WIP depends on spreadsheets
Your Work-in-Progress report pulls information from multiple systems, spreadsheets, and project teams. By the time it's assembled, you're validating numbers instead of making decisions.
Use case · Construction
One project. One flow of information. One trusted source of truth.
Every project ends the day with new information—hours worked, progress made, materials installed. Scroll, and follow that data from the field ticket, through the systems that run your business, to tomorrow morning's cost-to-complete—and see what changes when it's captured once and trusted everywhere.
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BEFORE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
Your biggest financial risks aren't hidden— they're delayed.
When project information is fragmented across field, finance, and operations, leadership makes decisions using yesterday's picture instead of today's reality.
Forecasts change depending on who prepared them
Project managers, operations, and finance each have their own view of cost-to-complete. When every forecast tells a different story, confidence in the numbers disappears.
Cost overruns surface after the work is done
Production slips, labour overruns, and change order delays are often hidden until month-end—or worse, project closeout. By then, the opportunity to protect margin has already passed.
Finance spends more time reconciling than analyzing
Instead of identifying risks and advising the business, finance spends days matching reports, correcting job costs, and answering, "Which number is right?"
The journey
Seven steps. One number.
Job performance lives in quantities, hours, and change orders — born in the field, steered by in the boardroom. The seven steps below walk one day's production along that route, each removing a place where the number breaks today. Follow the line.
Data FoundationBusiness IntelligenceAI & Automation
Job-cost ERPEstimatingField ticketsEquipment telematicsHR / payroll
Where job performance is scattered today
One central platformMicrosoft Fabric
This is where the number's journey changes. Instead of being re-keyed into ERP, estimating, and payroll separately, it lands once — here — and flows everywhere it's needed. Five versions of the job become one.
Step 01 · Data Capture & Quality
01The number is born
Every project begins with work completed in the field. Hours are worked, materials are installed, equipment is used, and progress is recorded. That information becomes the number everyone relies on—from the superintendent to the CFO.
Our approach
We help define exactly what should be captured in the field—production quantities, labour hours, equipment, cost codes—and implement digital field capture with built-in validation. The result is clean, reliable data from the moment work is completed.
Who feels it
ForemanOne ticket at the end of the shift — no evening re-keying into a second system.
Project mgrYesterday's production against the estimate, on screen by 7am.
FinanceJob-cost data that doesn't need scrubbing before it can be trusted.
The payoff — Production reporting moves from weekly-and-approximate to daily-and-reliable — and every downstream number gets cleaner.
Step 02 · System Integration
02The number moves automatically
Once approved, that same production quantity shouldn't be entered again. Today it often gets re-keyed into payroll, ERP, project controls, and spreadsheets. Every manual touch creates delay and introduces risk.
Our approach
We design and implement the integrations that allow approved field data to flow automatically between systems. Payroll, job costing, ERP, scheduling, and reporting all receive the same approved information.
Who feels it
Office staffDuplicate entry between field, ERP, and payroll disappears.
Project mgrCost reports, payroll, and field logs finally show the same figures.
ITGoverned integrations on one platform — not a web of point-to-point scripts.
The payoff — Hours of monthly reconciliation disappear, and "which number is right?" stops being a meeting.
Step 03 · Business Intelligence Roadmap
03It reaches the report by itself
Once data flows automatically, reporting such as WIP no longer waits until month-end. Project teams can see productivity, costs, earned value, and margin while work is still underway.
Our approach
We help automate the reports you already run and stand up self-serve cost-to-complete — margin against the estimate refreshes overnight, while the job can still be steered.
Who feels it
ExecutiveMargin visible mid-job, while there's still time to act on it.
Project mgrSelf-serve cost-to-complete and production rates, per job and cost code.
FinanceMonth-end assembly work drops; the close gets shorter.
The payoff — Margin problems surface mid-job, not at closeout — answers in minutes instead of days.
Step 04 · Data as a Product
04Everyone agrees what it means
“Percent complete” means three different things in three departments — and nobody is sure which report is the current one.
Our approach
We help the business settle on one definition per number and publish each KPI with an owner and a source — findable by anyone, from field trailer to boardroom.
Who feels it
New hiresRamp on the data in days, not months.
AnalystsFewer "can you pull this for me" requests.
LeadershipOne agreed definition per number, across field and office.
The payoff — Self-service that's actually self-serve — the KPI library becomes the shared language of the business.
Step 05 · AI & Automation Governance
05Trusted data enables trusted AI
AI can summarize reports, assist estimators, and answer operational questions. Only if it's working from governed, reliable information.
Our approach
We help classify data by sensitivity and set up a governed AI environment — bid assistants can read specs and production rates while payroll stays ring-fenced, with every use logged.
Who feels it
ExecutiveAI adoption without unnecessary risk — policy and audit trail in place.
HRPayroll and personnel data ring-fenced from AI tooling.
EveryoneA clear answer to "am I allowed to use AI for this?"
The payoff — AI gets adopted broadly and safely — on governed data, with an audit trail.
Step 06 · Data Culture & Engagement
06The people closest to the work improve the data
The people closest to the work improve the data. The best ideas come from the people creating the data every day.
Our approach
We establish a continuous improvement process where field teams, project managers, finance, and leadership all contribute ideas for improving data quality, reporting, and business processes.
Who feels it
FieldTheir input visibly shapes the tools — so they keep giving it.
LeadershipPain points surface early, with context, instead of festering.
The orgAdoption compounds — each shipped request builds trust in the next.
The payoff — The business keeps getting more data-driven after the engagement ends — improvement becomes routine, and visible.
Step 07 · Centralized Knowledge Base
07It becomes know-how
Every completed project contains lessons. production rates, crew performance, bid assumptions, and risk indicators. Too often those lessons stay inside spreadsheets—or inside someone's head
Our approach
We create a centralized knowledge platform where historical project data, production benchmarks, and institutional knowledge become searchable and reusable across the organization. Supported by AI, yesterday's experience becomes tomorrow's competitive advantage.
Who feels it
EstimatorsHistorical assumptions and norms at hand for every new bid.
New staffOnboarding from a knowledge base, not from shadowing alone.
AI toolsThe context they need to be accurate about your business.
The payoff — Onboarding and AI both get faster and more accurate — know-how stops walking out the door.
The same number, everywhereTicket to boardroom
Job dashboardsKPI portalGoverned AIKnowledge base
The footage the foreman entered at 4pm is the cost-to-complete on screen at 7am. One entry, one truth — job performance visible while the job can still be steered.
Benefits realized
What changes when the strategy lands.
The shifts below are what the seven focus areas add up to on a construction business — field to office, ticket to boardroom.
BeforeQuantities keyed into three systems by three people
AfterCaptured once, at the ticket
BeforeMonth-end as a reconciliation exercise
AfterAutomated flow, nightly refresh
BeforeMargin surprises at closeout
AfterCost-to-complete visible mid-job
Before“Ask the analyst” for every report
AfterSelf-serve KPI portal with definitions
BeforeAI experiments on scattered, sensitive data
AfterGoverned AI on one source of truth
BeforeKnow-how in a few senior heads
AfterA searchable, living knowledge base
How we engage
Strategy and execution, delivered together.
You don't get a slide deck and a goodbye. Every focus area starts with discovery and is implemented as requirements firm up — pilot crews run the new tickets on a live job.
Discovery & Assessment
We learn how your jobs actually run — from the ticket in the field to the report on the CFO's desk.
Interviews across field and office — foremen to finance Inventory of ERP, estimating, ticketing, HR, and equipment systems Gap map: where quantities, hours, and change orders break down Audit of existing reports and the manual effort behind them
Mostly conversations — no disruption to live jobs. You end the phase with a map of every place the same number is re-keyed, and what that costs.
Analysis & Framework Design
We design the central platform and start building — capture, connections, and guardrails, as requirements firm up.
Central platform and customer/vehicle data model on Microsoft Fabric / Azure / Databricks Capture-at-source design: digital tickets with built-in quality checks Integrations ranked by ROI — field ticket to job cost first Sensitivity tiers and AI guardrails for payroll and job financials
The first automated reports replace manual ones mid-phase. Pilot crews run the new tickets on a live job, and their feedback shapes the design.
Roadmap & Validation
You leave with a phased roadmap and a substantially implemented platform — a plan and working capability, together.
Phased roadmap covering every data initiative Priority dashboards and system connections live KPI portal and knowledge base stood up Wish-list platform open to field and office
Month-end is already shorter. There's one place to find every number — and a prioritized plan for what comes next.
Phases can be resequenced to fit your priorities. Engagement model and investment are tailored per organization — book a meeting and we'll scope it to you.
Start here
Bring us your systems and your projects.
We'll show you how your data should flow, identify the biggest opportunities for improvement, and define a phased engagement that fits your business.
30 minutes No obligation Microsoft Fabric partners