Contractors have to manage a lot of paper – receipts, estimates, employee time – the list goes on and on. This makes dealing with your business paperwork a challenge. Software for contractors will make it easier for you to handle a wide variety of tasks.
General contractor software has played a key role in the construction industry for years. That role’s scope has only increased as businesses are forced to limit the number of employees in the office. Indeed, effective software for general contractors is now not just a matter of efficiency but safety as well.
In this post, we’ll show you some of the best general contractor management software and help you make the right decision.
What is workforce management software?
This might seem like a silly question but it’s actually worth asking, given how many different labor management software solutions exist out there in the construction industry. General contractor software is specifically designed to offer assistance at every stage, from bidding to pre-construction, schedule management, and closeout. You’ll often find other features as well but the gist is that labor management software for general contractors is often fairly all-encompassing in terms of usefulness at different stages.
COMMON FEATURES OF GENERAL CONTRACTOR MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
FEATURES
Common features & what they go
Bidding – Invite, analyze, and manage bids from various subcontractors
Estimating – Parse data to assist you in creating an accurate estimate and then watching profitability as the project progresses
Accounting – Keep tabs on your accounts payable and accounts receivable so you can get a detailed financial picture throughout the process
Workforce and project management – Maintains all of the documents and data you need to make decisions about your project’s management
Customer relationship management (CRM) – Provides the tools to maintain communication with your client throughout the project and afterward so you can offer reliable customer support
Change orders – Keeps track of project changes requested by the client
Scheduling – Helps you properly allocate resources and personnel
RFI management – Organizes requests for information throughout your project
Advantages of dedicated general contractor management software
EASIER COMMUNICATION
Work as a general contractor involves lots of communication between various stakeholders. Keeping all of your information in spreadsheets makes this quite difficult, especially if those stakeholders expect your system to play well with theirs.
Dedicated general contractor construction project management software will also make collaboration easier within your organization’s workforce planning meetings.
GREATER ACCURACY
The best general contractor WFM platforms (workforce management) are intelligent enough to provide accurate analytics and forecasting for large and small businesses. Within workforce management system software, you can easily compare estimates with actual costs as your expenses are incurred rather than having to manually input numbers on your spreadsheet.
IMPROVED ORGANIZATION
Dedicated general contractor software organizes your data optimally based on what experts know construction companies need. Utilize industry-standard online employee scheduling software for workforce management, for example, rather than having to build your own implementations of those strategies.
Organization is also crucial from a liability standpoint given that lapses in safety documentation and procedures can lead to substantial risks and fines.
What to look for in the best general contractor software
These criteria provide insights into how we’ve chosen the programs on this list.
INTEGRATIONS
You may already have construction programme software that you know and love. If so, your general contractor software suite will need to integrate those programs adequately.
MAINTENANCE
Good general contractor construction project management software is regularly maintained, particularly if it integrates with third party programs. There’s no sense in setting yourself up with a whole new software suite if it will only become obsolete in short order.
AVAILABILITY ACROSS MULTIPLE PLATFORMS
Demand for mobile general contractor applications has only increased, as Viewpoint points out in this post. As such, you should generally give preference to companies that either have mobile solutions available or seem poised to offer them soon.
#1. BRIDGIT
Pricing: Visit this page to learn more
Bridgit Bench is the leading workforce management software solution for general contractors.
From tracking quality and punch list items, managing resource planning analytics, and much more, our suite gives you the tools for success at every stage. You’ll find our software particularly useful in the current environment as we’ve updated our remote workforce management tools to include quarantine tracking and other important safety features. Bridgit Bench also includes highly visual analytics and custom reporting. Check out this post to learn more about the safety measures we recommend regarding workforce planning during this time.
The general contractors that use our software include:
Contact us to request a demo and see what makes Bridgit the best workforce management software.
IMPROVE RESOURCE PLANNING ACROSS THE PROJECT LIFECYCLE
Find out how ENR #97 Power Construction has improved their resource planning. Watch their success story.
See all of our customer stories →
#2. PROCORE
Pricing: Starting at $375/mo
Procore is a popular construction management program, offering features for bidding, budgeting, contract management, document management, change orders, and much more. Procore’s software also integrates well with other platforms, including Bridgit Bench. Together, the two programs offer streamlined construction resource management features.
BRIDGIT BENCH AND PROCORE INTEGRATION
Integrate your project pipeline from Procore, cut down on manual work, and focus on managing your team and delivering results.
Read more about our Procore integration →
#3. CONTRACTOR FOREMAN
Pricing: Starting at $49/mo
Contractor Foreman is a cloud-based construction scheduling app for general contractors. It offers time and location tracking capabilities as well as calendars, weather, and financial information. These features come in the form of “modules” that you can tailor to your needs.
#4. SPECTRUM
Pricing: Contact for information
Spectrum by Viewpoint is a popular general contractor software program thanks to its data analytics tools. In particular, the program has received acclaim for its all-in-one capabilities. Users online have had some minor complaints about the difficulty involved in correcting mistakes within the program but it’s a good all-in-one general contractor business software.
#5. COSENTIAL
Pricing: Starting at $10 per user/mo
Cosential is unique among general contractor business software in that it focuses on customer relationship management (CRM). It’s specifically designed for the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) fields, with productivity and workflow automations to match. The inclusion of business development tools rounds this suite out nicely.
#6. JOBBER
Pricing: Starts at $29/mo
Jobber is software for general contractors seeking better organization, construction management scheduling, and billing in a mobile-friendly package. The platform gets extra points for being very user-friendly and relatively affordable. On the flip side, it lacks some of the more complex features that general contractors seeking a standalone solution might want.
#7. VENTUS BY VERTICAL MARKET SOFTWARE
Pricing: $5,000 one-time, per user
Ventus by Vertical Market Software is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. Its functionality includes CRM, inventory control, purchase order, scheduling, time cards, and much more. The user interface may not be as sleek as that of other programs but Ventus remains one of the most popular general contractor business software programs due to its very wide range of features.
Conclusion
Software is an integral part of today’s businesses, and growing businesses in particular. There are a variety of business software applications that keep your company running and help to grow and manage your business effectively and efficiently. Whether you’re a solo contractor or you run a franchise, hiring employees can make it more challenging to meet business goals. If you’re looking for the right business software for contractors like yourself, consider these terrific options: