As a painting contractor, you obviously got into the business because of your passion and dedication to painting, not because you enjoy filling out forms, calculating estimates, bookkeeping, etc. However, the reality of owning your own business requires you to master the art of running your company. And running a company means having to deal with a lot of moving parts.
So, you better put systems in place to help you automate procedures. As a matter of fact, having the right construction employee scheduling software is the best thing you can do for your business, for it guarantees a more streamlined operation and processes within your business.
In this blog post, we will focus on painting contractor software, as it is the most all-encompassing software solution available in the market that can bring the most benefits to your business. But first, let’s cover some of the most common pain points painting contractors often deal with in their job.
Painting Contractor’s Most Common Pain Points
1. Scheduling issues
Scheduling manually has already been known to create many issues for any business. The two major issues are the lack of scheduling adherence and scheduling conflicts. When you plan a schedule manually, you are most likely at risk of manual errors like double-booking your painting contractors. Your contractors may also have difficulties adhering to their schedules if it is difficult for them to access some details in the field.
In addition to these issues, your company may have difficulty scheduling and managing painting equipment. Know that scheduling conflicts with equipment are just as equally problematic as scheduling conflicts with your contractors. If your painters do not have the right equipment for the job, your painting projects will get delayed, resulting in reduced customer satisfaction and profitability.
2. Lack of document tracking
Without integrated, cloud-based software in construction management, your business has to spend extra time searching for file folders or filing cabinets to look for important info, referring to your customers and painting contractors. This often results in unnecessary labor costs and delayed communication with your clients, which can ultimately lessen customer satisfaction.
3. Unrealistic expectations
Unreasonable requests and impossible deadlines are some of the most common pain points faced by painting contractors. In many cases, your clients usually have unrealistic expectations of the painting projects and want to put them right there and then their ideas about the project. This often stems from the intense competitiveness of the sector, driving everyone, especially your client, to set unachievable rather than rational business requirements.
4. Budget Constraints
Going over budget is quite common in commercial painting projects. In fact, it is your job to set reasonable expectations for cost overruns and create adjustments to manage them accordingly. However, lack of proper oversight, simple miscalculation, and poor judgment can often result in the collapse of your painting projects.
To deal with budget constraints more effectively, ensure the budget is defined by the expectations of your stakeholders and the requirements of your project. In managing your budget, you must first ensure that the deliverables are clearly identified. Remember, realistic cost estimates are crucial in planning contingencies. And you need to review them to not go out of control consistently.
Painting Contractor Software Benefits
1. Scheduling
As previously mentioned, scheduling issues can be costly for your business. On the other hand, a well-maintained job schedule can keep your painting contractors productive and your clients satisfied.
A robust construction time tracking software will include job scheduling and tracking features – these two work hand in hand. Moreover, a software tool like this can prevent issues and ensure everyone is always on the same page regarding their work for a given project.
2. Mobile
The best software for your business and your team offer a web or mobile application that allows easy access to all important information anytime and anywhere. This allows your contractors to share information in multiple locations easily. Moreover, it reduces the need to make trips back and forth between the office and the client’s place, preventing miscommunication issues that often lead to repeat visits.
The mobile accessibility of specialized software improves overall workflows, efficiency and the first-time fix rate of your team.
3. Simple Accounting
Even an ordinary person cannot always understand that accounting matters. And since, for the most part, you are dealing with anything to do with accounting because you are too busy in other aspects of your business, specialized software can help you direct all your efforts in a more straightforward direction. You no longer need to hire several accountants to manage your accounting because this software can help you with basic bookkeeping tasks.
Painting contractor software delivers a dependable cloud-based way of monitoring and tracking all financial data of your business, regardless of whether it is installed on your tablet, mobile phone, and computer. The functionalities of such software programs are expanding, and we expect to discover new and convenient functions to appear, which we will tackle more in this blog.
4. Get accurate estimates in real time
A spreadsheet tool is a good choice for organizing your data and records. However, the trouble with this program is it can be harder for you to track records and information, especially when they grow too large. Over time, spreadsheets become unmanageable and too difficult to work on, and they also are prone to errors.
Take advantage of the painting contractor software to change the way you estimate and reduce the number of errors sneaking in. Using this software tool, you can estimate the amount of paint you need and create items and lists. Pro Crew Schedule, the best software option, is a cloud-based software that allows you to perform estimations by taking measurements and entering values.
5. Improved integration
Investing in a poorly integrated software solution can hurt your efficiency and security. In addition, it also creates unforeseen problems if various solutions you put in one place stop working together. For instance, when your accounting details and customer information are not properly coordinated with the rest of your business, it may cause problems later on.
Only with the use of software for construction management can you communicate everything and everyone in one place. Expect continuous improvement in the quality of information and its workflow, resulting in greater efficiency.
6. Connect with customers
Any customer will be pleased to be heard as quickly as possible and when communication takes place at a convenient time. The ugly truth of your business is that you never have enough time to dedicate to your customers to further increase their loyalty to you due to many tasks and activities.
However, when you implement a specialized software tool, you will have more free time to communicate with them and better functionality to interact with your clients. With this specialized software’s built-in features, you can easily set up automatic replies to emails, order services, track invoices, and more.
7. Real-time updates
Newer and latest painting software tools provide real-time updates that allow for better collaboration, improvement in construction management, and efficiency. Real-time updates improve communication between you and other stakeholders. You can also best observe the progress of all tasks and update these changes in real-time. In addition, the software updates all relevant parties involved in the many changes made as soon as they are made.
8. Accountability and Transparency
Being accountable is one of the most vital things in commercial painting projects, and this mostly requires a lot of tracking and monitoring. We already mentioned above that this software solution has great scheduling features. So, it proves that it provides a central platform where you can keep track of every single task, resource, tool, cost, and even your subs throughout the project.
Know that painting software is nothing if it cannot level up accountability, transparency and efficiency. It should be the best software to give you a more realistic and accurate plan of the whole process.
Pro Crew Schedule is a Flexible Tool for Your Business Management
There are hundreds of benefits when you switch and invest in good painting contractor software. If you want to try it, look no further than Pro Crew Schedule.
Pro Crew Schedule is the best project management software for the construction industry available to all types of contractors for streamlining construction management and improving customer management. You can get a competitive edge with this software as part of your business. Using the software not only gives you a more detailed job scope or accurate estimations but also increases your professionalism in the eyes of your clients – helping you further differentiate your business from the competition.
Take the step to transform your business. And see how Pro Crew Schedule can help improve your profitability and productivity.
