They’re big, and they’re big business. Megaprojects — large-scale and often high-profile construction projects that cost $1 billion or more — are taking the industry by storm. When compared with “standard” projects, megaprojects are a different animal. They have ambitious objectives, lengthy lead times, amplified complexity and intense stakeholder involvement. Consequently, they come with bigger […]
Category: Project Management
A SURGICAL APPROACH: Sharpen Your Project Accounting with Activity-Based Costing
Activity-based costing is an accounting methodology that identifies activities and assigns a cost to each one based on resources consumed. It’s often associated with manufacturing but can be applied to construction as well. Many contractors are pleasantly surprised by the results of activity-based costing in comparison with more traditional job-costing methods, which typically rely on […]
Is Risk Management Software A Worthy Investment?
“My construction company recently underwent an audit by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Among the most important findings is that our safety and insurance documentation is inadequately organized. While researching the matter, I learned that there’s software available to help businesses with this problem. But is it a worthy investment, or would I […]
Tips on managing and reducing payroll costs
Every construction company must pay its employees, so some payroll costs are unavoidable. But precisely how you should go about paying your employees can change over time. What made sense a few years ago may not be as logical or efficient now. Let’s look at some ways contractors can streamline payroll tasks to keep costs […]
Project management solutions may lie in the cloud
A good project manager knows communication is key to delivering a job on time and within budget. When team members can’t easily obtain project data, the result is often wasted time as they track down that information or, worse, duplicate efforts. Meanwhile, profit-eating costs mount and schedule overruns can occur. Many top-level construction companies are […]
Learn the ABCs of activity-based costing
Your latest project might be running on budget, but how can you determine whether your work in progress is really boosting profits or hurting the bottom line? Or, if a job is exceeding forecasted costs, how do you break it down to identify the problem? Many construction companies have addressed such issues by measuring the […]
Whipping up more profitable jobs with WIP reports
Jobsites generate many things — dust, rubble, scrap metal. But they also generate a lot of information. And extracting the right financial data from an ongoing project in an accurate, timely and easily digestible manner is critical to maintaining that job’s profitability and avoiding losses. Depending on the size and nature of your construction company, […]
Using your financial statements to recalibrate your estimates
Offering a fair price for quality workmanship lies at the heart of every contractor’s long-term success. Finding this critical balance begins with the estimating process. Over time, however, even the most sound approach to estimating can slip a little bit and require recalibration. The good news is that the tools for the job lie right […]
The challenge of quantifying lost productivity damages
Stick around the construction business long enough and it will happen to you. Maybe it already has. We’re referring to the unfortunate circumstance of, through no fault of your own, a project getting severely disrupted. In such cases, you might eventually need to file a claim in court against the owner for lost productivity damages. […]
Improve your bottom line with accurate contract schedules
Tracking the financial minutiae of your contract schedule requires great attention to detail. But do you know what else requires great attention to detail? Construction projects! In the hustle and bustle to win, work on and complete jobs, it’s understandably easy to make accounting mistakes with your contract schedule or to simply lose perspective on […]