In this guide 6 sections
The usual mistakes are moving every site at once, leaving out the BOQ and opening stock, and building screens site engineers avoid. Another is expecting the software to estimate or plan a critical path. Each leaves the office with two versions of the truth. Start with one site, its BOQ and a counted store.
Moving every site on the first day
Sites under way carry bills already raised, contractor advances running and retention held over months. Moving all of them in one week means none is checked properly. The office then trusts neither the old files nor the new screens.
Bring sites across one or two at a time. Check each against your files line by line before the next one moves. Slow at first, but the record holds.
Leaving the BOQ and opening stock out
Material and labour only mean something against the BOQ. Without each item’s quantity and rate loaded, cost against budget cannot be read while the work is still under way.
Opening stock matters as much. If cement and steel at site are not counted on go-live day, every later figure inherits the error. Count it, sign it and enter it before the first indent.
- BOQ items with quantity and rate
- Site stock counted on go-live day
- Contractor advances still to recover
- Retention held by contractor and client
Screens the site engineer will not use
Site engineers already send photos to a group. If the new screen takes longer than that, the group carries on and the software goes stale. Two records then run side by side.
Keep site entry to what a phone can do at the gate: attendance, indents, photographs and the reason a day stopped. Billing and purchase screens can stay in the office. Walk each engineer through the phone screens on site.
Expecting the software to do work it does not
Site software records the site and the money. It does not replace your estimator, your planner or your designer. Expecting it to will disappoint everyone.
GullySystem’s Construction Project Management Software, for example, holds the BOQ your estimator produced and measures against it. Planning tools and design tools stay where they are.
- Estimation and rate analysis stay with your estimator
- Critical path planning stays in Primavera or MS Project
- Structural design and BIM stay in design tools
- Compliance filings stay with your adviser
Changing the RA bill nobody checked
The running account bill is what the client certifies and pays. If the new format differs from what the client expects, the first bill comes back. Match the client’s format exactly.
Run the first two RA bills both ways: the old measurement book method and the new system. Compare retention, advance recovery and the net payable. Switch fully only when they agree.
Site go-live checklist
A single sheet for the first site moved: BOQ loaded, store counted and signed, contractor advances entered, retention entered, engineers walked through the phone screens. Add a line for the two parallel RA bills. Tick each item before moving the next site.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Does it do estimation and rate analysis?
No. Your estimator keeps working as before. The BOQ that comes out of that work, with its quantities and rates, is what the system holds and measures against.
Can sites already under way be brought in?
Yes. Each site arrives with its stages, bills raised, contractor advances and retention held. A couple are checked against your files before go-live.
Does the site engineer need a laptop?
No. Attendance, indents, photographs and stoppage reasons are entered on a phone. Billing and purchase screens are easier on a laptop in the office.
Should a builder with one site bother?
For one site, Excel can be enough. It gets hard when several sites share a store, contractors have advances running and retention spans years of bills.