Managing construction projects is easier with the best tools, apps, and software. A day in the life of a construction manager is filled with all sorts of situations. These situations range from accounting and cost inefficiencies to coordinating work for different contractors and subcontractors.
Here are the best tools for construction managers to make their job easier.
It sounds incredibly basic, but email communications are the easiest way to contact stakeholders and workers of all backgrounds. Ensure you have an up-to-date list of relevant contacts’ emails. This way, you always have a direct line to someone if you feel called upon to send a message.
Your Workforce
Maintain strong relationships with your top employees. They can help you work faster and better, win certain clients, and recommend other contractors or subcontractors for specific projects.
Equipment Rentals
Renting equipment means you do not need to complete maintenance or incur heavy equipment ownership risks. If your company does not already have a fleet of reliable vehicles, tools, and equipment, consider renting it.
Project Management Software
Project management software is your hub. It’s where all your information is kept on personnel, material, and progress. It’s essential to managing construction projects, guiding pricing, material availability, timelines, and reporting.
Contractor Accounting Software
Just like project management, construction accounting also has software to monitor finances. You can use contractor accounting software to manage job costing, contractor payouts, material ordering, inventory management, payroll, client and vendor bills, estimating, and more.
Gantt Chart
A Gantt chart is a graphic or visual example that can help explain a project to a major stakeholder. It is structured like a bar chart but includes start and end dates, milestones, task dependencies, and resources. A network diagram is another type of visual that a construction manager may use to highlight what they want to communicate.
Work and Cost Breakdown Structure
A work breakdown structure, or WBS, is a hierarchal breakdown of a project divided into stages and further divided into tasks and sub-tasks. It is a plan that addresses every aspect of a project without leaving anything to chance.
A cost breakdown structure, or CBS, is a hierarchical framework that categorizes and organizes costs, just like a WBS organizes project work. It shows your labour, equipment, overhead, and budget.
Project Schedule
A project schedule maps out different phases, which contractors are working on what, and deadlines. A schedule is often a part of project management software and should be reviewed regularly to ensure tasks are completed on time.
Project Estimates
A project estimate is the only way to track costs and solicit financing. Three primary kinds of estimates are used in construction, and it’s up to you to decide which one(s) best suits a situation.
The first assumes the activity will not stop and that all elements associated with it are favourable. The second is the most likely outcome, predicting problems during execution. The third is a pessimistic estimate that assumes a lot can go wrong and that some damage is inevitable.
Project Documentation
Project documentation captures facts as they occur and creates paperwork at every stage. It demonstrates progress while documenting key details about a project and each team member’s role. They can avoid misunderstandings and disputes among stakeholders.
Automated Reporting
Automated reporting generates reports on your behalf based on the data you feed the software daily. It’s a way to track progress, create financial status reports, automatically issue invoices, register payments, and more.
Timesheets for Payroll
Timesheets help record who needs to be paid and how many hours. They can be done digitally and used as project controls to record team time on specific tasks. Timesheets plugged into accounting or project management software can be formatted and exported.
Customer Relationship Manager
CRM is your ultimate customer service manager. This is how to track customers, clients, projects, and sales. It logs and tracks all of your customer-related business activity online and provides a glimpse into where specific relationships are.
Cloud Storage
Cloud storage is the ultimate construction record-keeping solution. It allows users to upload records from anywhere, whether it’s progress reports, accounting records, or other forms of documentation. Have it ready to pull from whenever you like.
Written Templates
Document templates can make paperwork run faster. Construction managers can use templates, including change order paperwork, time and material tickets, contracts, and purchase orders. Of course, everything can be customized.
Website
Though we won’t delve into digital marketing, a website is invaluable to growing construction businesses. They authenticate your work, help you win clients, and act as a public portfolio for past work.