Monday morning, eight phone calls
At the start of every week your managing director and construction director ring round the site managers and project managers. How is it going? Are we on programme? Any problems with the client? Anything I need to know? Each call takes a while, the answers vary in detail and honesty, and by Wednesday the picture has changed. The monthly board pack gives a fuller view, but it is weeks old when it is read.
Meanwhile the site managers stop what they are doing to take the call, and the problems a director could have helped with are sometimes the ones nobody mentions.
Why there is no single picture
Each part of the business keeps its own records well enough for its own purpose. Site keeps diaries, the planner keeps the programme, commercial keeps cost reports, accounts keeps invoicing. Nothing joins them up, so the only integration is a conversation.
- Progress is in the programme and the site diary.
- Labour is on sign-in sheets.
- Open issues are in RFI, instruction and defect logs.
- Cost and value are in the monthly cost report.
- Cash is in the accounts system.
What the phone round costs
Directors spend hours a week gathering information instead of acting on it. Site managers are interrupted and learn to give reassuring answers. Problems surface late, when a quiet word or a decision earlier would have been cheaper. And the business is run on a mix of monthly reports and impressions, which is how a difficult job stays hidden until the cost report shows it.
The live overview we build
- We connect to the records your teams already keep: site diary, programme, sign-in, RFI and instruction logs, defects, cost reports and your accounts system.
- Each live job gets a row on one page: programme position, labour this week against plan, open RFIs and instructions, overdue items, latest cost and value position, cash due and overdue.
- Thresholds you set highlight exceptions, for example a job slipping against programme or labour well below plan for two weeks.
- A director can open any job to see the detail behind a number, down to the diary entry or the RFI.
- Site managers add a short weekly note on their phone, with any help they need from the directors.
- A Monday summary arrives by email with what changed since last week.
- The monthly board pack is produced from the same data, so the numbers agree.
| Measure | Source | Highlighted when |
|---|---|---|
| Programme position | Planner's latest update | Slipping beyond your threshold |
| Labour | Sign-in records | Below plan for a sustained period |
| Open information | RFI log | Overdue items holding up work |
| Cost and value | Cost reports | Margin moving beyond your threshold |
| Cash | Accounts system | Overdue beyond your terms |
The overview only shows what your records hold. We usually start with the records that are already digital and add others as they move online.
What a director's Monday looks like
The phone calls get shorter and more useful, because the director already knows the facts and can ask about the one job that needs attention. Site managers spend less time reporting and get help earlier. Problems show up in the data before they become crises. And the board sees current figures rather than last month's.
Is this how you keep track of your sites?
- Directors ring round site managers every week.
- The board pack is weeks old when it is read.
- Problems on a job surface late.
- Different systems give different figures for the same job.
- Nobody can see every live job on one page.