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Make sense of construction performance using the project, customer and financial data you already hold. Start with dashboards, then shape the reports and analysis around your contracting, development or building-materials business.
Budget at completion is the approved cost baseline for the full project scope. Work through a construction example that reconciles original budgets, authorized changes, actual costs and remaining commitments without confusing the baseline with the forecast.
Oct 19, 20265 min readThese construction analytics examples compare project costs, verified progress and labor hours with an approved budget. Follow one worked US project, change one progress input and reconcile the effects before assigning action.
Oct 19, 20265 min readConstruction analytics connects project costs, approved progress and labor hours. Work through a contractor's monthly export, reconcile the totals and assign each finding to the person who can act.
Oct 17, 20265 min readConstruction KPIs connect incurred cost, verified work, labor hours, and milestone dates. Use worked project and company examples to calculate the measures, reconcile the inputs, and assign actions.
Oct 16, 20266 min readCompare recorded construction revenue, project billings and cash without mixing their meanings. Work from approved finance exports to explain project movements and the revenue associated with approved scope changes.
Oct 16, 20265 min readLay out progress receipts, retainage releases, subcontractor payments and project cash gaps in one workbook. The example includes monthly formulas, an actual-versus-plan check and a delayed-receipt scenario.
Oct 13, 20266 min readA construction dashboard compares project costs and commitments with the approved budget and measured work. Follow a worked project example, reconcile the totals, and identify the decisions each view should support.
Oct 13, 20266 min readCompare construction contract revenue with incurred costs and supplied remaining-cost estimates. Separate booked profit from forecast final margin, with worked project tables and spreadsheet checks.
Oct 12, 20265 min readQuantity surveyor KPIs compare construction budgets, commitments, cost forecasts, and change exposure. Work through a US project cost report and a completed-project forecast accuracy check, with reconciliations for each result.
Oct 10, 20266 min readReconcile an owner's construction-in-progress balance to cash capital spending. Separate additions, transfers to completed assets and capital payables, with a worked project reconciliation and cash-flow classification checks.
Oct 9, 20265 min readWork through a construction project dashboard using budget, actual cost, commitments, and progress from workbook exports. See how a corrected progress input changes the review without changing the cost forecast.
Oct 7, 20266 min readConstruction cost management compares an approved job budget with actual costs, open commitments and the remaining estimate. Follow a cost-code example, rebuild the forecast in a spreadsheet and reconcile the total before taking action.
Oct 6, 20266 min readBuild a development workbook that separates approved budget, incurred costs, remaining work and future payments. Follow a project cost reconciliation and monthly loan-draw schedule, then test the cash effect of a delayed draw.
Oct 6, 20265 min readPre contract cost control compares construction estimates and subcontract bids before award. Use a scope comparison, bid-leveling formulas and a full project budget check to find omissions and preserve a documented allowance for uncertainty.
Oct 5, 20266 min readBuild a cost-code workbook that compares approved budget, actual costs, open commitments and the remaining forecast. The layout includes formulas, a worked construction example and checks that prevent double counting.
Oct 4, 20266 min readBuild a workbook for planned value, earned value, actual costs and completion estimates. The construction example includes package-level formulas, reconciliation checks and a cumulative earned-value chart layout.
Oct 1, 20266 min readPredictive analytics in construction is useful when earlier forecasts can be checked against completed work. Compare frozen project-cost estimates and milestone dates with actual outcomes, measure error and decide what needs review.
Oct 1, 20265 min readConnect job costs, progress billings, retention and collections in one monthly construction schedule. Compare plan with actual results, test a collection scenario and reconcile receivables, payables and project cash.
Sep 30, 20265 min readProject DSCR compares cash available for debt service with scheduled repayments in matching periods. Build a quarterly cash bridge, distinguish minimum from aggregate coverage, and test receipt delays and higher operating costs.
Sep 26, 20267 min readCompare contractor liquidity, leverage and margins from financial exports. A worked example shows why retainage, contract assets and billing timing change the interpretation.
Sep 15, 20265 min readUnit cost analysis compares construction costs with the completed quantities those costs produced. Work from job-cost and quantity exports to a checked cost per unit, then separate labor, material and equipment differences.
Sep 14, 20265 min readDevelopment appraisal sensitivity analysis compares project profit and funding needs under supplied sales, cost, and timing assumptions. Work through a US residential development example, spreadsheet formulas, and a cash reconciliation.
Sep 7, 20265 min readHow to choose analytics software for Construction and building materials: the questions, the data, ten vendor questions and the traps.
Aug 30, 20264 min readThe ten sales KPIs a building materials distributor or lumber yard should run on, each with its formula, the export it comes from and what it tells you: category share by trade, account activation, dormant trade accounts by prior value, credit limit headroom, project pipeline matched to accounts, quote conversion, branch coverage of key accounts, price realization against terms, delivered against pickup mix, and contribution per account. Also the three measures most distributors miss, the figures to drop, the identities, and who owns what.
Aug 21, 20264 min readInfrastructure financial modeling connects long-lived asset revenue and operating costs to project cash and debt service. Build a sponsor's operating worksheet, compare a usage downside and check the cash bridge against project records.
Aug 11, 20265 min readThe complete category share by trade calculation on five trade accounts at one branch, small enough to check by hand: each account's spend by category from the ledger, its trade from the master, confirmed or inferred, the trade norm per category from the full-supply accounts of that trade, norm penetration, category share against the norm, the gap per category valued at the account's spend, the untyped account excluded and counted, and the assertion that category spend sums to the ledger, so a reader can reproduce every figure and then run it on their own ledger and account master.
Aug 9, 20263 min readCompare a company construction project's incremental investment with its expected business benefits. Build the cash-flow rows, discount them consistently and test whether the approval case survives a weaker benefit assumption.
Aug 8, 20265 min readProfit margin on replacement windows depends on the completed job's selling price and delivery costs. Work through materials, installation labor and callbacks, then compare crew results and reconcile gross profit before allocating shared overhead.
Aug 8, 20266 min readHow a distributor that buys building permit or project data turns it into a branch prospect list: matching the contractor named on a permit to a trade account, listing active projects in the branch's area with no supplying account, valuing each at the project's size, and keeping the overlay separate from the ledger measures it sits beside.
Aug 4, 20262 min readCompare subcontractor bids on the same quantities, scope and allowances. Work through a bid-leveling table, spreadsheet formulas and the checks before an award decision.
Jul 29, 20265 min readThe ten questions the president of a building materials distributor puts to the branch managers, which trade accounts buy below their trade's norm, which accounts were opened and never used, which good payers are stuck at their credit limit, which contractors won projects nearby and have no account, which accounts lapsed against their own cadence, what is category share per branch, which branches have not typed their accounts, which counter customers deserve an account, what is contribution per account after drops and returns, and what changed, each with the table from the ledger, the account master, the credit file and the project data, and the answer to send back.
Jul 28, 20263 min readBuild a construction project cash schedule from progress billings, retainage and payment exports. Work through the receipts, outflows and funding gap, with spreadsheet formulas and reconciliation checks.
Jul 21, 20265 min readLife cycle cost analysis compares building alternatives using their initial and future ownership costs. Build a consistent study period, discount recurring and replacement costs, account for residual value and check the difference between options.
Jul 17, 20265 min readHow a building materials distributor or trade supplier finds the accounts whose purchasing is constrained by their credit limit rather than by demand: headroom from the credit file and the ledger, orders held or refused for credit, the accounts at the limit whose purchase pattern flattened, and the two decisions that follow, a limit review for the good payers and a collections conversation for the rest.
Jun 27, 20262 min readHow a building materials distributor or manufacturer measures share of each contractor's spend by category from the trade ledger: categories bought against the norm, lapsed trade accounts per branch, an optional project overlay, and the reconciliation to invoiced sales.
Jun 25, 20263 min readRead contractor income, contract balances and cash together. Follow a worked reconciliation from project exports to the company statements, including retainage and billing timing.
Jun 23, 20266 min readHow a building materials distributor measures each trade account's category basket against the norm for its trade rather than against the branch average: the categories a plumber's account typically buys and at what share, the same for an electrician, a general contractor, a roofer, the accounts below their trade's norm in a category they should buy, the value at norm, and why the trade field on the account master is the most valuable column the branch never fills in.
Jun 23, 20263 min readHow a building materials distributor or trade supplier measures what happens after a trade account is opened, from the account master and the ledger: accounts opened per branch, the share with a first purchase within thirty days, the share still buying at six months, the median first-purchase value, and the branches and account openers whose funnel leaks at each step, so that the opening effort produces customers rather than records.
Jun 20, 20262 min readCompare construction cost-code budgets with actual costs, open commitments and remaining work. This guide reconciles the source files, builds a final-cost view and separates pending changes from approved amounts.
Jun 19, 20265 min readInterpret a contractor's current ratio alongside retainage, contract assets and payment timing. A worked example separates reported working capital from cash available for upcoming obligations.
Jun 19, 20265 min readConstruction analytics for your business.
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