There are many companies that are still relying on spreadsheets. Spreadsheets are the most used tool in the industry. They have been so widely used that basically anyone knows how to work with them. With spreadsheets, you can do all sorts of things but they lack one major thing: you can’t track versions, and often versions are messed up, or someone changes the structure or deletes some valuable data, also it is not always possible to track these changes. More so, spreadsheets can be easily downloaded and the data can be stolen.
Risk of data being stolen
As mentioned before, probably the biggest risk with spreadsheets is that data can be easily downloaded and stolen. Spreadsheets are data sensitive. Contractors often use spreadsheets to save valuable information – clients, projects, budgets, templates, tenders, and financial information.
On the contrary, cloud-based construction software easily avoids this risk. They store all the data in their own cloud databases. In most cases, data can’t be downloaded or they can be downloaded but with specific permissions. The owner or administrator usually has full access to the data and he then can decide who will have read, write or download permissions.
Version tracking
You probably have come to the situation when you have many versions of the same spreadsheet named, for example, docrev1.docx, docfinal1.docx, or docfinalfinal.docx. And you may be wondering who is the right one hence the modified data doesn’t give sense either. With cloud-based software like PlanUpPro you don’t have such problems. In fact, you don’t have folders, instead, you have your updated version inclusive of all data, and all of this information is sorted in sections, such as projects, budgets of projects, schedules, and many more, but you always will have ONE latest version.
Missing old files
Very often after 2-3 years, you can come to a situation when you need some specific data from an old project with spreadsheets. If you haven’t organized well you can lose that data, while with cloud-based software all the data is still here and easily accessible.
Functionality
Cloud-based software like PlanUpPro is always evolving as they are listening to what users want. They will always implement best practices in their software while for spreadsheets you would have to do your own research. User design and user experiences are their top priority. With spreadsheets, many workers can get confused when they see all those rows with numbers which often are locked but visible and giving distract users. While PlanUpPro is currently having a desktop version their goal is also to work on a mobile app version where site managers could fill in daily reports and make everything more user friendly.
What is PlanUpPro
PlanUpPro is cloud based construction software specifically designed for specialty and trade contractors. It is designed by taking the best knowledge and practices from field workers. The main focus of PlanUpPro is to schedule and estimate the budget for your projects for you. The algorithm (we call it a ‘model’) has been tested on thousands of different projects hence this model has learned of what kind of problems contractors face on site, the ‘model’ knows that there could be re-dos, changes, missing material, productivity problems, and many other issues. PlanUpPro constantly simulates different scenarios of how the project could be executed and brings the best possible schedule and budget to you. This allows contractors to work on their efficiency, client management, and process instead of guessing schedules and having plenty of meetings about it.
Author – Emil Berzins. Follow me on 