Back Office & DocumentsEvery project starts the same way and ends on record.
From kick-off to sign-off, tasks, deadlines, hours and costs are all tied to a single process. Each morning you see which project is drifting off plan, while there is still time to do something about it.
The problem
On Friday afternoon the client rings and asks why the structural engineer’s approval is still missing. You have no idea. The chaser has been sitting in an email thread for three weeks, run by a colleague who went on holiday on Monday.
In the end the final invoice does not match the quote, because forty hours of extra work were never ordered in writing. It was agreed on site, in passing. Now you get to argue it out with a customer who remembers none of it.
And on the next project of the same kind you start from scratch again, because nowhere does it say what went wrong last time or how long it actually took.
What you get
We connect your time tracking, your costing and your site filing, where you already use them; where something is missing, we set it up.
How it works
Capture
The order, the costing, the dates and the people involved are created once at the start, from the template for that kind of project.
Process
Hours, purchases, variations, photos and emails are all logged against the project, matched to it and measured against the plan.
Deliver
Tasks, reminders and customer updates go out. Whoever you are waiting on gets chased, without anyone having to remember.
Review
For each project you see where plan and actual drift apart, and after sign-off you see what will make the next costing more accurate.
What it costs
Included: discovery, a template for each kind of project, phases and deadlines, approval routes, connecting hours and costs, the sign-off and closing report, testing on a live project, handover. The figure depends on how many kinds of project you run.
Included: day-to-day running, licences, upkeep of the templates and approval routes, a review of each project and support.
No lock-in. Cancellable month by month. What keeps you with us is the work, not the length of the contract.
All prices are indicative and are agreed during the call.
Options
Timeline
from Week 7 · Ongoing operation
What you own
The project files, the templates, the photos and every login sit in your own accounts. If you stop tomorrow, the finished projects stay readable at your end, reports included.
We do not make you dependent on us. You are not renting a system, you are getting one.
Common questions
We work from Excel lists. Do we have to give them up?+
Not straight away. Whatever works well in your lists becomes a template rather than being replaced. As a rule the costing stays where it is and only the tracking moves. You will see what really falls away after the first supported project.
Does the AI plan our building sites?+
No. It gets things ready: it creates the project from the template, writes up what was discussed as tasks, notices that an approval has been open for three weeks and measures the hours against the plan. Who does what and when is decided by your site manager.
We have four projects running at once. Is it worth it?+
With four similar projects and one site manager, often yes, because that is exactly where variations and approvals get lost. With two long projects a year, probably not. We work it out on your recent jobs in the intro call, before you pay anything.
Will our people have to key in more than before?+
On site, less rather than more: hours and photos go straight from the phone, one step instead of three. In the office there is a little more to enter at the start and the end of a project, and in return the hunting around stops. If your fitters had to fill in forms in the evening, we would have built it wrong.
Can the customer see our internal figures?+
Only what you choose to share. It shows progress, dates and the variations that have been ordered. Hourly rates, margin and internal notes stay in-house, governed by access rights, not by self-discipline.
The next project runs to plan from day one.
An intro call, free and with no obligation. We walk through the process on one of your live projects and tell you honestly whether the effort is worth it for you.