Industry Article

5 Ways Digital Workflows Help Energy Companies in Land and Finance

Digital workflows are essential for energy companies as they manage both land and finance aspects of their operations. These workflows automate, streamline, and integrate key processes, improving efficiency, accuracy, and decision-making across departments. Here are 5 key ways digital workflows help energy companies manage land and finance effectively:

1. Streamlining Land Acquisition & Leasing Processes

How it Helps

Digital workflows automate the entire process of land acquisition, lease management, and contract execution. This reduces manual paperwork, improves accuracy, and speeds up the entire process, from identifying land parcels to finalizing lease agreements.

Land & Finance Benefits

  • Faster decision-making: Automatically track key milestones, such as lease expiration dates, payment schedules, and renewal deadlines.
  • Financial accuracy: Automate the creation of financial documents related to land leasing (e.g. invoices, payment schedules), to reduce human error and ensuring proper financial tracking.

Example

In the process of acquiring land for a new wind farm, digital workflows automatically generate, store, and track lease agreements, helping the finance department ensure payments are made on time and according to the agreed terms.

2. Regulatory Compliance & Permit Management

How it Helps

Energy companies need to secure various permits and comply with regulations when acquiring land for development, such as environmental impact assessments, zoning permits, and land use permissions. Digital workflows automate permit tracking, compliance reporting, and renewal processes.

Land & Finance Benefits

  • Minimized penalties and delays: By ensuring compliance with regulations (such as zoning laws or environmental regulations), digital workflows reduce the risk of fines or project delays.
  • Financial forecasting: By tracking permit timelines and ensuring compliance, the finance team can better forecast the costs associated with land development and avoid unexpected fines or legal costs.

Example

A utility company developing a new transmission line uses digital workflows to track the required environmental permits, ensuring timely submission and approvals to avoid costly delays or fines that would affect project budgets.

3. Optimizing Land Use & Asset Management

How it Helps

Digital workflows, integrated with Geographic Information Systems (GIS), help energy companies plan, track, and optimize land use for energy projects like wind farms, solar installations, or power transmission lines. By visualizing land assets and their conditions, companies can make better decisions about land acquisition and use.

Land & Finance Benefits

  • Maximized land value: Automating land use analysis allows companies to identify the best parcels of land for development, reducing costs and improving the ROI of land investments.
  • Cost tracking and budget management: By integrating land management with financial tools, companies can track land acquisition costs, operational expenses, and ongoing asset maintenance, helping financial teams manage project budgets more accurately.

Example

A utility uses GIS-based workflows to identify land for a new solar farm, optimizing land use while the finance team tracks the total investment in land and infrastructure, ensuring that costs stay within the projected budget.

4. Automating Financial Reporting & Accounting for Land Transactions

How it Helps

Digital workflows can automate the financial reporting process by integrating land management systems with accounting software. This means all transactions related to land acquisition, leasing, and management (e.g., purchase costs, lease payments, taxes) are automatically recorded, tracked, and reported in real time.

Land & Finance Benefits

  • Enhanced financial transparency: Digital workflows ensure that all land-related transactions are properly documented, providing transparency into financial performance and enabling more accurate reporting.
  • Real-time cash flow tracking: Automatically link land-related payments (e.g., lease payments, land taxes) to the company’s financial records, helping the finance team track cash flow and manage working capital.

Example

An energy company automatically records lease payments made to landowners as part of a digital workflow, which directly integrates with its accounting system, enabling the finance team to easily track expenses and liabilities for all land agreements.

5. Risk Management & Forecasting for Land Investments

How it Helps

Digital workflows enable energy companies to assess land-related risks (such as legal disputes, landowner negotiations, environmental hazards) and integrate this data into financial forecasting models. By automating risk assessments and integrating them with financial models, companies can better plan for potential land-related issues.

Land & Finance Benefits

  • Proactive risk mitigation: By automatically flagging potential issues (e.g., expiring leases, landowner disputes, regulatory non-compliance), digital workflows allow energy companies to address risks proactively, avoiding financial losses.
  • Improved investment planning: Integrating risk management and forecasting ensures more accurate financial predictions related to land development projects, helping companies make informed decisions on investments and funding.

Example

A power generation company uses digital workflows to assess risks associated with acquiring land for a new plant (such as environmental liabilities or opposition from local communities), and the finance team uses this data to adjust investment forecasts and financing strategies accordingly.

Conclusion

By automating, integrating, and streamlining workflows for both land management and financial processes, digital workflows offer energy companies several advantages, including:

  • Efficiency gains: Reducing manual work and administrative overhead, allowing teams to focus on high-value tasks.
  • Financial accuracy: Ensuring that financial data related to land is recorded, tracked, and reported accurately in real-time.
  • Cost control: Helping finance teams manage land acquisition costs, ongoing expenses, and investments more effectively.
  • Risk mitigation: Identifying and addressing potential risks in land acquisition or development projects early on, minimizing financial exposure.
  • Better decision-making: Providing real-time insights into both land and financial data, enabling smarter strategic decisions.

By leveraging digital workflows, energy companies can not only optimize their land management but also align financial planning with operational strategies, ensuring a more streamlined and profitable operation.

For over 25 years, Pandell has been crafting digital workflow solutions to help energy companies drive greater efficiency for their land and finance teams.

About Pandell & Whitestar

Pandell and Whitestar provide a full suite of financial and land acquisition, management, and geospatial data solutions that enable renewables, utilities, natural resources, and pipeline companies to efficiently plan, track and manage their business operations more efficiently.