The estimate and the job report should match
Your estimator builds the number, and your project manager has to hit it. When each works from a different set of categories, the job finishes short and neither can say why. CONTROL: The Construction Financial Operating System starts with one set of cost codes that both of them use.
Two people, two sets of categories
The estimator prices a job in one set of categories. The project manager is given the job and a budget, and the costs get coded to a different set. Six months later the job closes below the bid, and both of them can defend their part. Neither can find where it went, because the two documents can't be laid side by side. The margin went out through a cost code no one was watching.
CONTROL, for the two roles that set the margin
Written by a master electrician who ran real jobs before he wrote about money, so an estimator or a project manager will recognize the job in it.
What to actually say
Give both books in the same week. Say: "You two decide what a job earns, and I want you using the same cost codes." Then ask them to come to the next meeting with one estimate and its job cost report side by side. What they find is the reason for the rest of the book.
What owners ask
Do the estimator and the project manager need the same book?
Yes, and ideally they read it in the same month. The estimator builds the number and the project manager has to hit it. They only line up when both are working from the same cost codes, and that's the first thing the book installs.
Will it replace our estimating software?
No. The book isn't software. It's the structure whichever software you use should follow, so the estimate and the job cost report match line for line.
Is it too much for a PM who is never in the office?
Every chapter ends with one task, and the working files open in a spreadsheet. A project manager can do a chapter at a time from a truck or a trailer.
Is this a good gift for someone I want to promote?
It's a good one, because the next step up from running jobs is owning a number for the whole company. Giving it says you're planning for that, and it shows them the part of the business they haven't been shown yet.
Does it work for a self-performing GC?
It does. The difference between estimate and actual is the same problem whether the crews are yours or a sub's, and the cost code structure in the book is built for both.
Who should read it first, me or them?
You, for an hour. Read the cost code chapter and see whether your estimates and your job reports use the same categories. If they don't, you already know why to give it to them.
$9.99 ebook, $24.99 paperback
Get the paperback for anyone who'll use it. Six chapters include a QR code that opens a working file, and it's meant to be scanned off the page with the book beside the laptop.
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Wrote CONTROL, the 8 step system behind these figures. More about the author.