How to Track Construction Progress (and a free tool to help)

How to track construction progress

The typical approach:

When it comes to the question of ‘how to monitor construction work progress’, typical approaches include:

Gantt Charts
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Critical Path Method (CPM)
Network Diagrams
Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT)

While these methodologies vary, one thing that connects them all is their reliance on Excel spreadsheets and for this reason, they have some major limitations...

The problem with relying on Excel trackers

Despite Excel trackers being the most common way to track progress, relying on them is not the most effective way of understanding how your work package is progressing. Here’s why:

Excel trackers cause duplication of work

How many times have you been on-site, and made notes only to have to re-enter this data when you’re back in the office?

Excel trackers are disconnected

Spreadsheets are static, disconnected from the actual construction site and almost impossible to connect to your site in real-time.

Excel trackers prevent true clarity

The lack of visualisation and inability to add supporting documents or photos makes it hard to understand the current work status.

Excel trackers hurt productivity

Excel's single-user nature prevents true collaboration and makes it difficult to share and update information in real-time.

Establish and add your deliverables

Import your existing Excel trackers to start tracking up to 100k deliverables across your project.

Don’t have an existing tracker? Add all of the deliverables that make up your work package. For more detailed tracking you should also assign each task to a specific work area.

Track Free - Add your project deliverables

Attach your deliverables to the responsible parties

Once you've added your deliverables, you should attach these to the responsible team so you always know who is responsible for each activity.

Add key milestones

Is it due by the end of the day, the end of the week or the end of the week after? Add your key milestones to stay on track.

Add your initial baseline dates to establish when you expect the deliverable to be completed.

As your project progresses add your look-ahead dates based on the current schedule.

And once the deliverable is signed off, add your actual date so you can see how you performed against your initial plan.

Track Free - Add construction project milestones

Download the mobile app to track on-site in real-time

To ensure your progress data is as accurate as possible, download the Sablono app. Here, you can view and update your progress anytime, anywhere – whether on-site or in the office.

Instant access to progress updates also means less time required for site walks since you can always see how your work package is progressing in real-time.

{Want to try Track Free? Get it here - it's completely free.}

Filter your deliverables according to your priorities

As your priories change, you’ll need to adjust your view of your project.

Maybe the commercial manager wants to know which deliverables trades have completed so far, or maybe you need to understand what the two-week look ahead plan will look like to report on in your next progress meeting.

In Track Free you can filter your view by team, work package or date to clearly see what’s done and what’s yet to be completed.

Regularly update the status of works

Quickly and easily update the activity status of each of your deliverables. Mark as ‘delivered/confirmed’, ‘started’ or ‘rejected’. These are colour coded to help you easily visualise how your work package is progressing.

Keep on top of issues

Staying on top of issues is crucial to keep your package progressing and prevent any blockers.

Flag issues in Track Free and add additional notes and photos to provide further context for project stakeholders.

Bonus: Centralise your team’s progress data

Track Free is better when you collaborate with your team. Upgrade to invite your team members and replace multiple trackers with a single version of the truth.

When Track Free is used across your project, there’s no need to update trackers manually or chase after information.

All information is connected so any updates made by your team will automatically show in your tracker.

Track Free - Add your subcontractors and construction trades

How to Track Construction Progress(The Easier Way)