Example Project · Construction
Live job costing and progress billing for a commercial contractor
Example Project
An illustrative project based on recurring patterns. Not a named client; no client results are claimed.
- Industry
- Construction
- Previous system
- Desktop accounting, spreadsheets, paper timesheets
01 — Problem
The situation
A commercial contractor running fifteen concurrent projects tracks budgets in spreadsheets and finds overruns only after final invoices arrive. Change orders are agreed on site and often not billed; retention receivable is tracked manually.
02 — Requirements
What the new system had to do
- Standard cost codes per job
- Purchase and subcontract commitments
- Change order workflow
- Progress billing with retention
- Mobile timesheets for site crews
- WIP reporting for finance
03 — Solution
The approach
Jobs are set up from templates with cost codes and budgets. Purchase orders and subcontracts commit against cost codes. Change orders adjust contract value and budgets once approved.
Progress claims are generated from percentage complete with retention withheld; crews submit time from mobile.
04 — Architecture
How it fits together
The ERP holds jobs, commitments, costs and billing. Documents and drawings remain in the document management system, linked to jobs. Signed subcontracts are stored automatically via e-signature integration.
Integrations
- — E-signature
- — Document management
- — Payroll provider
05 — Implementation
How the work would be phased
- 01
Cost code design
Agreed with estimators and finance.
- 02
Commitments and costs
Purchasing and subcontracts linked to jobs.
- 03
Billing
Progress claims, retention and change orders.
- 04
Field rollout
Mobile timesheets per crew.
06 — Expected outcome
What this design is meant to achieve
The intended outcome is visibility of committed and forecast costs while jobs are live, consistent billing of approved changes and accurate retention tracking.
Outcomes describe the intended operational result of this design, not measured client results.
Next step
Planning something similar?
We will map this pattern onto your operation and tell you what would be different.