see only their assigned draws
- Workload is balanced
- No draws slip through cracks because someone forgot to look at them
Result: Clear ownership; distributed workload; nothing forgotten.
Step 4: Automate Prioritization
Not all draws are equally urgent. System should flag priorities.
Prioritization rules:
- Draws approaching deadline: flag as HIGH priority
- Large draws (over $500K): flag as HIGH priority
- Draws on at-risk projects (trending over-budget): flag as HIGH priority
- Routine draws on healthy projects: flag as LOW priority
Result: Team members work on what matters most first. Urgent items don't get lost in backlog.
Step 5: Enable Bulk Operations
When you have 20+ projects, some operations repeat. Enable bulk processing.
Examples of bulk operations:
- "Approve all routine draws that passed inspection" (instead of approving one at a time)
- "Fund all approved draws" (process payment batch instead of individually)
- "Send status update to all contractors" (one action instead of 20 emails)
- "Collect outstanding lien waivers" (batch request instead of individual emails)
Result: Administrative work is batched and efficient. What takes hours individually can be done in minutes.
Step 6: Track Project-Level Budgets
Budget control is critical. Each project should have budget tracking.
What to track:
- Total project budget
- Draws approved to date
- Draws funded to date
- Remaining budget
- Remaining budget by line item (foundation, framing, MEP, etc.)
- Budget variance (actual vs. planned)
System alerts when:
- Any draw would exceed line item budget
- Total draws are approaching total project budget
- Variance between planned and actual is significant
Result: You catch over-funding issues before they happen. You can prevent over-committing capital.
Step 7: Generate Portfolio-Level Reports
Executive-level visibility across all projects.
Reports to generate:
- Portfolio summary: Total deployed, remaining, number of active projects
- Project status: Each project's progress, budget, timeline
- Draw status: All draws organized by status (pending, approved, funded)
- Contractor performance: Payment history, draw frequency, issues
- Risk summary: Projects at risk, budget overruns, deadline concerns
- Forecasting: Projected draws for next 30/60/90 days
Result: Leadership understands portfolio health at a glance. Strategic decisions can be made based on complete information.
Step 8: Maintain Communication Templates
Repetitive communication should be templated.
Examples:
- "Draw request received; inspection scheduled for [date]"
- "Inspection complete; draw approved; payment processing"
- "Payment initiated; expected arrival [date]"
- "Status update: Your draw is [status]; estimated funding [date]"
- "Alert: Missing documentation; here's what we need"
Benefit: Communication is consistent, professional, and fast. Contractors always know where they stand.
Result: Better contractor relationships; fewer "where's my payment?" calls.
Real-World Portfolio Management Scenario
Portfolio: 25 active projects, 3 team members
Without System:
- Monday morning: 18 emails with draw requests from various projects
- Someone opens each email manually
- Someone reads each draw request
- Someone manually creates inspection order
- Someone manually routes for approval
- Someone manually tracks approvals
- Someone manually processes payments
- Someone manually responds to contractor inquiries
- Someone updates various spreadsheets
- Result: Day consumed by administrative work; multiple delays; nothing finished
With Centralized System:
- Monday morning: Dashboard shows all 25 projects
- 4 new draw requests automatically flagged
- Inspections automatically scheduled
- Draws automatically route to assigned team members
- Team members review dashboard, approve routine draws (30 minutes each)
- System batches payments and processes all at once (15 minutes)
- Contractors automatically notified of status (0 minutes—automatic)
- Result: Administrative work completed in 2-3 hours; everything on track; no delays
Portfolio Management Best Practices
1. Establish clear ownership Every project should have a primary owner. When issues arise, there's a clear decision-maker.
2. Create escalation procedures If project owner is unavailable, who handles urgent decisions? Define the chain.
3. Set communication cadence How often should contractors be updated? Daily, weekly? Define it and automate it.
4. Review portfolio regularly Weekly or monthly portfolio review ensures you catch issues early. Use automated reporting to make reviews quick.
5. Monitor team workload Make sure workload is balanced. If one person is overwhelmed and another is underutilized, rebalance assignments.
6. Track performance metrics
- Average time from request to funded (by project owner)
- Error rate by project owner
- Contractor satisfaction by project owner
- Use metrics to identify training needs
7. Continuously optimize As you run more projects, you'll discover what works. Update templates and processes based on experience.
Common Multi-Project Challenges
Challenge: Draw gets lost; no one knows where it is Solution: Centralized system where every draw is visible and assigned to someone
Challenge: Contractor contacts multiple people asking about draw status Solution: Automated status updates so contractor knows without asking
Challenge: Workload is unbalanced; some team members overwhelmed Solution: Intelligent assignment rules distribute work based on capacity
Challenge: Budget overruns aren't caught until it's too late Solution: Real-time budget tracking with automatic alerts
Challenge: Team doesn't communicate; draws get duplicated or skipped Solution: Centralized system is single source of truth
Scaling Beyond 20 Projects
Once you're managing 20+ projects efficiently, you can scale further:
25-50 projects: Hire additional team members; use same system with more assignments 50-100 projects: Add supervisory layer; create team structure; maintain central oversight 100+ projects: Add departmental structure; department heads manage teams; executive sees portfolio
The system scales because of centralized visibility and clear processes.
Conclusion: Centralization is Essential for Multi-Project Management
Managing multiple projects manually is chaotic and error-prone. Centralized systems with clear processes, team assignments, and portfolio visibility enable scaling.
Sekady's centralized dashboard and portfolio management features are designed specifically for lenders managing multiple projects simultaneously.
Ready to manage your project portfolio more efficiently? Learn more about how Sekady handles multi-project portfolios by visiting our FAQ page or scheduling a demo.
