Project Management and Budgeting
Construction firms use NetSuite to plan and track projects with precision. The platform provides tools for scheduling tasks, allocating resources, and monitoring progress in real time. Project managers can see milestones, pending tasks, and actual vs. budgeted costs on dashboards, helping keep projects on time and within budget. NetSuite’s financial management features automate job costing and budgeting, giving construction companies up-to-date insight into expenses and cash flow. This ensures better control over project finances and quick generation of reports for stakeholders.
Subcontractor Coordination and Compliance
In construction, coordinating subcontractors and complying with various regulations is critical. NetSuite offers a unified platform where all project documents, contracts, and vendor information can be stored and accessed by authorized users. Compliance tracking features help ensure that subcontractors meet licensing and insurance requirements and that billing follows contract terms. By having one source of truth for project data, teams avoid miscommunication and delays in hunting down information. Overall, NetSuite enhances collaboration across departments and sites, so everyone—from office staff to field engineers—stays aligned and informed.
Challenges
Construction projects are notorious for delayed timelines and budget overruns. In fact, industry studies show roughly 70% of construction projects suffer schedule delays, which puts significant financial strain on firms. Managing multiple teams and subcontractors using disparate systems can lead to miscommunication, contractual disputes, and difficulty tracking costs. Compliance with complex regulations and contract terms (like retainage and change orders) adds further pressure, and manual methods often fall short in providing the needed control.
NetSuite’s Solutions
NetSuite ERP addresses these pain points by providing a unified, real-time project management and accounting platform. All stakeholders work from the same data, so issues are flagged early—before they escalate into major delays or cost overruns. For example, project managers receive up-to-date reports on percent-complete, expenses, and upcoming deadlines, allowing them to take corrective action if a task is slipping. Automated budget tracking and job costing help prevent surprise overruns by comparing actuals vs. estimates continuously. NetSuite also streamlines contract and compliance management: it can handle retainage (withholding a portion of payment until project completion) and ensure billing follows contract terms, reducing the risk of disputes. By centralizing documents and communication, NetSuite makes it easier to coordinate subcontractors and ensures everyone is literally on the same page. The result is more projects delivered on time and within budget, and a clear audit trail that keeps construction firms compliant with industry standards.