A financial decision making framework for construction projects based on 5D Building Information Modeling (BIM)

•A 5D BIM-based framework is proposed for cash flow analysis and project financing.•Both cash outflow and inflow are considered to analyze cash flow accurately.•Cash inflow is estimated by considering contract types and retainage.•Actual equipment, manpower, and material payment patterns are considered.•Project financing scenarios with different options are analyzed and compared.

Analyzing cash flows and undertaking project financing are important for contractors in managing construction projects. Traditional methods for cash flow analysis are based on the manual integration of time and cost information. However, the manual integration process can be automated by using five-dimensional building information modeling (5D BIM). Previous studies on 5D BIM have focused on estimating cash outflow rather than cash inflow analysis and project financing. This paper proposes a BIM-based methodology framework for cash flow analysis and project financing. The framework considers contract types and retainage to estimate cash inflow, and cash outflow patterns for equipment, manpower, and materials in order to more accurately measure cash outflow. Project financing scenarios can also be evaluated using the framework. Illustrative examples are demonstrated to validate the proposed framework by considering two what-if scenarios. Results show that the framework can help contractors analyze the cash flow and make appropriate decisions for different design and payment scheme alternatives in construction projects.