It’s become more expensive and complex to run a subcontractor business in Australia in recent years, sending more subbies towards construction planning and scheduling software to reduce administrative and business costs and time. It’s not just to improve the bottom line but, in fact, to be in business at all, as the competition for work becomes fierce.
Old scheduling and project management methods, including good old pen and paper, whiteboard and even spreadsheets, are time-consuming and risky. As technology increases its presence in the construction industry, the use of software custom-built for subcontracting is helping Australian trade and construction businesses to keep up.
Reduce the office costs of work management
The number of moving parts in a construction project is huge, and keeping track of what and who needs to be where is a time-consuming task when done using a manual, inefficient system. Construction scheduling software that makes managing resources an easier, more streamlined process can save hours of office work each day. Easy-to-use construction software that puts all the projects on a dashboard to create a schedule with a click reduces admin time for the office team – in some cases, from a full-time job to a handful of hours in a week.
Save money by using resources to their max with scheduling software
Time on site is money, so equipment and staff need to be actively working as much and efficiently as possible. Sending staff or equipment to the wrong site on the wrong day or sending more than the budgeted resources for a project costs the business in lost wages or project delays.
Construction planning and scheduling software that gives a visual display of projects, and all the available staff and resources to do them, makes sure that the project needs are met and no resources are wasted or double booked. Additionally, drag-and-drop functionality of subcontractor scheduling software streamlines the scheduling process, allowing project managers and office staff to effortlessly assign personnel and allocate resources by simply dragging and dropping them onto the project timelines.
Clear, accurate scheduling benefits everyone, including management
Giving your team of Supervisors accurate, up-to-date rosters with clear information about what they are meant to do helps the admin team but also helps the field staff on site. Supervisors have the project details they need in hand, and they know who is expected on site and which tasks they are there to do. It is so much quicker and easier to get on with the job, with fewer calls to the office each day.
For field workers, to enhance communication and confirm attendance, the effective construction scheduling software can automatically send SMS notifications to the personnel associated with each project, enabling them to swiftly confirm their availability, ultimately promoting timely and efficient project execution.
The benefits of having an up-to-date schedule of their work means that they know where to go and be ready for the tasks ahead. They can plan their work and family time more easily and don’t waste work time by going to the wrong site.
Timesheeting, EBA and internal award interpretation
Once staff are on-site, keeping track of workers’ times is the next big admin time sucker. Tracking times by paper records or tapping notes into a messaging app leads to poor records and errors in the important task of paying people for their work. Loading timesheet information collected in different places into a payroll system takes time and adds finicky data work to a busy admin staff’s day. Having a construction scheduling software with a timesheet function built into it keeps the information in one place, ready to use.
Adding to the visibility for management, geo-location functionality means that each timesheet entry is tracked. No more signing off for the day when a worker walks in the door at home, using the smarts of construction scheduling and timesheeting software, admin staff can be confident that the time record is accurate. Where it is not possible to collect GPS location due to privacy issues, an effective construction scheduling software will allow fieldworkers to scan a QR code in the shed or on the Supervisor’s device to clock in and out, providing hard evidence that they were onsite.
Interpreting Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) or Internal Award rates into timesheet data can be time-consuming especially as the number of staff increases. Having the interpretation of EBA and award rates applied automatically to the timesheet data for each worker can save hours upon hours of laborious payroll time.
Adaptability in the face of disruption
Supply chain disruption and weather events are just two things that can see a well-planned workweek turned on its head. Being able to update and adapt the schedule and re-allocate resources needs to be fast and accurate to do, or expensive errors can happen. Another benefit of having construction scheduling software built for subcontractors means that the system has been designed to make changing the plan quick and easy. With a drag-and-drop functionality, resources can be re-organised and staff can be automatically updated, not only accommodating changing timelines but also ensuring optimal resource utilisation.
Feeding the payroll system the right information fast and correctly
Being productive includes saving time at the back end of the job – let technology do the fiddly admin work. Construction scheduling software that integrates with your payroll system makes fast work of getting the team paid. Automation and workflows for popular payroll systems such as Xero, MYOB or other online systems frees the office team to get on with other things, knowing the correct data has been collected, interpreted and active in the payroll system, and the team receive the correct pay, on time, with less grunt work from the admin team.
Are you ready to improve productivity with construction scheduling software?
At a time when pressures on subcontractors are increasing, construction planning and scheduling software can improve productivity and save businesses money by reducing the time it takes to plan the work – and re-organise the work when it needs to be updated – plus reduce the time for managing timesheets and payroll. As technology use in society and in construction increases, using operations management software for daily tasks keeps the business efficient and not falling behind with the subcontracting industry and your competitors.
The time savings you can achieve by starting to use construction scheduling software that is part of a subcontractor operations management system can be used to focus on tasks with more value, such as growing your business or spending well-deserved time with friends and family.
Want to find out more? You can explore the success stories of fellow subcontractors that use Neo Intelligence for their construction schedule software by reading our Client Success Stories here. Or you can Request a demo with our team today to discover how Neo Intelligence can streamline your project scheduling process.
