For small business owners in the construction industry, there are many responsibilities outside of construction project management that would save them time. Thankfully, construction project management software can help small business owners simplify their daily life by helping them manage their projects more efficiently.
This article will discuss the benefits of construction management software for small businesses, listing a few popular software that small business owners love.
What is small business construction management software?
The design construction management software is specially created to simplify the construction management process. Prominent features in the software include project planning, resource allocation, scheduling, document management and communication tools.
Various construction industry professionals utilise this type of software to ensure that the projects are completed within time and budget and to improve the overall workflow. This software also helps business owners track invoicing, leases, timelines, and change orders and keep all the updates in one place.
Since it is cloud-based software, business owners have no risk of losing the information in case of device theft or computer meltdown.
How do I shop for this kind of software?
Most construction management software offers free trials, and there is no better way to learn about software than to explore these trials. During your free trial, experiment with various functions to gauge how user-friendly the software is and how easily it integrates with your existing applications.
Explore every tool they offer, and you can even create faux clients to check out the invoicing without confusing an existing client. Once you are familiar with the platform and feel confident in its ability to support you, pay for the subscription. It is also beneficial to talk to your industry peers to gauge their preferences and identify newer entrants in the software industry.
How can construction project management software help small business owners like me?
There is one single word to describe how construction management software can help business owners, and that word is cohesion. Construction project management software will amalgamate all your needs in a single place so that you can quickly check on the progress of your project. If you allow access to your clients, they can check in to your project without contacting you directly.
Hence, the most significant benefit of this kind of software is that you can spend more time at the construction site and less on your operation.
Some popular construction project management software for small business owners
Here is a list of some construction project management software that small business owners love:
- Monday.com: This tool helps to simplify the way your team works. It is a customisable, cloud-based project management platform that offers no-code solutions for various features, including marketing, sales, operations, IT, HR and much more. With this software, you can automate repetitive work, share files and collaborate in real-time. However, the vendor post-sale, ease of integration and vendor pre-sale are given a low rating by experts. Experts also claim that dashboards can be confusing sometimes, as the widgets do not function properly.
- Wrike: This platform offers powerful work management features that enable task distribution and effective collaboration in real-time. Some of the features of this platform are extremely loved by experts and have won awards, such as cross tagging, dynamic request forms, custom item types and automated workflows. It also offers pre-built templates to help small business owners kickstart their planning and address risks. However, despite winning many awards, the biggest downside to this platform is the amount of work you have to do to set up your project. This is extremely disheartening and labour-intensive, especially for small business owners who do not have separate staff dedicated to managing their digital needs.
- Houzz Pro: This is the number one business management software preferred by design professionals and home construction owners. This platform offers a comprehensive solution that supports the entire customer lifecycle, including marketing, CRM, estimation and proposal, project management, online invoicing and payment portal. It also offers a variety of client portals and collaboration tools. However, customer care support is abysmal. Experts claim that this software lacks flexibility and is only suitable for boutique, niche or small custom contractors who do not have to deal with many details in the project.
- Edara Software: This is a top-tier construction and service management software that can be utilised by general contractors, speciality contractors, mechanical and electrical professionals and other business owners. It helps you connect with your back office, helping you reduce double entry and stay on top of your cash flow with work-in-progress reporting.
This software improves the organisation of ideas, facilitates long-range planning and offers unique tasks and data visualisation. It also allows for interactive progress management, helping small business owners view their data as a map. Additionally, its flexibility because of the customisation features helps you communicate and collaborate easily. The intuitive dashboard also helps you delegate tasks efficiently.
Conclusion
For small business owners, construction project management software can simplify the entire construction management process. It is recommended to experiment with free trials of different software before committing to one.
