Tech makes your wishes for 2021 come true

 

After a challenging 2020, now’s the perfect time to plan for a successful 2021.

Have you decided on your business goals for this year? And just as importantly, have you worked out the best way to make them happen?

Tech is a great way to get better control of your business and reach these goals. Apps such as NextMinute, Builda Price, CoConstruct, Buildertrend and Buildxact can make a huge difference when it comes to increasing efficiency, improving communication and boosting profitability.

We worked with over 20 building firms across New Zealand in 2020. They told us what they wanted to improve in their businesses, and we helped them achieve it with tech.

These were five of the most common goals, and how tech then helped the businesses to reach them.

Wish 1: “Faster and more accurate quoting.”

You’ve got multiple jobs on the go which need completing – but you also need to keep planning for the future by quoting for new business. Trouble is, quoting can take a huge amount of time – and if you get it wrong, profitability can be seriously reduced and affect customer relationships.

How Builda Price helped: by using templates and parts of saved quotes, creating new estimates is easier and faster.

Wish 2: “Lower the costs and time spent in project management and office admin.”

Spending your nights piecing together the various costs of the jobs you’re working on, and then giving this information to your Administrator to generate invoices is a time-consuming process.

How NextMinute helped: direct integration with Placemakers means invoices for materials take seconds to load. It also integrates with Xero, so your Administrator has figures at their fingertips. Getting this information out of your head and into a system will free up your time to focus on other parts of the business.

Wish 3: “Better communication with architects, subcontractors, customers and the team.”

With all the job information spread across emails, text messages, phone calls, bits of paper and face-to-face meetings – it’s easy to miss or lose key details. This can lead to delays, mistakes and tension between you and your customer.

How CoConstruct helped: you can keep everything in one place – plans, pictures, messages, variations and more. Having this log of all the decisions made as well as the communications between all parties in one central portal means everyone has the latest information and the project can run more smoothly.

Wish 4: “Better cost tracking and timesheet management”

It’s hard keeping on top of various costs, such as labour, materials and subcontractors. You spend time chasing your team for timesheets, and you’re also not sure if subcontractors’ invoicing is up to date, or whether there’ve been variations to the work you’re not aware of.

How Buildxact helped: the team fills in their timesheets on their smartphones which automatically uploads to the system, and tracking and inputting materials costs is also quick and easy. This gives you confidence that calculations are up-to-date and correct.

Wish 5: “Better understanding of how profitable each job is.”

Not having control of labour, materials and subcontractor costs can lead to uncertainty about profitability. Understanding your cash flow and financial position is critical for future planning and stability.

How NextMinute helped: with a simple Financial Report, you have gross profit and profitability information at your fingertips. You know exactly how well jobs are going. And with the direct integration with Xero and MYOB, you can see how well your business is performing as a whole. This means you can set your 2021 targets and then keep track of them to make sure you’re on course.