How This Mobile App Prevents You From Being Blamed for Another Contractor’s Errors (A CYA Guide)

If you’re a contractor working in new home construction, you don’t need us to tell you about the daily complexities of simply getting any job done. Not only are you working on tight schedules with your crews, subcontractors, and other trade contractors, but your builders employ you based on whether your jobs are completed efficiently, within budget and on time.

One of the biggest challenges is the constantly changing back-and-forth communication to schedule each job. In the high-volume residential market, a contractor doing 2,000 jobs a year may have his schedule changed 50,000 times that year. Without accurate, objective data that provides insight into each schedule, any contractor can easily take the blame for any disruption, whether they caused it or not. These disruptions cost not only time, but money and potentially future contracts.

So how do you gather and use data that will protect your business and your reputation? The BOLT scheduling app was created to consolidate documentation and facilitate all scheduling communications between you, your office, your supervisors, your crew and your builder so that everyone involved can see any job status in real time, track why any reschedule was necessary, and hold each other accountable.

Here’s how it works.

Real-time Records

We know you’ve felt the frustration of sending crews to a site and then learning you’re not cleared to work. BOLT’s at a glance visuals means you can instantly see the current status or progress of a work order based on the color or icon; also, you can receive and confirm “job ready” notifications from the builder, eliminating wasted trips to the job. Your field managers are all connected in real time, through their mobile devices, so they can always access the latest important information such as hours and materials used, task lists, documents, and images related to current jobs. All your workers know where they are supposed to be and when, and they are instantly notified of any changes to the construction schedule.

Reschedule On the Fly

Schedules change constantly due to a long list of reasons – weather delays, builders changing the schedule, other trades missing their completion deadlines, missing purchase orders, and more. Effective project managers and the contractors who work with them are accustomed to expecting the unexpected. So when change happens, BOLT lets you reschedule jobs quickly, assign work to crews from your mobile device or computer, and document the reasons for the change in order to identify specific areas of improvement.

Meticulous Documentation

It’s vital to keep detailed records of your projects in case anyone else involved, in the event the builder or another contractor has any questions about your work. Here is a real world example of how Bolt software helped one company quickly retrieve “evidence” of specific actions taken (or not taken). Bolt's snapshots of completed jobs are easily retrievable and establish proof that reveals the story of what actually happened. Other record-keeping benefits include:

• You and your entire crew can keep detailed notes for every aspect of the construction project, through mobile devices and in real time. Bolt's notetaking process is quick, easy to understand and implement, and supports additional formats like photos, purchase orders, etc.
• Keep entire teams informed about schedule updates and budgets.
• Use job folders to store all your job documents: profit and loss reports, material pull sheets, work order history, contracts, estimates – everything.
• Track time, location, and status reports for the work assigned to any crew.

Since all of these details are consolidated and streamlined to appear in one place, full information on any job is always just seconds away, no matter where you are.

Spot Trends

Everyone’s best efforts notwithstanding, sometimes construction projects get sidetracked or even derailed, and timelines can drag on. If these delays come with penalties, you want to ensure those penalties are assigned accurately (on the flip side, if hitting goals earns bonuses, you want to easily claim those too!). Your goal should be to maintain such detail and accuracy in your task progression and documentation that you can clearly communicate your current status at any time, and even address potential issues before they become serious problems. Here are a few ways Bolt can help you get proactive with spotting these trends:

• You can easily view scheduling reports to create accountability with your crew, supervisor, and builder, which reduces wasted trips to the site and improves efficiency.
• You can automate and confirm tasks and deliveries, which saves time and keeps everyone up to date and on the same page.

Through this detailed recordkeeping as described here, it won’t be too long before you’re able to state, in advance if necessary, that, for example, your crews are consistently held up in Community X because Roofer Y consistently pushes the timeline.

Get Your CYA Today

In summary, achieving full documentation and real-time project visibility doesn’t have to be complicated or time consuming when you have a strong mobile digital solution. We’ve worked hard to make sure BOLT integrates with every possible tool you need to have the best chance at success. That includes other major finance and payroll software. Whether you use QuickBooks, Sage 300CRE, Viewpoint Spectrum, ADP Workforce Now, or others, BOLT’s built-in integrations make it simple to exchange important information and keep those aspects of your job duties and reporting up to date.

Does it sound too good to be true? Here’s what a few of our customers have to say about their experiences with Bolt:

• “We are so organized that our supervisors now walk out of the office with just an iPad and measuring tape.” — Improved organization led to 35% growth for electrical contractor
• “With BOLT, we’ve eliminated rooms full of file cabinets and can instantly access job site information. We now attract younger talent that would’ve found our previous systems archaic.” – Residential builder
• “We use BOLT every day on the job site, connecting our field managers in real time and were able to implement very quickly.” – Plumbing & heating company appreciates the power BOLT gives to busy field managers

Make sure your company gets all the credit you all deserve for hard work well done.

For more information on how Bolt software can maximize productivity and keep your job running smoothly, contact us today.