In the contracting industry, firms with less efficient workflow management processes will be at a competitive disadvantage. Thanks to 360 Enterprises LLC and its 360e field management software, contractors can streamline their operations, take charge of their projects, resources, and businesses in a proactive way, and alleviate the inefficiencies that erode profits on a daily basis.
The company has defined “The 5 Money Pits of Contracting”; processes where money and profits are commonly lost and can go undetected:
- Generating Quotes – Quotes that take too long to generate and share with customers cost your firm money and possibly jobs. 360e software protects best practices by simplifying the preparation of quotes, tracking them, and identifying the specific version of the quote that sealed the deal. By having all notes and job history organized and trackable in one place, 360e software helps reduce needless administration and redundant double-entry and will help improve a firm’s quote-to-sales ratio.
- Scheduling Jobs – In the process of conveying work orders to the field, missing or erroneous information related to the project such as addresses, contacts, access, or other key job details costs time and money. With 360e software, however, a dashboard interface helps schedule and communicate details of the job (including material lists, access codes, points of contact, and previous job histories) so that workers know where they need to be and when, can plan ahead, and can proceed right to the job rather than waste man-hours getting organized.
- Tracking Jobs – Additional scope of and/or unplanned work that contractors fail to document on their time sheets – such as the dimmer added to a lighting installation that never gets mentioned or billed — can end up giving away hundreds of hours of free labor and tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars of profit each year. 360e software eases the process for field employees to keep job notes on a daily basis while activities are still fresh so that lost or delayed information doesn’t cost your firm money. In addition, the ability of the software to take and upload images and shared files to job folders between the field and office enhances communication and connectivity between all workers.
- Billing Jobs – Invoices that go out late or inaccurately because you’re waiting for time sheets, supplier packing slips, and other important job-related costs can hit your bottom line, negatively impact your professional reputation, and leave your firm footing the bill. By representing a central repository for critical information such as local labor rates, permit costs, daily notes, change orders and more, 360e software gives billing administrators a real-time ability to protect profits by billing timely and accurately, all while the job is in progress.
- Reporting Results – While many firms only analyze projects post-mortem, 360e helps you see how a project is progressing in real time and alerts users if they’re exceeding the hours budgeted for the project, need to pull a permit and more. Its real-time tracking capability and alert system allows contractors to address problems while they’re happening (and when you can still do something about them) rather than after it’s too late, enabling your firm to avoid overages that could derail profitability.