4 Reasons Why Your Paper System Is Holding You Back

Outdated Document Management Is a Major Competitive Disadvantage for Builders

During a build, a lot of files get passed between a lot of people. Whether you’re sending site plans to subcontractors, budgets to your staff, or change orders and progress photos to your clients, there are hundreds of files to keep track of and organize.

It’s important that these files get to the right people at the right time. But with so many moving parts, it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks.

You don’t have time to worry about change orders that never got approved or subcontractors that didn’t get their revised schedules. Delays are costly and can cause serious damage to your bottom line.

That’s why you need a construction management software with an electronic document management system (EDMS) that is built specifically for home builders. It should be cloud-based, easy to use, and have your back, enabling you to minimize your time in the office and maximize your time on the job site.

1. Every aspect of your business should be integrated

Many builders are turning to construction project management software like BuildTools for two main reasons. First, the software acts as a home for all your documents and secondly, it’s an easy way to enable collaboration on home building projects and share real-time details with contributors to keep everyone on the same page with updates.

BuildTools offers a complete suite of integrated digital tools to manage and consolidate information from every aspect of your business:

• Communication
• Tasks
• Scheduling
• Documents
• Photos
• Budgeting
• Bid management
• Change orders
• Purchase orders
• Selections
• Financial statements
• Service
• Plan redlining
• Accounting integrations
• Daily logs

2. Document management should be centralized and automated

If you’re like most builders, you split your time between the office and the job site. Being on the go is great for keeping on top of what’s happening at the build. But it can make keeping track of your documents a nightmare.

With integrated project management software, whenever you or your team members add information in the system, make revisions, or update tasks, the newly entered data is available in every relevant module of the system. The newly entered data populates every relevant module in the system. You don’t need to worry about updated everyone involved on an individual basis or make time-consuming phone calls. There’s no need for manual data re-entry and no risk of mistakes or oversights.

You’ll have all your documents at your fingertips wherever you are, including change orders, final bids, plans, selections, financial documents, and more. No more going back to the office and digging through your desktop or paper files. You save valuable time and eliminate guesswork by having instant access to any document you need.

3. Your reputation depends on transparency and accountability

Your staff, subs, and clients need access to different documents at different times. From plans, change orders, and financial documents, you need eyes and approvals on all your documents. You also need a system to locate each document instantly when you need it and make sure it doesn’t get buried on a desk or in a truck.

It’s not that you don’t try to keep track of things – you do, and most of the time, you get it right. But when things inevitably fall through the cracks, time and money go down the drain. If you’re relying on your trusted notepad and pen, you may feel like you have everything in control. But there’s no way to easily share information with your team. Even if you’re using a more high-tech system, spreading information across different platforms creates its own maze.

With BuildTools, accountability and transparency are built in. You can access any document, provide up-to-date information and answers at any time, and give others instant access with the click of a button. Your team stays informed about updates in real-time. If questions come up, there is one copy of the document to refer to – no competing copies in different hands, and no “he said, she said.”

There is no more time wasted with file updates or one-on-one calls to contributors with project changes. Since BuildTools supports text message updates, your subs get updates on their assignments from their phones, tablets, or laptops without ever leaving the job site. Information is automatically archived, so you can retrace your steps to see why changes were made. You can pull up records of change authors, dates, and reasons any time.

4. You need enhanced security and regulatory compliance

At a time of rapidly escalating cybercrimes, data security has never been more important. A strong document management system offers control over sensitive documents with permission-based access. It also generates an audit trail so that you can see who has viewed or modified a document. Highly sensitive documents can be managed with tags to enable automated alerts.

Non-conformance to compliance requirements can be just as perilous as lapses in security, leading to fines, revoked licenses, and even criminal liability. Construction management solutions with proper document management features enable securely store documents, give you a way to archive documents so you always have access, and provide ensure any document added meets local and federal data privacy requirements.

Get back to doing what you love

You don’t like paperwork and neither do we. That’s why we developed an easy way to keep your documents accessible and shareable in real-time from anywhere you have an internet connection. You’ll spend less time shuffling papers and making calls, and more time on the ground, doing the job you love.

Ready to spend less time shuffling papers and more time on the job site? Schedule a demo to see BuildTools in action and find out how it can help you take your business to the next level.