The last two days of every month
Your client wants a monthly report: progress against programme, key activities completed and planned, labour on site, RFIs and information required, change, risks, and a page of progress photos. The project manager opens last month's Word document and starts updating. Labour figures from the gate sheets. Photos from three phones. The programme bar chart exported and pasted in. RFIs copied from the log. By the time it is finished, the report is out of date.
On a large job there is also a report to your own board, and the numbers in the two do not always agree.
Why reports are built from scratch
The facts in a progress report already exist in other records. They are not held in a form that can be pulled together, so the project manager becomes the integration layer, copying and pasting between systems and phones once a month.
- Labour figures are on paper sign-in sheets or a separate system.
- Photos are on individual phones with no link to area or date.
- Programme progress is in the planner's file.
- RFIs, instructions and risks are in separate logs.
- Each client wants a different format.
What hand-built reports cost
Project manager time is the obvious one, spent at the worst time of the month when valuations are also due. Errors creep in when figures are copied between documents. Reports vary between projects, which makes it harder for your directors to compare them. And a report that arrives late or looks thin gives the client a poor impression of a job that may be going well.
The report we build from your records
- Sources are connected: site diary, sign-in records, programme file, RFI and instruction logs, risk register and site photos.
- Each month, a draft is generated in your client's template, or your own, with every factual section already filled.
- Labour on site is charted by week and trade from sign-in records.
- Progress against programme is drawn from the planner's latest update, with activities completed and planned in the coming month.
- Photos are picked from those tagged to areas during the month, with dates and captions for the project manager to choose from.
- Open RFIs, instructions and risks are listed from their logs, grouped by what the client needs to act on.
- The project manager writes the commentary, checks the figures and issues the report. A board summary is produced from the same data.
| Report section | Filled from | Project manager's job |
|---|---|---|
| Progress summary | Programme update | Write the commentary |
| Labour on site | Sign-in records | Check |
| Photos | Tagged site photos | Choose and caption |
| Information required | RFI log | Check priorities |
| Risks and issues | Risk register | Update and comment |
A report that starts nine-tenths done
The project manager spends their time on judgement: what the client needs to hear about progress, risk and decisions. The factual sections are consistent with the records they came from. Reports for different projects look alike, so your directors can read across the business. The client gets the report when it is due, and the numbers in it match your internal reporting.
There is a benefit inside the business too. Because every project's report is built from the same records in the same way, a director can open three reports and compare like with like: labour trends, open information requests, risks that keep recurring. Problems that used to surface at a monthly meeting show up in the data first, and the conversation with the project manager starts from facts rather than impressions.
Is your progress report a monthly slog?
- Project managers spend days building monthly reports.
- Labour figures are typed from paper sign-in sheets.
- Photos are gathered from several phones each month.
- Client and board reports do not agree.
- Reports differ in format and quality between projects.