Why Excel is not an appropriate tool for construction project management

Martijn Jongen

Reading time: 3 minutes

If you want to use software for construction project management, you can of course choose a SaaS solution that takes care of your entire business process from procurement to invoicing. There are plenty of examples of great SaaS solutions that help you manage your project in this way.

Yet there is a major drawback to such a solution. And that is that the software is not developed specifically for the construction industry. That also means that construction companies have to invest extra to tailor the tool to their projects. And that involves extra time, money and energy.

In practice: Excel as a tool for construction project management

Therefore, if you look at industry standard operating procedures, we see in particular that construction project managers use Excel for their project management. In addition to other stand-alone software tools.

Now there is nothing wrong with using Excel in itself. But the moment you need integral insights to steer or report on progress towards management, Excel is somewhat limited.

This is mainly because the various data streams required for this are taken from different sources. For example, for the budget, the financial system is used. And that makes project management using Excel unnecessarily time-consuming and inefficient.

Error-prone and inefficient

The limitations of using Excel for construction project management can be seen mainly in the human errors that are made in Excel. That formulas are incorrect, that you always have to double-check your data entry at the time you update the file.

Another disadvantage is that Excel is not suitable for more extensive basic management, for example. Baseline management is steering and reporting on your frame of reference that you established at the beginning of your project.

For the basics that works fine, but if you want to make a trend analysis, for example, it is still a lot of tinkering to get that out of Excel. The user must then be super good at Excel, and in practice, not everyone is an Excel wizard.

In practice, the know-how of Excel only lies with a limited number of people and that is a pitfall. Because you don’t want just one or two people in your project team to have full responsibility for certain business-critical processes.

Simjo’s vision of construction project management: simplicity

Our vision on construction project management is to keep it as simple as possible. Construction projects can become very complex by themselves. Therefore it is important to keep the data you manage as simple as possible.

Because the three most important things in construction project management that you control are scope, time and money. So what are you going to make (scope)? What is the lead time to deliver this project (time)? And what budget is below that (money)? That is ultimately the basis.

And that’s precisely why it’s so important to connect the data integrally, so you can see in one overview what impact a delay in your schedule or additional work will have on your entire project.

Up-to-date data provides reliable information for guidance in your project

Because in the day-to-day operations of many construction companies, reporting is a whole circus you have to rig up. And the data is often already at least a month and sometimes even a quarter old. Especially when it comes to large construction projects. So when you talk about management control, you’re actually running behind the facts and steering with your eyes backwards.

So imagine always having up-to-date data to steer on in your construction project? How much better does your decision-making become when you steer on reliable and up-to-date information? And how much easier does reporting become when you can report all your current information at the click of a button?

That’s what Simjo has to offer you!

Also read: Comparing project management software: Simjo vs Excel

Do you also want to discover how Simjo supports your construction project?

Simjo is project management software, especially developed for project managers and project teams in construction. See how Simjo simplifies your work here. Or sign up as a Simjo tester. We will keep you informed about the development of Simjo and you will be one of the first to use new functionalities.