575: A No-Fuss Record-Keeping Guide For Your Construction Business

This Podcast Is Episode 575, And It's About  A No-fuss Record-keeping Guide For Your Construction Business

Managing a hectic schedule and complex projects can be challenging if you're a contractor. You must also ensure that your paperwork, documents, and contracts are in order. It's essential to keep a paper trail of your work and practice due diligence. 

Keeping all your working documents in order shows that you treat your business, customers, and subcontractors responsibly. This is a mark of professionalism and can also help if you have an insurance or legal claim.

Contractor paperwork documentation and procedures

You should develop documentation and record-keeping procedures appropriate for your contracting operation or service if necessary. Once procedures are in place, it is equally important to ensure everyone understands and follows them. 

It's good practice to hold a workshop on documentation procedures with your employees and have them sign off that they understand and have copies of the procedures.

For construction jobs, some of the documents that may be obtained and maintained as part of your documentation procedure include:

• Project tenders/estimates
• Contracts or work orders
• Duty to perform documents
• Site inspection forms
• Tests on work completed
• Documentation for materials delivered to the site
• Documentation of your risk services assessment
• Certificates of insurance from your subcontractors

Using Digital Tools and Software

Implementing project management and documentation software can significantly reduce the time spent on paperwork. These tools can help track project progress, manage invoices, and store important documents securely in the cloud for easy access from any location. 

There are many options on the market, and it's unlikely that a single piece of software will meet all of your project management needs. Companies usually combine a few applications to create a custom solution.

Remember, the accounting software you need depends on the level of reports you require. This is why we recommend choosing project management tools that integrate nicely with the parts of your setup that don't need changing.

What to look for

Real-time reporting capability

Effective construction project management requires up-to-date information. With this, you can make important decisions if you rely on guesswork, which is a lousy way to do things.

The best project management tools for the construction industry offer instant reporting.

Accessibility

Your data must be as accessible as possible. The best construction project management tools are cloud/web-based, which makes them accessible from virtually anywhere in the world.

Good Support

Incorporating even the best construction project management tools will inevitably result in hiccups. That's why you should look for programs from companies with reliable customer support.

Security

Your data is precious and sensitive, and construction project management tools and techniques should reflect this. Before you incorporate any software into your workflow, research the company behind it, its terms of use, and the security measures it implements to keep your company's data private.

Construction project management tool checklist

Here are questions to ask yourself once you've narrowed your options using the above crit