5 Nifty Options to Streamline Your Workday

Panatrack (www.panatrack.com, 262/361-4950) is a flexible cloud-based software solution that offers construction and job-based contractors a powerful, all-in-one solution for managing their valuable tools, equipment, and supplies. It adapts to your unique requirements, allowing the user to track item custody, location, status, and ownership. The system can track assets by unique identifiers such as asset tags or serial numbers, while also managing consumables and supplies by quantity.

The software offers seamless operation through a browser-based desktop interface for office management and a mobile app for on-the-go tracking, both supporting barcode scanning, ensuring a team can easily update and access information in the office or on a jobsite, helping improve accuracy, enhance efficiency, and provide real-time updates, for time and cost savings.

Beyond basic tracking, Panatrack also offers deployment management, rental management, and maintenance management.

Pricing: annual subscription, fee per year.    

Bolt

Bolt (ecisolutions.com/products/bolt-trade-contractor-software/), for mechanical and specialty trade contractors active in new residential construction, is SaaS software (backed by ECI Software Solutions) that addresses planning, scheduling, and managing projects and that also facilitates communications about the associated tasks and activities.

Featuring a real-time dynamic interface and integrated messaging, the solution enables creating, updating, and sharing schedules (including drag & drop of work orders on the route screen), assigning tasks to crew members, tracking job progress in real time, and providing automated notifications and reminders to help maximize daily crew efficiency. You can also customize the system to allow users to add reasons why a job or task needs to be rescheduled.

The filter icon allows you to prioritize tasks by city, builder, work order types, or date. You can automatically populate builder purchase orders directly into the solution, enabling accepting them with a single click.  

The software provides onscreen views of productivity, project milestones, completion statuses, and details of work orders, including materials needed. An integrated Spanish/English mobile app enables each team member to select the preferred language for communication.

Pricing: subscription based, tiered depending upon the features and number of users required.

Jobber

Jobber, which provides home services software for residential and commercial clients (www.jobber.com, covered in the April 2019 column) recently introduced two additions to its platform: Marketing Suite and Jobber Copilot, which provides AI tools to help optimize business operations. Marketing Suite is available as a fee-carrying add-on for Jobber customers on most plans; Jobber Copilot is free and offered to customers in beta on every plan.

Marketing Suite includes features to expedite customer reviews and referrals and helps automate email campaigns. Jobber automatically asks for a Google review when your customer pays your service invoice. You manage your reviews in Jobber by keeping track of your ratings and responding to your customer reviews. All customers can also benefit from marketing insights and the ability to build their website as part of their Jobber plan.

Jobber Copilot acts as an AI business coach, data analyst, and marketing specialist—ask it how you can improve your business and receive tailored strategies and actionable advice with helpful resources. In addition, users get instant insight from your data to help in making informed decisions.   

Pricing: scaled fees per month, choice of monthly or annual subscription plan. Free 14-day trial.

Beam AI

Beam AI (www.ibeam.ai) is cloud-based software for contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, and distributors that automates the process of performing accurate takeoffs for ductwork, piping, fittings, and other mechanical components for both small scale and large intricate mechanical systems. 

How it works: the software automates the take-offs by analyzing the digital plans to accurately calculate the equipment quantities. The user drags and drops blueprint files specifies requirements and scope of work, hits Proceed, and the software generates results which undergo a quality assurance review to ensure accuracy and alignment with your scope. The solution features auto-detection of spec details and keyed notes.

A one-screen overview of the bid opportunities shows which are won and which are still in the bidding stage.

Pricing: based on an annual subscription model with varying costs dependent upon project needs and scale. Demo available; one free trial.

GC Pay

GC Pay (www.gcpay.com, 877/447-2584) is cloud-based construction management software for expediting payment process between a contractor acting as the general contractor and that company’s subcontractors. The solution, a SaaS-based platform, automates the payment process and features several capabilities that expedite the workflow.

Users have the ability to directly input jobs, contracts, subcontracts, billing data, and change orders with the solution’s construction ERP integrations, and can manage routing of pay app approvals, collection of lien waivers and compliance documents to expedite payment to subs. Plus, users can view a signed copy of the lien waiver before releasing payment, create and exchange subcontractor lien waivers, and create custom lien waivers, pulling in 80+ data points directly from GC Pay.

GC Pay streamlines the process of collecting subcontractor banking information separately by allowing subs to securely submit their bank details, eliminating the need for manual collection.

Pricing: per month, user-based or volumed based.

Patti Feldman writes articles and web content for trade magazines and manufacturers of building products. She can be reached at [email protected].