Certification in Action: Hank Vincent - Articles

What challenges/problems have you overcome that you could attribute to knowledge gained from the CCIFP designation? Can you share a particular situation?

The CCIFP designation has given me a framework to connect job cost, cash flow, and risk to drive decisions across the field and the back office.

For example, on a large advanced manufacturing project with a project labor agreement and complex certified payroll, we were experiencing profit fade mid-project due to late change order approvals and an aggressive billing schedule from upstream parties.

Using CCIFP principles, the work-in-progress (WIP) was rebuilt to segregate contingency burn, pending change order exposure, and labor productivity by work package. This allowed us to tighten our cost-to-complete projections, front-load substantiated billings within contract terms, and set a disciplined change order escalation cadence. The result was halting the fade, recovering margin through timely pricing of scope growth, and bringing the final guaranteed maximum price reconciliation within 30 basis points of forecast.

What was the most obvious advantage you felt? Can you share any metrics/KPIs about the advantage(s) you’ve felt?

The CCIFP credential offers a truly well-rounded operating lens. The CCIFP gives me enough depth across legal, insurance, HR, finance, and operations to spot upstream risk and turn it into a downstream advantage.

Why is it important to have a CCIFP in your organization? What impact has it had for your company or team?

The CCIFP creates a common language between finance and operations. Our project managers now see WIP not as an accounting artifact but as the story of production, risk, and cash. This shift improved preconstruction handoff, change management velocity, and banking and bonding confidence.

Why would you recommend the CCIFP to another person/business?

The CCIFP is immediately actionable; it gives you tools that survive real-world constraints such as tight schedules, supply swings, union dynamics, and owner audits.

For a contractor, the difference between “good” and “great” often lives in how quickly teams turn field reality into accurate costs, timely billings, and cash in the door.

The CCIFP equips finance leaders and emerging managers to do exactly that, while elevating credibility with auditors, owners, and sureties.

Is there anything else you’d like to share about becoming a CCIFP?

The CCIFP designation is a leadership signal — the credential tells your organization and partners that your finance function speaks construction, not just debits and credits.

The credential also scales culture. In our company, we’re building a pipeline by sponsoring two more team members; the shared body of knowledge speeds up onboarding and creates continuity when projects transition.

Lastly, the CCIFP sharpens the CFO role. The CCIFP lens helps me challenge assumptions (e.g., labor productivity, stored materials strategies, retention timing) while staying solutions-oriented and aligned with operations.