A big construction project is a major undertaking, and doing the best job you can while ensuring a profit means that you’re running the right numbers, and coming up with something reasonable/accurate when calculating the costs. This isn’t something that you can do solely on a gut feeling. Accurate job cost assessment means you need an analysis of the project and can do things like:
• Get access to the necessary blueprints, or other technical documents for study
• Identify labor needs, materials costs, time, and other factors that will impact the final costing
• Work with other experts in their areas of expertise to share labor and cost information for a comprehensive calculation
Even after all of that, you have to build something into your cost for the unexpected, because no project ever runs 100% according to plan. With all that to address, it’s a pretty big challenge, but there’s one thing that can help to streamline the process, and that’s getting the right construction software.
Streamline Your Process
There are three ways to tackle the task of costing a project. You can do it the old fashioned way, without any kind of project management, but that’s the least efficient, and these days, the most dangerous. You can jury rig a solution from tools not precisely intended for this need, such as Spreadsheet software, which is still an improvement for writing everything down on sheets of paper. Or finally, you can get dedicated construction software designed explicitly to help people efficiently handle project management for a construction project.
The Advantages
By going with dedicated software, rather than trusting your gut, or using paper, construction companies get some significant perks right out the gate. They can:
• Analyze, calculate adjust, and reanalyze individual cost factors in a fast, easy way
• They can examine and compare projected task costs to factual accumulate historic task costs reports
• They can even identify possible candidates for cost reduction more accurately to make the bid more attractive
This is all combined with the natural software advantage of having a centralized, accessible set of data that all authorized personnel can refer to whenever they need it. If you have a single document that you alone keep, for example, then if you make changes to it, you need to notify business partners, and either send over a revised copy or advise them to make the changes themselves. With software, however, people can make the changes they need, and everyone can see it, verify and endorse it, or keep adjusting it until the numbers are where everyone wants them.
A Big Help During The Project
Even once you successfully bid and get a project, construction software can continue to be a valuable assist as the work gets underway. With the right software, you can collect and organize valuable data, such as:
• Record the actual costs
• Monitor and compare your actual costs to your estimated costs
• Real-time task and operations tracking
• Analyze your final project results and craft reports with suggestions to improve your accuracy of future cost bidding
Big projects, without proper management, tend to run out of control, especially in the area of budget overruns. However, smart managers come up with a plan. When you use good construction software and additional tools such as time clock software to help manage your workers’ hours, you are not only making things more efficient for yourself; you are improving your reputation. Getting better, more accurate results on your projections and bids means getting a reputation for being honest, accurate, and not letting your budget overrun. Any company that can do that is one that is highly sought after.
