When spreadsheets and messages are no longer enough
Most construction companies start with Excel, a notebook and a WhatsApp group. With one or two sites, that works. The trouble starts when there are more sites and the site manager can no longer visit them all in one day.
The typical signs:
- workers' hours are collected at the end of the month from paper timesheets and messages,
- the cost of a site is known only when accounting closes the month,
- photos and agreements from the site are scattered across phones,
- the answer to "how is the site going?" comes by phone, and depends on whom you asked.
Software for a construction company does not solve all of this on its own. But a well-chosen and well-introduced system shortens the path of information from the site to the office from days or weeks to minutes.
What construction company software should cover
You don't need everything at once, but it helps to know what the system should eventually be able to do. For a contractor with several sites, that usually means:
- an overview of all sites: status, deadlines, number of people and costs on one screen,
- daily reports: what was done, in which phase, with photos, approved by the site manager,
- working hours on site: checking in and out on the site itself instead of timesheets that get copied,
- costs per site: invoices, delivery notes and materials linked to the site they belong to,
- materials, warehouses and vehicles: where things are and how much has been used,
- documents and photos: stored with the site they belong to, not on people's phones,
- communication: messages and notices between office and field in one place.
Project planning, drawings and BIM are a separate world. If you need them, they are usually separate tools, and site management software only exchanges data with them.
Questions to ask before you choose
- Who will enter the data, and how long will it take them? The system lives on data from the site. If a foreman needs half an hour at a computer for a daily report, there will be no reports. Ask to see the entry on a phone, on site, in a few minutes.
- Does it work on a phone, and when the signal is weak? A construction site is not an office. Check how the app works on an ordinary phone and what happens when the connection drops briefly.
- Does everyone on site speak the same language? If your crews include workers from other countries, instructions and reports in one language mean either translating by hand or misunderstandings.
- How is it priced? Per user, per module or per site? Do you pay for workers who only check in on site, or only for office users? Work out the cost for your company over three years, not for the first month.
- Where is the data, and who owns it? Ask where the data is stored, whether a data processing agreement is signed, and whether you can export your data at any time if you decide to switch.
- How does it connect to accounting? Site costs have to match the books. Ask how invoices and delivery notes get into the system and how they are linked to a site.
- Who helps when something goes wrong? Support in your language, during your working hours, from someone who understands construction sites and not only software.
- Can they show it on your own example? A demo with made-up data always looks good. Ask them to show your typical site: your phases, your people, your costs.
The most common mistakes when introducing it
- Buying too big a system. A hundred features nobody uses only get in the way. Better a system that covers what you really need and can grow with you.
- Deciding without the foremen. They will enter data every day. If entry is a chore for them, the system will die within three weeks, however good it looks in the office.
- Introducing everything at once. Hours, costs, warehouse and documents on all sites on the same day is too much for any company.
- Keeping the old way running in parallel. If hours are still written on paper too, people will always choose paper. Agree on a date from which only the new system counts.
How to introduce software without disruption
- Start with one site and one or two foremen who are open to change.
- Start with what hurts most, usually working hours or daily reports, not with every module at once.
- After a few weeks, look at the numbers: are reports arriving every day, do the hours add up, how much time does the office save?
- Only then expand to the other sites and add costs, materials and documents.
That way, mistakes in the setup show up on a small sample, and people on the other sites get colleagues who can show them how it works.
Where Constructis fits in
Constructis is software for construction companies that we have been developing for ten years together with construction firms. It runs in the browser and as a mobile app, and covers an overview of all sites, daily reports with approval, working hours, costs, materials, vehicles, documents and photos. It translates reports and messages into each worker's language.
We go into more detail in the articles All your construction sites on one screen, Working hours on site without paper timesheets, What does a construction site really cost you? and Everyone in their own language.
If you are choosing software for your construction company, get in touch. We will show you Constructis on the example of your own site and answer the questions from this article directly.