Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for excavation companies.
A checklist built from how excavation companies work, to print or save as a PDF and bring to any supplier meeting.
What the software should cover
Tick each one that matters to your business.
- Estimates and bids
- Jobs and daily site logs
- Machines, operators and allocation
- Haulage and load tickets
- Fuel, servicing and breakdowns
- Progress claims and variations
- Subcontract crews and rented machines
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For owners
- For estimators
- For site foremen
- For the yard and workshop
- For accounts
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Estimates open, won and lost by job type
- Job cost against estimate
- Machine hours and utilisation by excavator and tipper
- Loads hauled by job, material, tare and tip
- Fuel issued against hours worked
- Claims raised, paid and held back as retention
- Hired plant, dumpers and subcontract cost by job
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- SMS
- WhatsApp or other messaging
- Payment gateway
- Accounting software export
- Telematics feeds
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- Can it cost each job from machine hours?
- Can foremen use it from a phone?
- Does it handle unit-rate and lump-sum pricing?
- Can we track our own tipper trucks and load tickets?
- Can it show when a machine is due for service?
- Can hired machines and subcontractors be tracked?
- Can existing jobs and unpaid claims be loaded?
- Who owns the data?
- What does it cost?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- Machine hours are not tied to a job
- Haul loads are hard to count
- Variations are lost
- Fuel and maintenance drift
- Hire and subcontract costs are tracked apart
Prefer to talk it through? See the excavation companies page.