How General Contractors Use Fieldwire

Today, general contractors are spending nearly the same amount of revenue on construction technology as they were in 2017. Meaning, the construction industry is still lagging behind all other industries when it comes to digitization. General contractors, are, however, adopting portable technology at a much faster rate than in previous years, with 93% of survey respondents preferring a mobile device over a laptop in the field.

Embracing a paperless future

General contractors are increasingly turning to construction management apps — to access project information from any device and location. Rather than carrying around bulky binders or laptops, all a general contractor needs today is the phone in their pocket and a construction app.

In 2018, that general contractors were using construction management apps for three main reasons:

• To capture and store photos and videos
• For daily reporting
• For time management

Now that you know this, we thought we’d provide a brief explanation on how you can do all of the above using Fieldwire’s construction management app for the field. Let’s jump straight in!

Capture and store photos and videos

Using a construction app like Fieldwire, you can snap a photo, attach it to a plan or task, record a video, and instantly share it with others, all while you're working in the field. Once someone replies to that photo or video, Fieldwire will alert you in real-time so that you’re across every update no matter where you are.

Graham Group, one of Canada’s largest construction companies with over $2.2 billion in annual revenue, use Fieldwire in a similar way to communicate more efficiently onsite. Graham’s Quality Control Coordinator, Stefan Gonari, said: “With Fieldwire’s real-time functionality, I can markup a deficiency on the fourth floor, go down to the second floor, get notified that the issue has already been fixed, and then verify it – all from my iPhone in minutes.”

Furthermore, Fieldwire will automatically archive your photos and videos for you to download later or send in a PDF report to project owners. Either set up a report to auto-send on a set day or save each one to print later. It’s never been so easy!

Daily reporting

With the right construction app in hand, daily reports should not be tedious or time-consuming. Because, a field management app like Fieldwire, allows you to build, edit, and submit your daily’s from any mobile device in the field. In just a few minutes, you can download and send daily construction reports to other project members — significantly reducing busy work back in the office.

From within Fieldwire’s construction management app, you can customize construction daily reports to include (or not include) information, such as:

• Weather conditions, which can be automatically generated based on your location.
• Information about schedule delays, site conditions, accidents, and equipment or materials used.
• A log of work that was undertaken, including who did it, the time it took them, and any other notes.
• Attachments such as photos and files that support the work log.

This way, you no longer need to dread daily reports or waste valuable time configuring each one. If daily reporting is a process you'd like to further simplify, check out these helpful best practices on our blog.

Time management

At Fieldwire, we understand that your time is money. Hence why we built our construction app to bring more structure and clarity to your day. Fieldwire puts all the information you need in one place — tasks, plans, files, and more — to save you time and increase transparency.

More importantly, Fieldwire helps general contractors manage their time without feeling overwhelmed. Our scheduling dashboard allows you to arrange your tasks in order of priority or due date so that you can stay on track without losing your cool. However, if a task does run overschedule, Fieldwire will automatically notify you to step in and make adjustments before it’s too late. This prevents you from incurring significant project delays which have real costs!

At Fieldwire, we’re dedicated to helping you manage your time more effectively. In fact, we save our users an average of 5 hours each day, based on customer feedback. We’re always upgrading our software to give you more tools to effectively manage your day. Check out our latest features which you can try for free or request a demo with one of our product experts today.