Site projects, materials and client invoices for a building contractor
A contractor runs several sites at once, each with its own crews, suppliers and client. SmartERP gives every site a project with tasks and stages, a purchasing record for what was ordered and delivered, and invoices tied to the sales order. It does not measure quantities from drawings or certify progress.
Start with Project, Purchase and Inventory for the site store, then Sales and Accounting for quotations and stage invoices. Add Fleet for trucks and Maintenance for mixers and other plant when the basics are steady.
Typical businesses: Building contractors · General contractors · Civil works firms · Finishing contractors · Design-and-build firms
Problems this industry runs into
Nobody knows which site is stuck, or why
Progress is reported by phone or on a board at the yard, so the owner learns that a slab or a finishing stage is late only when the client complains.
Materials are bought by whoever is nearest to the phone
Foremen and engineers call suppliers directly, so an item is ordered twice, prices differ between sites and deliveries arrive with no order to check against.
Site stores are a guess
Cement, rebar, blocks and fittings leave the yard on a note or on nothing, so what remains at each site, and what went missing, is unknown when the job ends.
Stage invoices to the client are late or disputed
The office reconstructs the work from memory before each invoice, so billing waits, and the client questions amounts that cannot be traced to the accepted quotation.
Applications in the Construction edition
These applications are the ones the industry edition's blueprint includes. Each opens its own page.
Often added for this industry
What each application does for construction
Accounting
Stage invoices go to the client against the accepted quotation, with a credit note if a stage is reduced. Supplier bills are paid for what reached site.
Project
Every site is a project with tasks from setting out to finishes. Dependencies make roofing wait for the slab, and the kanban board shows which site is stuck.
Sales
The client's accepted quotation is confirmed as a sales order, and each stage invoice can be traced back to what was agreed. Quotation templates reuse the usual layout.
Purchase
The engineer's request goes to several cement, rebar and block suppliers as requests for quotation. One purchase order is confirmed for each delivery, and the bill is checked against it.
Inventory
Each site's store is its own location, so the cement, rebar and blocks left at that site can be read on demand. Physical counts record what went missing.
More that runs with it
Built for this industry
Construction module
Contracts with claims, amendments, extension of time, price adjustment and renewal, final acceptance, daily labour, equipment, fleet, fuel, store and payment requests, budget transfers and cost, physical and monthly reports.
Also included in the platform
Planning
Plan shifts for people and equipment with roles, templates, recurring and open shifts and self-service, and compare the plan with attendance and logged time.
Field service
Work orders with scheduling, a live timer, timesheets, parts used and customer sign-off, then invoiced from the order.
Approvals
One approval engine for purchase orders, vendor bills and petty cash, with levels and a record of who decided and when.
Documents
A shared drive with versions, share links, PDF split and merge, and document requests to customers and staff.
Balanced scorecard and BI
A balanced scorecard with objectives, indicators and initiatives, and dashboards built on your own records.
AI assistant
An assistant for staff on Telegram and WhatsApp for leave, approvals and quick questions, with tools that answer from your documents.
Lead generation
Prospect lists researched with AI and reviewed by a person before they enter CRM.
How the work runs on SmartERP
From an accepted quotation to a site with stages
A signed quotation becomes a project with ordered tasks, a client who can follow progress, and an invoice when a stage is done.
- Sales: Quotations and sales orders Turn the client's accepted building quotation into a sales order the whole office can refer to.
- Project: Projects and tasks Open one project per site and list the works, from setting out and foundations to finishes.
- Project: Sub-tasks and dependencies Make columns wait for foundations and roofing wait for the slab, so the sequence is visible.
- Project: Customer visibility Let the client follow the stages of their own building without phoning the site office.
- Accounting: Customer invoices and credit notes Invoice the stage that is finished and issue a credit note if part of it is reduced.
From a site request to materials received and paid
An engineer's request is priced by suppliers, ordered once, booked into the site store and paid against the delivery.
- Purchase: Requests for quotation Ask several block, rebar or cement suppliers to price the quantity the engineer asked for.
- Purchase: Purchase orders Confirm one order for each delivery and site, so the yard and the office hold the same document.
- Inventory: Receipts and deliveries Book the load in when the truck is checked at the yard or the site gate.
- Inventory: Warehouses and locations Keep each site's store as its own location, so the quantity left can be read per site.
- Accounting: Vendor bills and payments Pay the supplier for what was received and keep each site's cost visible.
Your first month
- First week. We list your running sites, the stages you bill and the suppliers involved, then set one store location for the yard and one per site.
- Second week. The accountant confirms the chart of accounts and banks. One live site gets its project, its tasks and its quotation entered as a sales order.
- Third week. An engineer's request goes to suppliers, one order is confirmed and the truck is booked into the site store. Finance pays against the delivery.
- After go-live. We walk the sites with the owner: late stages, store counts against the books, and finished stages still unbilled.
What to have ready
- Running sites with client, contract value and the stage reached
- The accepted quotations for those sites and the stages you invoice
- Suppliers of cement, rebar, blocks and fittings, with usual prices
- What is in the yard and each site store today, counted by item
- Foremen and engineers who request materials, with their sites
- Bank account details and opening balances from your accountant
The applications on screen
Real SmartERP screens with sample data.
Who uses it
- Business owner or general managerSee the whole business and keep every department working on the same records.
- Finance and accountingInvoices, bills, bank and reports from one ledger.
- Purchasing and storesBuy, receive and control stock.
- Project and service managersPlan projects and bill the time.
Company sizes
- 11 to 50 people
- 51 to 100 people
- 101 to 200 people
What SmartERP does not cover for this industry
SmartERP does not take off quantities from drawings. Keep your engineers' tools for that; contracts, claims, labour, fleet, fuel, stores and payments run in the construction module.
Questions about SmartERP for construction
Can SmartERP measure quantities from drawings or certify payments?
No. SmartERP does not take quantities from drawings, issue interim payment certificates, track retention or control drawing files. It also does not calculate wages for site labour.
How can I see which site is behind without visiting it?
Each site is a project on a kanban board, so tasks moving through stages show where work is stuck. Sub-tasks and dependencies keep the sequence visible.
How do we know what is left in a site store?
Each site store is its own location in Inventory. Trucks are booked in on receipt, transfers move material between yard and site, and stock reports show the quantity on hand.
Can we keep our trucks and concrete mixers on record?
Yes, with Fleet and Maintenance added. Fleet registers trucks with driver, services and fuel; Maintenance keeps mixers and other plant with schedules and repair requests. Fleet does not track by GPS.
Do the quotation, purchases and invoices stay linked?
Yes. The accepted quotation becomes a sales order, a project opens from it, purchase receipts book stock into the site store, and Accounting posts stage invoices and supplier bills to one ledger.
See it before you decide
One building project from accepted quotation to first stage invoice
The walkthrough turns a quotation for a small commercial building into a project with ordered tasks, shows what the client can see, then raises the invoice for the first finished stage, on sample data for a fictional contractor.
There is no self-service sandbox. The demo is a guided walkthrough on sample data, or you can start a trial workspace.
Pricing
SmartERP has an industry edition for this sector (Construction). The applications listed above are its applications, and the editions, their staff bands and the current prices are on the pricing page. This page shows no price.
See plans and pricingA website for your business
SmartERP can also set up a starter website for this kind of business, offered as part of a website project: Home, About, Services, Projects, Safety & Quality, Request a Quote, Contact. How the website tools work.
Start with what your business needs first
Tell us your industry and we carry it through the guided set-up, or talk to us first.
Start SmartERP Book a demo