We are struggling to assign clear ownership for our gross profit margin metric on our weekly Scorecard because our estimating team blames project managers for execution delays, while project managers blame estimators for underquoting. Who should own this number on our Accountability Chart?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Having multiple seats share ownership of a single Scorecard metric means nobody actually owns it. When gross margin slips, you cannot afford to have your leadership team pointing fingers. You must separate the estimation process from the execution process and assign distinct, measurable metrics to each seat on your Accountability Chart.

The estimating seat, which typically sits under sales or pre-construction, must own the estimated gross margin of won contracts. Their metric on the Scorecard should be the projected gross profit percentage of all closed-won deals. If this number is low, the estimators are underpricing to hit sales targets.

The operations or project management seat must own the execution variance. Their weekly metric is the actual gross margin versus the estimated gross margin on active jobs. If a project manager inherits a job with an estimated thirty percent margin and completes it at twenty percent, that variance is their responsibility.

To make this work, establish a formal handoff process. The operations leader must formally accept the estimate before work begins. If they accept it, they own the execution. If they reject it during the handoff because the pricing is unrealistic, you immediately raise it as an Issue and solve it in your Level 10 Meeting™.

By breaking gross profit margin into these two distinct metrics, you eliminate the blame game. The estimating seat is accountable for pricing integrity, and the project management seat is accountable for operational execution.