When managing construction, the goal is to deliver high-quality projects on schedule and within budget while ensuring your company’s profitability. In recent years, there has been less work and more competition, and many companies had to lower their prices and profit margins to survive in the industry. Now that the economy and the construction industry have improved, many contractors have to pay more to get and keep experienced workers because they need more. Every construction project has its own needs and challenges, and you need to utilize the right tools, processes, and platforms to ensure its success. Nowadays, many general contractors and project managers use construction technology to keep track of everything happening with the project and ensure that each team has the resources they need to finish the job well. However, according to an article by Forbes, the construction industry is one of the industries that are slow to incorporate technology into their operations due to complex integrations and stiff learning curves.
Now, construction software has been an integral part of the modern industry. Its simple yet powerful features can help you run your projects and workers better, which can help your bottom line and make your clients happier. But how does construction software affect how much a contractor’s efficiency and profitability? In this article, let us look at how construction technology can help you manage your projects easier.
How Construction Software Can Help Contractors and Project Managers
As with any industry, construction companies should consider investing in assets, tools, or new processes that can help improve working capital management, quality control, supply chain management, data entry, and project management. Technology has come a long way and will only improve from here on out. These tools and technologies can help make a big difference in how well your business works and how much it makes.
When used right, construction management tools can help you get more out of your work processes. This way, you can focus more on the essential parts of the project rather than on the repetitive, tedious aspects. These include planning the project, keeping an eye on how things are going on the spot, keeping track of documents, and keeping an eye out for problems. People will spend less time on physical tasks and more time on core activities that make money.
In this section, let us look at the benefits of utilizing construction software in your day-to-day operations.
Streamlined and Optimized Processes
Intending to make things easier and better, construction scheduling software can help you make your internal processes more efficient by cutting down on the time you spend on repeated tasks, making the whole process more efficient, and cutting down on the time you spend entering and analyzing data. For example, you can create more accurate estimates through the software, allowing you to quote jobs confidently.
Enhanced Risk Control
Managing and controlling risks is another essential part of managing a construction project. Accurate and effective risk management can bring in more money and attract more investors for various construction projects. You will also have a clear idea of whether you are prepared to take the risk for a new project and how it will affect your profitability. It can also make a big difference in the results at all stages of a construction project. Given that new building projects are getting bigger and bigger worldwide, there are many good reasons to use software for risk management throughout the life cycle of each project.
Ensure The Quality of The Project at Every Phase
Construction projects involve a million moving parts, so it is important to standardize your processes and templates to ensure that every aspect of the project is of the highest quality. This will help you improve efficiency and productivity by giving each group or team a streamlined way to do things.
Get Valuable Insights From Real-Time Information
The construction industry is full of fast decision-making that can easily overwhelm even the most experienced project manager. If you want to make intelligent choices for your business, you need to know how it is doing. You will need to gather and analyze accurate data in real-time. One of the easiest ways to collect data is by using construction management software with real-time reporting tools. With this kind of software, you can keep track of everything from jobs that have been done to materials that have been ordered.
Improved Communication and Collaboration
Strong communication and close collaboration are essential in the construction business. Each project has its own set of architects, engineers, project managers, suppliers, subcontractors, and trade partners so that a slight miscommunication can ruin the whole thing. It is necessary for projects that span a big area and involve many people. Since all these people are working together to build something, they need to know how things are going and what to do next. Building solid stakeholder relationships can ensure a smooth and seamless project delivery.
Maximize Your Crew’s Productivity
From crew schedule to task assignment, you must plan for these to maximize your crew’s productivity without overworking or burning them out. On a job site, maximizing productivity means working as quickly as possible to keep costs down and stay on schedule. Construction companies usually make more money when they finish projects under budget and ahead of plan, and this is why they are consistently looking for ways to improve productivity.
As stated earlier, everyone must work together to make sure that work is done in a logical order that focuses on making everyone on the job as efficient as possible. Your field workers are a big part of your business’s productivity, so they need to know how to do their jobs safely and safely. This means ensuring everyone has the proper training, tools, materials, and resources to do their jobs well.
Create Accurate Budgets and Estimate Profits
If you want to make money and make more money, you need to know how much it costs to finish each job. This includes both the costs of doing your job and running your business. To understand how much money you’re making on each job, you need to know how much it costs to finish each project.
This is why keeping a good record of your job prices and overhead is essential. It lets your estimators add the proper markups so you can reach your goals for profit margin. A fair offer is based on facts, not guesswork. Try to keep track of actual vs. expected job costs for each project, especially labor costs and productivity rates, labor, materials, supplies, equipment rental costs, bonding fees, fuel, and permits.
Track Your Costs and Expenses
Profitability can only go up with good project management. If you want to make the amount of money you want from a project, you have to keep costs low and finish the project by the date you planned. Keeping track of the expenses associated with any change orders is critical to handle them correctly and increase your profit margin. Do more work on a project only after the price has been set and the client has agreed to it.
Keep track of your materials and set up the work site so your workers can be as efficient as possible. Construction dispatching and scheduling software can help you manage your resources, materials, and labor across multiple projects without the risk of overruns. You do not have to keep track of every screw and nail, but you will need to compare your actual job costs to what was budgeted so you can do a thorough analysis when the job is done.
Better Control Over Important Documents
The construction industry often deals with many paper and physical records, which can be a significant pain. Printing and storing these hard copies cost more money, time, and effort. It would be like looking for a needle in a giant haystack when looking for a document in a rush. When you use construction schedule software, you can store project information online and make it easier to access information with just a few simple clicks. It also means you can improve and change your figures whenever possible, not just in the office.
Evaluate How Your Project Did
There is still work to do after a job is done. So once it is completed, get your team together and see how close your expected profit was to your yield. One significant benefit of using software is that you can look at past projects and use figures from those projects for future projects. In the long run, this will save you time and work.
Compare how much you thought it would cost to how much it cost. Note any more or less charges than you thought so you can do better next time. If you need help with productivity, give your employees more training and look for ways to cut down on downtime when you plan and schedule your next project.
Key Takeaway
In construction, earnings do not just happen and come quickly. As a general contractor or a project manager, you must invest time, money, and effort to improve efficiency and boost profitability. Too many things can ruin a project that would have made money otherwise. To go from having razor-thin profit margins to being good enough to grow and reach your business goals takes time and effort. Pro Crew Schedule is an all-in-one construction management software that offers simple yet powerful features to help you streamline your processes, maximize profitability and improve your bottom line.
