Construction’s live reporting problem is becoming harder to ignore 

Our recent research revealed that construction has a systemic problem with capturing and being able to trust project data in real time. By the time information has passed through site teams, commercial functions, finance systems and approval chains, many businesses are left spending as much time validating positions as acting on them intelligently.

In many cases, teams end up recording the same information multiple times as it moves from site through to reporting. Site progress feeds into a timesheet before being re-entered for finance. Materials movements are logged operationally, then checked and reconciled before they are treated as financially dependable.

Over time, those interruptions slow the flow of information across a project. By the time updates reach commercial or finance teams, the wider business can already be working from a position that has fallen behind what is happening on site.

When reporting falls behind reality

That pressure becomes harder to absorb across large, live portfolios where labour, subcontractor activity, procurement and commercial changes are all moving at pace. On a multi-phase housing development, for example, site teams may be progressing plots while valuations, cost reporting and financial updates are still catching up behind them. A variation that initially looked manageable can quickly escalate once procurement data, approvals and project records stop moving together cleanly through the workflow.

Leadership teams are then left making critical decisions with less certainty than they should have. Reporting slows down, month-end validation becomes heavier and opportunities to respond early begin to narrow as confidence in the underlying position weakens. In fact, our Construction Systems Census found that 53% of organisations have experienced delays to final accounts or retention release in the past 12 months. Only 16% are completely confident that WIP and margin reporting reflects the true project position before month-end close, while just 13% say completed work is reflected as coded cost data in finance systems on the same day.

Those findings help explain why many construction businesses still struggle to maintain a dependable live financial picture across complex projects. Teams spend time checking and rebuilding positions that should already be clear, while additional validation slows reporting and delays decision-making. Supporting records, approvals and cost information gradually fall out of step as projects move, making it harder to maintain confidence in the financial position while work is still live.

Why connected workflows matter more now

That’s not to say that construction businesses have not invested heavily in digital systems over the last decade – but implementing technology alone does not resolve those gaps. The difference increasingly comes down to whether operational, commercial and financial activity stays connected closely enough for teams to work from the same live position as projects move.

Having an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that tracks the reality of construction-specific workflows can make all the difference. Instructions, approvals, procurement activity, valuations and payment records all need to move through the workflow without constantly being rebuilt, checked or reinterpreted between teams. Where they do not, reporting slows down and commercial decisions become harder to make with confidence.

When ERP systems are built around construction workflows, records, approvals, cost movement and commercial activity remain connected as work progresses from site through to reporting and payment. Commercial, operational and finance teams are able to work from the same underlying position rather than reconstructing it separately at different stages of the project lifecycle.

As margin pressure, reporting scrutiny and project complexity continue to increase, confidence in live project positions is becoming more commercially important across the industry. Businesses that can see cost movement, commercial exposure and reporting impact clearly while projects are still live are in a far stronger position to respond early, protect margin and make decisions with confidence.

Vivek Sharma is a director at Xpedeon