Procurement Practices

How to overcome reporting and procurement hurdles

Eric Helitzer
,
October 18, 2024
There can be significant challenges when it comes to managing reporting and procurement processes within a construction project at the subcontractor level. The fragmented flow of information between the field and office teams, along with inefficient communication, leads to inaccurate data and potential project delays.
However, these challenges can be mitigated by leveraging the right tools and using a centralized platform, like SubBase, with real-time data reporting and automation, ensuring project efficiency and enhanced communication.
Let’s explore the key challenges in reporting and procurement, and how SubBase offers tailored solutions to help you overcome them.

Challenge #1:

Fragmented and inaccurate reporting

Ordering materials means managing large amounts of data across various or even single projects – from materials and pricing to vendor orders. It can be a significant and time-consuming challenge. Relying on manual spreadsheets, text messages and phone calls often results in inefficiencies, inconsistent data, and lack of accurate reporting. This fragmented approach can lead to miscommunication across jobs, making it difficult to create accurate reports with real-time data.

SubBase can address these issues by centralizing all material, pricing, and workflow data in one platform. This ensures that all relevant information can be accessed in real time, eliminating the need for manual data entry and reducing errors that arise from it. SubBase also standardizes the data across multiple projects, ensuring consistent and up-to-date reporting.

With automation and real-time insights, project teams can quickly access the necessary information and generate comprehensive reports with minimal effort.

Challenge #2:

Lack of visibility

Another common challenge in construction is a need for more visibility between the field and office teams. As procurement is typically managed through emails, phone calls, or manual data entry into spreadsheets, it becomes difficult for all team members to track an order status accurately. This lack of transparency and visibility can lead to delays, missed deliveries and inefficiencies in the project.

SubBase offers complete visibility by centralizing all procurement and reporting data on a single platform. Both field and office teams can access real-time updates, ensuring that everyone has a clear view of order status and delivery progress. SubBase allows users to track procurement at both a granular level-down to individual items – or across multiple projects. This enhanced visibility minimizes the risk of miscommunication between field and office teams,  and helps keep projects on schedule.

Challenge #3:

Inefficient communication

Communication is often decentralized during projects – relying on emails, text messages, and phone calls. This disjointed “telephone like” communication can result in critical information being missed or delayed, leading to slower material orders and delaying the overall process. Additionally, it can affect invoicing and other administrative processes when teams are not receiving accurate real-time updates or team members are missing vital information.

SubBase streamlines communication by integrating the field, office and vendors in one spot. This means that all conversations between supers, project managers, purchasing managers, controllers and vendors are centralized in one place, allowing everyone to stay up-to-date. Communication is directly linked to orders, requests, invoices, allowing everyone to be on the same page. By eliminating the need for separate communication channels, SubBase helps teams work more efficiently, avoiding delays that can result from fragmented conversations across multiple channels.

Overcoming reporting and procurement hurdles with SubBase

Construction projects require streamlined processes for reporting and procurement to avoid delays and inefficiencies. SubBase provides the tools necessary to overcome common hurdles by offering a centralized platform for data, real-time visibility, and integrated communication. By using SubBase, project managers, contractors, and subcontractors can reduce errors, enhance collaboration, and keep their projects on track.

If you want to enhance your reporting and drastically streamline procurement processes, contact SubBase to book a demo today.

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