Construction Administration Software Offers a Powerful Alternative to Paper & Spreadsheets

For years, traditional construction administration methods have been specific to individual organizations, involving a homebrewed mix of field books, paper reports, and spreadsheets to meet project reporting requirements. The advent of construction administration software has enabled construction project managers and owners to tackle the following issues with a paper or spreadsheet-based process:

• Scattered project-record keeping – at the conclusion of a construction project, occasionally an auditing agency will need full-access to construction project records. Having these records in an organized, digital format is often a more efficient and comprehensive audit trail process than filing cabinets or shared drives.

• Manual and/or duplicate entry – often, inspectors will record information at the job site, drive back to the office, and record it from their notes. This method isn’t just time-consuming, it can lead to crucial errors in reporting that are limited by synced, source entry.

• Pay estimate generation – when a construction project manager has to manually compile daily reports, fund tracking, and change orders to produce a pay estimate, it can take hours. Software solutions often allow for instantaneous pay estimate generation using project data.

• Resolving contractor disputes – disputes over quantities or payments can pop up on a construction site. Software platforms offer a level of transparency and tracking that makes these disputes easy to resolve with hard data.

The Benefits of Web-Based Construction Administration

As an alternative to field books and spreadsheets, web-based construction administration platforms offer a streamlined and automated approach to project management. Engineering firms and local public agencies experience many benefits when they make the switch to web-based construction administration platforms, including:

• Comprehensive record-keeping to build the ultimate audit trail
• Reducing inspector travel time with mobile inspection tools
• Increasing the accuracy of data with source data capture
• Generating pay estimates quickly and accurately
• Accessing real-time data to stop potential issues in their tracks
• Standardizing construction management and inspection processes