Robust, clear construction reporting can help construction companies boost their success. Everyone knows construction projects produce a lot of data from many different sources. All that information can pile up. Multiple data formats and the fast pace of construction projects mean that it’s increasingly important to have accurate, actionable construction reporting and construction analytics to show you where you stand on your projects so you can make the best decisions for your business.
What is Construction Reporting?
Construction reporting helps construction companies keep their projects on track and on budget. Construction reporting is critical because it shows how a project is actually progressing, compared with the contract, schedule of values and other documents, which show how a project is expected to progress.
Why is Construction Reporting Important?
It’s important to produce and review construction reporting on a regular basis so you can use the data to run your jobs as efficiently as possible.
Reporting provides key details that reveal when costs changed compared to budgeted expectations and shows how and why projects deviate from an original plan. Project and site managers can use reporting to compare forecasted budget and timeline to actual figures and prevent projects from getting behind schedule or over budget. Reporting is an important factor in your company’s overall financial health.
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3 Key Reports for Every Construction Business
There are numerous construction reports that summarize information about the status of your projects. Here are the types of reports construction companies use to manage their jobs and finances and how construction reporting can help your business thrive.
Progress Reporting is for tracking completed work through the project. Progress reports provide cumulative information and gives you the data to make key decisions in a timely manner. Referring to progress reports can mean the difference between a project that’s completed on time and on budget or incurring cost overruns or time delays.
Progress reports include updates on the following:
- Materials ordered
- Equipment delivered
- Scheduled labor hours
- Completed labor hours
- Estimated costs
- Actual costs
- Payments received
- Payments due
- Status of submittals
- Status of final inspections
- Any other important information related to the progress schedule
Cost Reporting is for tracking and managing a project compared with initial estimate or budget. Cost reporting is essential because it allows you to understand what’s truly happening as the job progresses, so you can correct before overspending eats into your project profits.
Cost reports contain the following information:
- Financial data about a project including materials used, labor hours accumulated, other expenses such as rented equipment, insurance costs and more.
- Comparison between actual and budgeted or estimated.
Materials Reporting summarizes the amount of materials used as well as the cost for those materials. Since materials costs are a major expense in construction, materials reporting can help construction companies identify the most cost effective materials and preferred suppliers or procurement methods.
Materials reports provide the following information:
- Summary of materials used including type, price, and sources.
- Reveal how to boost productivity and building quality, such as the use of new materials.
What Is a Construction Daily Report?
Construction reports are used to create a whole picture of the job in progress. Planning for success or for how to turn around a project that has experienced setbacks means you need to understand everything that has happened on the job site. Detailed daily construction reports summarize the work completed on site each working day into a simple and informative report. A review of the daily can help construction companies course correct and work more efficiently and productively.
The clearest understanding of a project comes from site reporting. Although completing the report requires attention and consistency to complete this task, construction companies should have a process in place to create a Daily Construction Report, which captures incremental data about job progress.
To be valuable, a Construction Daily Report should document the following information:
- The date that the information pertains to, which should also be the date that the report is written and submitted.
- Weather conditions for the day to show why certain tasks weren’t completed or why everyone left the job site early or arrived late.
- The physical conditions of the job site, which can affect how much work got done on that day.
- The resources that were available and unavailable for that day. Include employees, equipment, and materials.
- The work that was performed and the status for each job.
- A list of any disruptions or delays that occurred on that day.
- Updated inventory to show what is in stock and what may be arriving later than planned.
- The potential risks for future delays, so that everyone can work to avoid these problems.
- Any incidents that occurred, whether safety-related or environment related. The employee’s name, as well as specific details and photos, should also be included.
- There may be days when additional notes or comments may be necessary, and they should be included at the end if they do not fit in any of the other categories.
What Are Construction Analytics and How Does it Benefit Construction Companies?
Construction analytics is a method of evaluating your data to identify patterns and create insights. You can use analytics to track, analyze and display key performance indicators like financial data, schedules, and deadlines to deliver insights for your company.
Within construction there are barriers to implementing new systems.
- Repetitive reporting
- Multiple data systems
- Unorganized data
- Too much paper
View our JPAnalytics video to learn more.
Advantages of Construction Analytics
However, construction analytics can give an upper hand to companies who use it. Among the benefits for using analytics to understand your data better are:
- Increased transparency and better analysis of metrics that matter to your company. Analytics allows you to set your own KPIs so that you can track your goals and understand where you might be losing money.
- More timely information, with analytics you’re able to update from multiple kinds of inputs, like subcontracts who hold up one stage of your operations, or materials that sit in the warehouse unused for too long.
- Better overall communications. With everyone on your team working from the same playbook, analytics can eliminate confusion and increase efficiency and productivity.
Conclusion
Using powerful construction reporting and analytics tools can provide construction companies with relevant actionable information that will help you make informed decisions to keep your jobs on course and on budget.
Clear, progressive reporting can help you plan tasks, identify overdue or over budget areas, and help you distribute labor more efficiently so your jobs are completed more efficiently.
Take advantage of powerful construction accounting and reporting software. Talk to us about how construction reporting and analytics can help your business.
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