The benefits of project scheduling in construction

If you run a construction business, you know time is money. Ensuring that your crews are in the right place at the right time and meeting their productivity targets is critical to profitability, and even if you are using the best construction estimating software in the world, if you’re not managing projects effectively, you’re leaving money on the table.

The problem for many construction companies and contractors is that most project management tools and platforms are complicated, expensive, and designed for large-scale commercial and industrial projects and companies. So you’re stuck using your calendar, a whiteboard in your office, and sticky notes to try and keep everything on track.

Since we’ve already turned the construction estimating software world upside down, we decided it was time to give all those companies the construction scheduling solution they’ve always needed.

Avoid Job Conflicts

There’s nothing worse than promising your client that they’ll have a crew on site on a specific day, only to discover that crew is already assigned to another project on that day.

Good construction scheduling software is collaborative, so your whole team will know which teams are available and which ones have already been assigned to another project.

Better Cash Flow Management

Profits are a big deal in the construction world, but even profitable companies have been known to fail if they don’t manage their cash flow properly.

A good construction estimating software solution helps you to create accurate quotes, detailed material lists, and dialed-in labor estimates, but knowing when to place orders for which materials is one of the most important factors in construction cash flow management.

Using a good construction scheduling tool allows you to plan ahead, so you only order and take delivery of materials when you need them.

Monitor Productivity Better

One of the biggest challenges in any construction business is monitoring productivity and ensuring that the assumptions and estimates you made when quoting the project are met when your crews are doing the work.

As you know, if you’ve allowed a week or a month for a project and you take two weeks or a month and a half to get the work done, your profit will be much smaller. In fact, there comes a point when you’ve gone so far beyond your target productivity goals that you will actually start losing money.

Just like good construction estimating is important to ensure your costs are covered on the front end of a project, great project management on the backend is essential to ensuring you actually make the money you should.

Build a Better Reputation

Whether it’s fair or not, your construction company will be judged by how well you deliver on your promises.

Customers might accept short delays, but if you’re consistently not delivering on time, it’s going to hurt your reputation, and that can have a big impact on your business.

Good construction scheduling and project management are on the flip side of the coin. If you’re always on top of everything, arrive on time, and get things done as promised, you’re going to become the go-to contractor in your area.

There are many ways to Manage Project Scheduling

The good news is that there are many methods that are used in the construction world to manage project scheduling, such as:

Line of balance scheduling, which is usually used on larger projects with more repetitive tasks and milestones

PERT, or Program Evaluation and Review, is a project management system that’s used in many different industries, as well as construction

Quantitative scheduling, which uses complex bar charts to plan and monitor projects,.

Resource-oriented scheduling, which focuses not only on the people you have available for a project but also equipment, tools and other resources

Gantt charts, which are one of the most common types of project scheduling today, use a list of interlinked tasks and linear timelines to illustrate the project plan

last planner or LPS, is a system of project planning that works back from the deadline towards the start date

No matter which method you choose, studies have shown that when projects are planned comprehensively and completely, they are 16%more likely to meet project goals. Another study found that for every one percent of project management effort, profitability increased by 0.15%. 

So the more effort you put into construction scheduling and project management, the more money you will make from every job.

Easy to Use and Intuitive

When we built the Bolster construction estimating platform, we were focused on building something that was easy to use, intuitive, accurate, and easy to learn. So it’s only natural that when we decided to tackle construction scheduling, we had the same goals.

The Bolster construction scheduler uses the data and timing you’ve created in your estimates and quotes to automatically generate a schedule that already has all the predecessors, successors, concurrent tasks, and milestones set up for you. All you have to do is edit the plan, assign a start date, and use the simple interface to track progress.

The Bolster construction scheduling add-on uses familiar Gantt chart-style planning that will be instantly recognizable to any project management pro, but you don’t have to know your way around MS Project to use it.

Even better, because Bolster's construction scheduling solution is an add-on to our construction estimating software, you only need one tool to do it all. So there’s no need to transfer information, and there are no mistakes or typos while you do.

If you’re ready to find out what our new construction scheduling tool can do for you, reach out to our team. We’re always happy to schedule a demo and show you how we can help.