Achieve project milestones and deliverables on time and budget with concrete construction software that includes project management, scheduling, field communication and reporting. Also look for financial tools that help you get paid faster and prepare for tax season.
With concrete management software like Projul, job scheduling, work order and project tracking become a breeze for your team. Plus the customer portal feature keeps your clients informed and happy.
Job Scheduling
In order for your crew members to complete the labor-intensive job of installing concrete, they need adequate rest and a stable work schedule. If they’re exhausted or overworked, their productivity flags and their safety may be compromised while operating heavy machinery. Establishing flexible work schedules and staggered start times can go a long way toward keeping your workers happy and productive.
When it comes to job scheduling, there are many different methods that concrete contractors use. Some rely on shared calendars that are likely to be corrupted, others have their salespeople field calls and reply to each other with information about when they’re scheduled to meet with customers. A more efficient approach is to use construction management software specialized for concrete contractor job estimating, dispatching, tracking and other functions.
eSUB Cloud offers an easy-to-use, customizable software platform that manages all aspects of your business. It handles estimating, contracting, job costing, customer communication, service tickets, equipment tracking, daily reports and more. This makes it possible to eliminate spreadsheets and other cumbersome manual processes in favor of a single, field-first software solution that increases accountability, streamlines communication and collaboration, and improves project deliverables and costs.
The tool also simplifies masonry jobs by connecting office and field teams with shared data, which reduces rework and keeps projects on track. For example, if a concrete pour date changes due to weather or the building contractor requires additional materials, this can be easily communicated through eSUB’s Co-Construct software. The team can then make adjustments accordingly, which helps keep the project on budget and on time.
Another benefit of eSUB’s software is its ability to optimize scheduling and dispatching by providing the highest level of visibility into the availability of your trucks, trailers and mixers. It uses a “first-come, first-served” or Earliest Due Date (EDD) model to prioritize and line up RMC orders to avoid bottlenecks in the process. It also provides a live view of raw material demand and inventory that adjusts in real-time so that you can make the most accurate, timely decisions about what to bring to each site.
Time Tracking
Concrete work is labor intensive and time tracking is key for managing crews. With our mobile workforce management software, all your team members can clock in, track breaks and switch between projects/cost codes on the go. This helps to avoid inaccurate reporting and ballooning labor costs. Your supervisors can also review and approve team tracking reports.
Using a team tracking app can help you get a firm grip on your labor costs and prevent miscalculations and overages. It can also help you reduce the risk of employee fraud. When your employees have access to an easy-to-use time clock, they are more likely to be honest and accountable. This allows you to keep a closer eye on your costs and increase your bottom line.
When a project goes over budget or isn’t on schedule, your superintendents must stay connected with the field to make timely decisions. With eSUB Cloud, your construction company can send daily reports to supervisors, who can upload photos and video and record field notes and progress. Supervisors can even record these daily reports offline, and they will sync in real-time once their device is back on a data connection.
With eSUB Cloud, you can gain visibility into concrete mix delivery processes and avoid overdesign by analyzing in-transit concrete monitoring data on your trucks. This enables you to optimize fleet process and deliver within specified performance specifications.
Build trust with clients by keeping them in the know about their project. With a client portal, you can store important documents and photos, upload meeting minutes and create punch lists that allow your clients to respond with their own updates to the site manager or team leader directly from your eSUB mobile application. This keeps the entire team on the same page and builds strong relationships with clients, which translates to happy customers and more business.
Mobile Time Clock App
When your crew is out in the field, they need a mobile time clock app that works just as well on their phones as it does on a desktop. It has to be easy enough to use that they don’t hesitate to use it every day. It also needs to be accurate, and it needs to work offline. It should be able to track GPS locations and provide a list of jobs and tasks completed on that location. It should have a clocked-out reminder and allow the timesheets to be edited after they have been submitted. It should even have the ability to track hours for independent contractors (also known as 1099s).
A mobile time-tracking system eliminates time theft, buddy punching, and inaccurate paperwork by allowing your employees to log their time in real-time on their own phone. It also enables you to keep a close eye on your workforce by allowing you to see where each employee is located at any given point in time. This information helps managers to make decisions about employee assignments and project workflow.
Many construction companies have a number of different types of workers and projects. You need a construction time clock that can manage the complexity of the business and give your team access to the right information at the right time. Thankfully, there are many options on the market to meet your construction company’s specific requirements.
Some of the more popular construction time tracking apps include QuickBooks Time (formerly TSheets), ExakTime, and Rhumbix. Each offers a range of features, including the ability to track GPS locations and a customizable timesheet template. Unlike some competitors, these apps allow you to view time card details on both the desktop and the mobile application. Some of these apps also offer the option to assign a task or job to a specific worker or team member.
Some of these construction time-tracking systems can upload data directly to your accounting software, making payroll processing faster and easier than ever before. This allows you to focus on estimating and billing more effectively and provides accurate timesheets for your payroll department. Error-riddled timesheets can throw off your job cost calculations, which can be a costly mistake for your business. By using a mobile time-tracking system, you can improve your job costing estimates and make better bids in the future.
Billing
Concrete contractor software with specialized financial tools is vital to help you stay on top of job costs and project finances. With these specialized features, you can automate time-consuming tasks like invoicing and billing to save time and money.
Getting paid on time is essential to your business’s success. That’s why a quality concrete management solution is equipped with tools that allow you to collect payments online, send invoice reminders and more. Plus, you can use a centralized database to store important documents and eliminate the need for double data entry.
Document management:
A key feature in any concrete construction software is a document repository that allows users to store and organize all of their blueprints, drawings, contracts, RFIs, change orders and photos. This provides version control, reduces errors, facilitates collaboration and gives firms and clients a full audit trail of all changes made to documents. This feature, which is included in Handle, is especially helpful for U.S. Concrete due to their heavily distributed teams during the COVID19 pandemic. With this feature, employees could easily access the documents they needed to perform their work – even when they were working from home. This helped them remain productive, and allowed for better coordination across departments despite the challenges caused by the widespread impact of the pandemic. With this feature, the company also saw a significant decrease in their overhead costs thanks to more effective use of remote workers.