Competition in the general contractors’ market is getting stiffer. According to recent statistics, about 4.8% of the U.S. workforce, which amounts to approximately 7.5 million people, work in the general contractor industry.
As general contractors strive to become more competitive and remove hurdles affecting the quality of their service delivery, one big challenge remains difficult to solve. According to construction and contracting productivity experts, 35% of construction time goes to non-productive activities.
You can avoid being part of this demographic by investing in business management software for general contractors. Some benefits of business management software for general contractors include simplified scheduling, faster and easier estimation, better financial reporting, and improved documentation.
Here’s why you should invest in construction management software.
What is Business Management Software for General Contractors?
Business management software for general contractors is a project management tool designed to make processes for general contractors more efficient and straightforward.
It merges several construction management processes into one cohesive system that helps general contractors manage communication, budgeting, project estimation, job scheduling, and other tasks.
Previously, these were manual tasks that took excessive time to complete and were more prone to human error.
Therefore, with construction management software, you can effectively manage different teams and projects across multiple locations and ensure fast and effective service delivery.
General Features of Construction Management Software for General Contractors
Construction management software for general contractors packs several features that improve project management and service delivery. They include:
Job Estimation
Business management software for general contractors makes it straightforward to set uniform prices for various services you offer and share the information quickly with potential clients.
Service Management
Construction management software allows you to manage your crew and service delivery by assigning tasks, allocating assets and resources, creating plans, and scheduling work orders efficiently and effectively.
Active Alerts and Communication
Construction management software for general contractors makes it easier to instantly communicate about a project and its development to the relevant stakeholders, such as the crew and customer, and take any necessary action to ensure the project is completed as planned.
Accounting
General contractors need an updated and accurate accounting of all operational expenses and costs of a construction project. Business management software for general contractors incorporates other business accounting software to ensure that your financial books are accurate.
Other Features
Business management software for general contractors also incorporates features for stock management, job scheduling, purchase orders, and bid proposal.
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The Benefits of General Contractor Software
Investing in general contractor software will benefit your business in the following ways:
Simplified Scheduling
In a manual setup, you need spreadsheets and other inefficient means to schedule your crew and deliver service to your customers on time. This disorganization costs time and money, such as from expensive phone bills, and can often lead to a poor customer experience due to frequent delays.
General contractor software packs scheduling features that automate this process, provide a centralized communication platform and allow real-time updates about crew members and their availability to complete a service request.
Better Financial Reporting
62% of businesses state that measuring the time and costs of their construction projects is their biggest hurdle. Having accurate financial reports makes it easier to know the fiscal health of your business and identify where you’re losing money.
Construction management software for general contractors uses a dashboard to show how far off you are from your budget and what changes you can make to get back on course. You can also generate comprehensive daily, weekly, quarterly, and annual financial reports to track your spending closely.
Better Communication
Communication is essential in the general contractor business to ensure all subcontractors, clients, and other parties are on the same page. Unfortunately, according to data, 52% of the rework on engineering and construction projects stems from poor communication.
General contractor software removes any ambiguities concerning schedules, the budget, or work progress. With better communication and flow of information, you suffer fewer delays and errors that can hamper the project.
Reduced Exposure to Risk
General contractors must always ensure their job is legal and compliant with all regulatory requirements. However, ensuring regulatory compliance and legality of various positions is a multifaceted challenge.
With business management software, you can set and automate specific parameters that define and ensure your organization’s compliance. These include:
- Ensuring all contingency workers have up-to-date certifications
- Verifying the specific tax considerations required for each job site
- Managing documents related to insurance claims and incident reports
Better Budgeting
Budgeting lies at the core of ensuring a general contractor’s job is completed on time. With a poor budget estimate, you can easily overshoot a project’s schedule and fail to meet it.
Business management software for general contractors offers better budget management that minimizes costs and maximizes profits for your business. Your material and labor costs are automated and accurate, with insightful data about previous bids and expenses to help you make more accurate budget estimates.
Improved Documentation and File Sharing
Your team should seamlessly scale across departments as the business grows. General contractor software puts your business’s leadership, crew, and project managers on one platform where they can seamlessly use and share information and documents.
Therefore, you no longer have to rely on complicated documentation and file sharing, reducing misunderstandings and speeding up your team’s actions on the information shared.
Quick and Easy Estimation, Bidding, and Invoicing
Generating and sending accurate estimates and bids is essential to delivering quality services to your clients. Better estimation and bidding improve your sales process and win you more clients.
Using construction management software for general contractors, you can easily manage different estimates and bids on one platform and close the deal quickly without reentering data for every client request or change.
These estimates and bids can be sent to the client electronically for quick review and approval.
You can quickly convert an estimate into an invoice and have the client conveniently pay for the services using secure online payment gateways. Therefore, you improve your sales process and speed up invoice processing.
Simplify Managing Your General Contracting Business
Invest in the Right Business Management Tools
General contractors using software to power their businesses enjoy better sales processes, communication, budgeting, and documentation, improving their business’s bottom line. Join the tech revolution today and talk to a trusted business management software vendor to learn how you can bring technology into your general contractor business.