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● Many construction companies use spreadsheets, and those spreadsheets may be costing them billions.
● Spreadsheets introduce significant error rates into your data ecosystem — opening you up for substantial losses.
● Employee happiness is directly related to spreadsheets, whether you know it or not.
● Briq eliminates spreadsheets with a robust cloud-based architecture.
A massive 81 percent of businesses use spreadsheets — and subcontractors are certainly not strangers to Excel-stuffed folders. But what if those spreadsheets were putting your financial health, productivity, happiness, and project success rates at risk? While tracking projects with Excel may be industry-standard, it's not financially feasible. In fact, U.S. businesses lose $3.1 trillion annually in opportunities due to poor data quality. And spreadsheets may be the single biggest cause of poor data in construction.
Here's the low-down on spreadsheets. Or, to put it another way, here's how a few rows, a couple of cells, and some incredibly boring formulas could be tearing your construction operation apart at the seams.
How to Not Excel At Analytics
Around 90 percent of spreadsheets contain errors. And, according to large meta-analysis studies, around 1.8 percent of all formulas also contain errors. While it's tempting to think of these errors as minor, they have the very real potential to disrupt regular business operations. Emerson — one of the largest commercial and residential construction companies in the United States — once fell $3.7 million short in an estimation of the total cost for a contract bid, all due to a single cell in a spreadsheet. In fact, 1 in 5 businesses have suffered tangible, measurable financial loss due to spreadsheet errors. And, according to a survey of 45 managers in various industries (e.g., construction, financials, education, etc.), 57 percent believed that spreadsheet errors were "a significant threat" to their decision-making process.
In short, spreadsheet errors aren't only real; they're a serious threat to your bottom line. Unfortunately, there's no way to mitigate them. Manual data entry naturally carries an error rate (humans aren't perfect!). So, if you use spreadsheets, you had better be ready for mistakes.
Spreadsheets Sap Productivity & Happiness
The average employee spends over one-quarter of their day simply searching for the right information. When that information is hidden in algorithm-drenched spreadsheets, it can feel impossible to find. Worse yet, spreadsheets create tribal knowledge architecture. Often, businesses have a few "spreadsheet experts" that maintain massive, ongoing spreadsheets. When other employees need to access spreadsheet data, it's challenging for them to navigate cells and formulas to find what they need. In the worst-case scenario, your spreadsheet expert leaves or gets poached (1 in 4 employees want to quit right now!), you're left with overly complicated spreadsheets and knowledge gaps.
For those that work with spreadsheets, those Excel documents consume around 50 percent of their time. So, is it any wonder that an astronomical 85 percent of employees are unhappy at work? After all, who wants to spend +3 hours each day on mundane, repetitive, error-prone tasks like spreadsheets? Hint: almost no one.
We could spend hours talking about how unhappy workplaces create unproductive and resource-drained workplaces. But, for now, simply remember that happy employees generate 21 percent higher profits. So, whether you're a subcontractor with 500 employees or a solo artist, happiness spells success. Enough said.
Creating a Holistic Data Empire With Briq
Are you tired of relying on spreadsheets and overburdening data entry? As a subcontractor, you need data to forecast financials, pin down financial health, and win bids. But you don't need spreadsheets to handle that data. With Briq, you can unify and automate your financial architecture under one, easy-to-use cloud banner. Our industry-leading cloud platform lets you generate and utilize WIPs in seconds — not days. And we do it without forcing you to dredge through Excel hell.
