When crew supervisors, project leaders, and senior company managers are using integrated mobile timekeeping software in their construction project management systems, their greatest benefits are usually found in four key areas.
In a small construction firm, one person might play all those leadership roles. As a business grows it becomes more likely different roles are divided among different players.
But the benefits felt in these four key areas are equally important from the smallest to the biggest construction operations.
Real Time Project Costing Keeps Managers on Top of Things
All supervisors and managers can have open access to relevant historical project data from all projects. Comparisons and forecasts are based on reliable data so managers don’t have to guess or speculate. They can run numbers and trust the averages as well as the extremes.
A few examples of which questions are answered with good data:
- How much difference in time and type of labor hours is there between similar projects?
- How much difference between specific jobs?
- Is more or less time spent on any given task, and why?
- Where was any unplanned time spent, at what cost, and why?
Project planning down to the level of contingencies for recognized risk factors takes a load of pressure off everybody. That’s especially true for the managers and workers responsible for keeping the project on track.
A robust set of integrated time clock data gives individual and combined employee time totals and sorts them by job site and by specific cost code. This cost code breakdown puts the real analytical power of the software to work. Company managers can customize and refine the granularity of cost codes to track any jobsite variables that matter.
The best time tracking software apps not only gather employee time data. They also track onsite equipment time and tie that data to specific jobs and detailed cost codes.
Accurate data openly reported and automatically tracked and sorted makes it easy to get a true handle on project costs. In real time it makes it easy to see signs of trouble as they begin to develop. This helps project leaders control risks, reduce or prevent negative outcomes, and keep everybody’s work-related stress levels nice and low.
Bid Optimization Based on Accurate Data Equals Profits
Accurate, always up-to-date information based on project costing data provides the basis for the next calculation of job costing. Historical patterns can be followed closely when jobs are similar, or changes in procedure can be made to reflect different circumstances. Again, this analysis helps to recognize, identify and control for potential risk situations.
Managers can bid and price jobs with confidence knowing that historical data for hours, equipment and labor costs contain no hidden weak spots. Things like incidental time padding or time gaps, due to manual timekeeping with rounding and memory errors, can really add up over time and make a big difference in the bottom line.
Cost code details promote better accuracy in every meaningful aspect of every job. Also, cost codes can be tweaked and tuned to find more or different meanings. This keeps bids more competitive, profitable and measurable throughout the life of the project.
Leaders and laborers alike can perform with less stress and more certainty of action when this level of confidence goes into the foundations of every new project that rolls out.
Remote Field Crew Supervision and Site Management
Managers can see the GPS location of each person on each job, and whether they are on the clock, what project they have open, and what task or job code they are working on.
A map view lets you scroll from site to site with real-time location updates. So you can always find someone when and where you need them, instead of wasting time looking and calling around.
A mobile time clock app with integrated project management tools helps employees relate to and contribute to project efficiency. It also encourages accountability in a self-directed way that enhances confidence and ownership of project results.
It helps in real time supervision and collaboration by streamlining and mobilizing project communication and documentation. Instant GPS-stamped exchanges of notes and images help resolve problems and solutions between field and office.
Automated integration of time clock app data improves project coordination and control and increases consistency of results. Use of the app is similar to the effect of in-person supervision but without the cost and geographical limitations of onsite-only supervision.
It really does make it possible for leaders to be in more than one place at one time, and sometimes that’s the only way to get everywhere you have to be.
Automated Reports for Payroll and Business Analysis
Accounting managers know that little things, done over and over and over again, make a big difference. Keeping an accurate account of break times might seem like an annoying little detail until you look at the actual total amount of break time accumulated by all employees over the period of a month or a year.
Bottom line impact of all the annoying little details combined is huge. One more such detail is the business of getting employee and equipment data from the field to the office in a complete and accurate format.
The use of a mobile integrated timekeeping app turns annoying into convenient and automated. And the data that gets produced is returned to the office in real time all the time, so information is always complete and accurate.
Interim project or progress reports are a snap and can be produced without anybody scrambling for missing documents. These reports can help leaders provide improvements on job site issues before they create bigger problems.
Integrating time clock data with accounting and payroll software eliminates much of the risk for error in managing paperwork and manual data input. The substantial time saved in data collection and data entry is a big benefit that financial leaders will appreciate every time payday comes around again.
Time For a Time Tracking System That Really Delivers
If your company uses a digital timekeeping system and you are just not feeling the joy, you definitely want to check out the busybusy integrated time clock app.
Ranging from free to the best-priced packages on the market, busybusy delivers full benefits in these four major leadership areas, with a simple interface and powerful analytics capabilities.
Company leaders can share these benefits with the rest of the company in many different ways. When employees know they are “in the loop” and that projects are designed to run smoothly and quickly, they know they have a share in making that happen. 7.14, 6.10, 7.08,4.27,
And, after all, sharing benefits is the best way to enjoy them yourself. Try busybusy for free! Schedule a free demo today!
