Using Asana In My Building/Construction Business

Further Details: I’ve been considering using Asana in my building business but I’m open to suggestions.

Ideally I would like the following:

• To be able to track hours everyday for my 5 workers and on what jobs they work on. We have 5-6 jobs going at anytime. I currently use a spreadsheet for every job with all employees on it. Could I use g suite and sheets to create something like this?
• I would like to be able to send out qualification forms to new prospects, I currently have a google form I have created but have yet to get it to work successfully. I want to track and keep their emails
• I want to be able to look a timelines showing the year and all projects booked in and running to help me plan and book jobs in
• I want to be able to store files for each job Ie plans etc
• I would love to be able to have my multiple email addresses all work from one common area so that I can manage and track my correspondence
• I would like to be able to share files and correspondence with prospects and clients
• I would like to have some kind of database for my mailing list or CRM although it’s not that necessary
• I would like to be able to have a place to set reminders and be more organised

 

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Answer: I can see why you’ve been considering Asana for your business as it’s well-designed and you can created checklist templates for each job that your workers are working on. The benefits to using Asana in construction include the simplicity of training new staff, mobile app access, simple reporting and job progress that can be viewed in dashboard view and the ability to assign tasks to specific workers. The downside to using Asana for your building company is that it doesn’t natively track time on jobs, have an email-in feature for qualification forms (not the best way to structure client info.) and doesn’t integrate into billing well.

Some alternatives to Asana for your building company could include:

1. Setting up a project management software that incorporates time tracking, invoicing, billing, file storage and more advanced reporting. There are several that meet this need. Some are a little light on the CRM side, others are light on the finance side and some suit your need for both. For your mailing list, you could have email marketing software setup for new prospects and could also set up a drip campaign for educational purposes.
2. You could set up a CRM/Project Management combination with sales stages that includes a webform option for your website so prospect data can be sent to your CRM. There are a handful of options in this all-in-one software space to choose from – speak to your Business Systems Analyst for the best option that suits your budget. From this software, you’d be able to email clients, store files and set reminders.
3. You could choose a scheduling focused software for your construction business that includes features around job scheduling, map access, payment on-site at the worksite, payroll etc This software does miss some of the more personalised features of general project management software but makes up for it in the more powerful scheduling/billing features.

I hope this helps you deciding on the right path for your business software needs. Feel free to reach out to one of our Business Process Consultants for specific advice.