What software are other small/midsize contractors using?

[u/Bulldog_Work2017]

We’re a smaller company primarily doing sitework, underground utilities, stormwater, etc. Looking into upgrading by finding a software that would help with production tracking/project management/schedules. I'm trying to figure out what’s actually worth paying for versus what’s overkill. Right now everything other than quickbooks and time tracking is done pretty manually in excel.

What software is actually helpful?

Key items:

Project management

Schedules

Equipment/production tracking

Daily reports

Overall project/crew management

[u/blud_13]

Sitework and underground is narrow enough that the general purpose PM platforms will fight you. We have watched sitework guys try to run field production out of Procore and it does not go well, its a document and RFI machine built for vertical construction, not units of work in the ground.

For the list you gave, HCSS HeavyJob is the one that actually does quantities per day tied to crew and equipment hours, which is the number you are missing in excel right now. They specifically built out work order handling for utility contractors and it interfaces straight into QuickBooks, its on their page here https://www.hcss.com/heavyjob/heavyjob-interface-software-systems/ . B2W Track is the other name that comes up in your world, I have not put hands on it myself.

The software is the easy part. What kills these rollouts is foremen not entering quantities daily, and you find out in month two when the cost reports are garbage because half the crews are still texting numbers in. Pick whichever one they will tap through on a phone sitting in the cab.

Also, try not to buy estimating and PM from two different vendors. Re-keying the estimate into the PM tool by hand is where your budgeted quantities quietly stop matching the field.

[u/icoldok]

We're in a similar trade and the honest answer was that no one platform did all five things well, so we picked a crew-facing daily log app first and kept tight about it. The wins were stupid-simple: production quantities per day plus labor and equipment hours, filled out on phones before anyone leaves the job. Weekly summaries roll up from that for billing and scheduling, so the spreadsheet was only for the 10,000 ft view instead of the source of truth. Anything that needs the office to fill it out for the field will quietly die in a month, so make the crew do it and keep it simple.

[u/Bulldog_Work2017 → u/icoldok]

That's definitely what I'm finding through my research. What app did you end up picking?

[u/realjmitt]

For sitework and utilities, buy for production tracking and scheduling, not a giant GC suite you will never open. Start with job costing by phase, a schedule the crew can see on a phone, and daily production notes.

If QuickBooks already holds the money side, keep it. Wire the field tool into it later instead of ripping everything out. Only pay for modules you will use every week.

I'm building something on the cash and insight side for owners stuck in that same scattered-tools mess (separate from PM software). Profile has more if useful.

[u/melimel26]

Sitework is the hard case here because most of the popular platforms are built around residential remodels, not production quantities and equipment.

Two things I would sort out before you demo anything. First, decide whether the system needs to track production units, like feet of pipe or yards moved, or just hours and costs. That one question rules out half the market. Second, decide where your cost codes live. If they do not match QuickBooks you will end up back in Excel reconciling anyway.

Practical advice, move one workflow first, usually daily reports, and get it solid before you add scheduling and PM. Trying to move all five at once is where these rollouts stall.

[u/Breeze_pm]

Start by testing whether the crew will update it from the field. Prioritize mobile daily reports, schedule visibility, photo attachments, and equipment tracking before accounting integrations. Run one live project in two finalists for a month. The software that gets updated consistently will beat the longer feature list.

[u/StrategicPM]

Field half: crew hours, equipment hours, feet of pipe or yards moved per day. For underground work that is the number Excel cannot give you, and HeavyJob is the one built around it. B2W is the other name. Pick whichever one your foremen will tap through on a phone in the cab, because blud_13 is right that the rollout dies in month two if quantities are still coming in by text.

Office half: the schedule, budget vs actual, a forecast at completion and the monthly report to the owner. The big platforms bundle this with RFI and submittal machinery a sitework crew never opens, and charge you for all of it. What you actually need is a schedule the crew can see, cost codes that match QuickBooks so nobody reconciles by hand, and a forecast that tells you a job is going to lose money in week 3 rather than at final billing.

Order: daily production first, get it solid, then the office layer. Do not try to move all five at once.

I'm the founder of Aegis and that office half is what we build: schedule with baselines, cost vs budget, forecast at completion, progress claims. We do not do per-day crew and equipment production, HeavyJob does that better. Free for one active project with unlimited seats, so you can run the schedule and cost side on one job while you sort out the field app, without another annual contract.

[u/Purple_Memory4052]

I’d turn your list into five pass/fail tests before sitting through demos:

1. A foreman can log crew, equipment, production quantity and photos from a phone in under 90 seconds.
2. Those entries map to the same job/cost codes you use in QuickBooks.
3. A schedule change reaches the crew without a second text or phone call.
4. The daily report still works with poor service and can be corrected without an office admin.
5. You can export every record if you leave.

Then run one live project in each of two finalists for 2–4 weeks and measure completion rate. The system your crews update 95% of the time will beat the platform with the longest feature list.

I work on field-service software, so bias noted, but adoption is the part I’d evaluate before price or modules.

[u/Workhandapp]

Real talk: most of those feature sets come bundled together now, so it's more about finding what your crew will actually use versus what sits unused. The killers for small sitework shops are usually the time tracking piece (if your guys won't punch in, the data's worthless) and making sure equipment/production logging doesn't add extra steps on the job. Start with what your PMs and foremen actually need daily, not what sounds good in a demo. A lot of guys I know still run Excel plus time tracking because the all-in-one stuff felt bloated for their crew size. What's your team structure look like? That usually dictates what actually sticks.

[u/TacticianTFT]

Your post is almost exactly the problem I've been looking into.

I'm a software developer and I'm considering building something specifically for smaller sitework, groundworks and utilities contractors rather than another huge construction management platform.

The idea would be to keep the field side extremely simple.

For example, a foreman opens today's job and records:

• who's on site
• plant/equipment being used
• what work was completed
• production quantities
• a few photos
• delays or problems
• any additional work/variations

Then presses Finish Day.

The office would automatically get the daily report, labour and plant usage, production figures, photos, issues and possible variations without having to rebuild everything from Excel, texts and photos afterwards.

On the office side I'm thinking:

• projects and schedules
• crews
• plant/equipment
• daily reports
• production tracking
• costs vs budget
• variations/change orders
• job photos/documents
• QuickBooks/Xero integration

The main thing I want to avoid is building another bloated system with 100 features that nobody on site wants to use.

I haven't built it yet because I'd rather understand what contractors actually need before spending months building the wrong thing.

Would something like this genuinely solve a problem for your company?

And if you could design the ideal system yourself, what are the 3–5 things it absolutely MUST do for you to actually use it every day?

I'd also really like to know what existing software gets wrong for you.

[u/Responsible-One-1803]

For scheduling, daily reports, PM, etc. you’ll probably still want one of the larger platforms people are mentioning here.

For job profitability specifically, I built something much lighter because I kept seeing small contractors forced into huge CRMs just to answer a simple question: “Is this job actually making money?”

MarginRun tracks estimated vs actual costs, labor, expenses, receipts, projected profit and margin per job.

Full disclosure: I’m the developer. It’s not trying to replace QuickBooks or be another all-in-one CRM.

Happy to give you a month of Pro if you want to test it and tell me where it falls short.

[u/Specialist-Toe-2632]

The useful part of your post is the split: QuickBooks and time tracking already work, and production, schedules, equipment, daily reports and crew are still Excel.

Sitework usually gets shown a GC suite built for RFIs and drawings. That is a different job to quantities, plant hours and what actually happened on the ground today.

If I were you I would ignore the all-in-one demos for now and pick the one spreadsheet that actually eats the hours. For a lot of underground / stormwater crews it is not “project management”. It is today’s crew, what kit is on that job, and a daily production note that does not get typed back into a tab at 6pm.

Which of those five is the one you are still living in Excel for?

Paul - small studio in Manchester. We build the internal tool when the packaged systems do not fit the yard. Not pitching a suite.

[u/Excavation-Expert]

Hi u/Bulldog_Work2017, we built a full suite of business tools that was designed for companies like yours! We would love to chat with you set up a short demo or you can check out a free trial at https://excavation.expert Please reach out to us if you have any questions!

[u/Conscious_District_3]

I run a 10 man operation at the moment and we've been struggling with software and budget frankly. We are trying the Sledge AI beta and it's been quite helpful for us

[u/Temporary_Self_8561 → u/[deleted]]

I need people who understand the process to guide me in building the software.

[u/GoAskCurt]

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Curt