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Every construction project is a beast, with many moving parts and interested stakeholders. As jobs change, grow, or near completion, there is a mountain of paperwork to go with it. While necessary, the hours you spend crunching numbers, filling out spreadsheets, and sending reports would be better spent elsewhere.
Did you know that up to 23% of the workday can be spent manually entering data into different systems? Automation can help with that. It has the potential to save you time, money, and your sanity! It’s time to reclaim those hours you spend on all that busy work and use it for more critical jobs like forecasting, planning, and strategizing.
Identify the tasks that can be automated, set them up, and then let them do their magic behind the scenes.
Ask yourself:
- What tasks can I automate/do I need to automate?
- Who do I need buy-in from?
- How can this be implemented?
- Which teams will be affected?
Processes you should automate in construction
1. Creating the WIP
Your work-in-progress (WIP) is hugely important to each job’s success. The WIP is proof that your job cost system is consistent, accurate, and timely. One way to improve your WIP is to automate the flow of data into it ensuring that the information there is the most accurate and timely it can be.
2. Budgeting
Most construction projects come in over budget. Know where you stand throughout the month by tracking your spend. Having visibility on where the money is going will help you keep tabs on whether you are on track to come in on budget or be more proactive if costs are running high.
3. Revenue Forecasting
Forecasting is a time-sensitive and time-intensive process. It’s necessary so you can make better business decisions and develop smart strategies for growth. By using a platform that can save and learn from your previous forecasts and success rates, you can automate the process. The model will learn to generate the optimal parameters and multiple scenarios to create better forecasts.
4. Planning
Your financial plan is your business’s life force. Drive better results faster thanks to automated processes that deliver timely information to your teams as they need it. Start creating models, scenarios, and plans on your schedule with access to dynamic data.
5. Reporting
Reports are the groundhog day of the construction industry. They need to be generated regularly and sent out to stakeholders, and then decisions made from the information are passed down the chain. Allow automation to take over. A program can collate the necessary information and send it to stakeholders once set up. Freeing precious time and manpower for more important work.
6. Accounts Payable
The finance team has many invoices coming through their hands for each job. Coding invoices alone involves a huge amount of the team’s time (we say throw away that 23% from earlier—this is more than a quarter of your day!). Setting up a system that can recognize regular suppliers and subs to automate invoices will save your team a huge amount of time.
If your business can automate those processes, you will be able to achieve more with the same resources. It’s time to implement a solution that can draw in critical information from multiple sources—and keep your WIP and other documents up-to-date—without needing to spend time chasing reports or manually updating spreadsheets.
Briq is a financial platform that enables construction companies to be more efficient and profitable. Briq automates financial workflows by connecting the people, processes, and systems that contractors use to run their business. Hundreds of construction companies rely on Briq to manage their budget, forecast, and spend. Schedule a demo to learn more.
