Setting up your construction business requires the right foundation. From coordinating timelines to managing budgets, every project manager knows the importance of having efficient project management tools at their disposal. Regardless of the sphere, the right construction project management software has become one of today’s construction industry’s most critical and non-negotiable assets. It’s not about keeping track of tasks anymore. It’s about ensuring the communication between team members, subcontractors, and stakeholders proceeds without discrepancies with project deliverables remaining on time and within budget.
Table of Contents
What are Construction Project Management Tools?
Construction project management tools, as the name would suggest, help you coordinate work at every stage of your endeavor.
Most commonly, these tools are software programs such as those offering Gantt chart functionality. That’s the definition we’ll be using within this article. For techniques and general tips, check out this article.
Construction projects are multi-faceted, so most companies combine several project management tools. As such, several recommendations on this list may be useful for managing your construction projects more efficiently.
What to Look for in Construction Project Management Tools and Techniques
Now that you know the best project management tools for the construction industry, let’s discuss what to consider and look for when choosing.
- Good support
- Security
- It makes your company run more efficiently
- Integration with your existing stack
- Real-time reporting capabilities
- Accessibility
7 Best Construction Project Management Tools
1. Clockify
Clockify is among the most popular project management tools designed specifically for time tracking. Created for individuals and teams, it can be a handy tool to help you manage your time spent on individual tasks or whole projects.
The software operates well on desktop computers and mobile devices, allowing managers to see how much time their employees spend on work-related tasks. What sets Clockify apart from other project management tools, is its convenient browser extension. Moreover, the software has a forever-free plan allowing you to add unlimited users to your account. This is especially great for smaller teams and startups short on budget but willing to enhance their planning and productivity mechanisms.
Clockify can be a good option for you if you are looking only for a time-tracking solution. Although the software offers invoicing and expense tracking functionalities, the feature pack may be too limited for construction teams that want to keep all their project management tasks and workflows in one place.
2. Procore
Procore is also among the most acclaimed project management tools for construction. The company’s various software programs and extensions (including Bridgit Bench) assist with everything from quality and safety to project financials. The incredible amount of integrations means Procore can easily be your central construction project management tool.
Procore is a construction management software solution designed to serve a wide range of customers including civil and infrastructure, general contractors, owners, public agencies, and specialty contractors. Procore offers comprehensive tools for preconstruction, project management, quality and safety, construction financials, and more.
The platform also includes expansive integration capabilities with other software and provides extensive training resources and customer support, ensuring users can maximize the software’s potential.
3. Monday.com
Monday.com can be an answer. Just like with its direct competitors Asana and ClickUp, Monday.com offers an incredible toolset for project planning and team communication. The software has been initially developed for collaboration. This means it will serve you with honor if you want to participate in task comments, upload documents, and access information from different platforms to get the job done.
However, similar to some other project management tools we’ve reviewed today, Monday.com is not purpose-built for the construction industry. It may still help you manage your daily tasks and keep the file management system organized, but it won’t become the all-in-one solution for your construction projects.
It is worth considering their pricing model which can be rather complicated and unjustified for many users. See more information in the next section or on their official website.
4. Buildern
Buildern is the first and the most comprehensive project management tool for construction designed with builders’ core professional needs and challenges in mind. Packed with a wide range of features, such as estimation, selections and allowances, bid requests, project budgeting, client invoicing, and more, Buildern has been withstanding the severe competition for quite a long time.
The software releases new features and updates the existing ones every two weeks. This means your project management processes always stay current and reflective of the latest industry trends and practices.
Suggested article to read: Top 10 Must-Have Construction Management Software for 2024
5. PlanGrid
PlanGrid is a multifunctional construction field management tool hosted and managed by the Autodesk Construction Cloud (so, some may also refer to it as Autodesk Build). It’s an adaptable platform that allows users to store blueprints, drawings, and documents in a single place, thus boosting field team efficiency. While it may not replace all your construction project management duties, it can help you deal with the paperwork.
Users can annotate plans with notes and images directly from the job site, and even embed hyperlinks within blueprints for quick access to related documents such as RFIs or specifications. The software is great at eliminating the need for tedious email exchanges of PDFs.
As for the downsides, some users mention the steep learning curve, although it’s a smaller platform than all the software reviewed in this article. Also, note that you may also find it challenging to share work-related files with people outside of your organization.
6. Fieldwire
Fieldwire is a good platform to connect the foremen working on the jobsite with the project manager. It is loved by many users due to its collaborative functionality, which enables users to work with current drawings and synchronize field and office activities seamlessly. Notably, Fieldwire distinguishes itself from competitors with its mobile application, which permits users to record markups and as-builts even when offline. However, the free version allows users to add only 3 projects. This can be too little even for companies looking for construction project management software for small businesses.
7. ClickUp
ClickUp comes packed with a very rich feature pack for construction project managers. The software can provide insights into your current workflows with Gantt charts, maps, tables, lists, and 15+ other views. It’s currently among the highest-rate productivity software suitable for both small and large teams.
While it may seem that ClickUp has everything you may need for project management, it is still a broad platform designed for various industries, including construction. This fact can slightly push back construction managers who are picky about the software and tools they choose for their projects.
ClickUp’s team doesn’t have phone support, meaning if you need immediate assistance you can only access the customer support via email or chat. So whether you have a pressing issue or need to discuss a critical matter, the absence of phone or live video support may present significant limitations.
Construction Project Management Tools Checklist
Here are questions to ask yourself once you’ve narrowed your options for project management tools.
- Does the software have several positive reviews?
- Will the company demo its software for my company?
- Can I use the tool on multiple devices?
- Can my current data be easily transferred to this new software?
- Does the software come with enough licenses for my company?
- Do partner companies use the same software or a program that integrates well with this one?
The right construction project management tools can substantially elevate your company and its productivity. We hope this article has helped identify the best picks and what you must consider when evaluating them.
FAQs
What requirements should you have when choosing construction project management tools?
- Answer: As with any software, you should evaluate and consider your project’s requirements to make an informed choice. For construction project management tools consider features like:
- Security and privacy
- Pricing and setup costs
- Integration with your existing software
- Real-time reporting capabilities
- Ease of use and user experience
- Customer support quality
Why do you need to consider integrations when evaluating construction project management tools?
- Answer: Modern tools like project management tools often need to communicate and integrate with other tools in your software toolkit. When evaluating project management software, consider the other systems that you may want to integrate with. Is it important to integrate with your CRM or ERP? Is your time tracking and construction estimation software another consideration? Integrations with other tools can greatly improve the value of your project management software, but it can also increase the complexity of deploying that software to your team.
How can construction companies determine the right project management software for their needs?
- Answer: They should look at their specific project needs, budget, number of people in their company, and what other software they are already using. It’s also useful to consider ease of use, mobile accessibility, customer support, and scalability to ensure that the tool remains useful as the company expands.
What’s a common mistake construction companies make when choosing project management software?
- Answer: A big mistake is picking software without considering how well it fits their workflow. Some teams get caught up in fancy features they’ll never use, while others choose a tool that lacks key essentials like budget tracking or field reporting. Always match the software to your actual needs, not just its popularity.
Conclusion
Construction projects are highly structured endeavors. Whether the project consists of building a shopping mall or a single-dwelling residence, each project has many moving parts that must be precisely coordinated. Just like any other project, construction project management has phases. From designing to planning to scheduling to the build itself, each phase is complicated and part of a more complex overarching process.
Construction experts may guarantee that projects are finished on schedule, within budget, and to the greatest levels of quality by utilizing the features of these products. By putting best practices for using project management tools into practice, teams will be able to confidently traverse the complexities of construction projects and further increase their efficacy. To achieve excellence in the construction business, incorporating construction monitoring into project management systems is not just a trend, but also a need.
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Resources:
ServiceTitan | ProjectManager | Buildern | Gobridgit | AutoDesk | ClickUp | ProCore
For all the pictures: Freepik