Production Time Tracking

joesauers

Do any of you guys keep track on a daily basis of how long it is taking you to do certain tasks. I have a good idea from experience, but am looking to be more exact. I recently made up a spreadsheet that is easy to fill out on the jobsite to enter data into. Just wondering if any of you guys do anything similar.

dayexco

i'd like to see a copy of your spreadsheet if you don't care.
we definitely keep a daily diary, and those #'s get thrown into a spreadsheet to track each job. we bought a laptop that we'll keep in the crewcab pickup, and getting it set up for voice to text, so we can just babble into a microphone on the way home from jobsites instead of manually entering it.

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someday, i'll be as patient as Nick.

joesauers

Day, I'm not sure how to load the spreadsheet onto here, but essentially I did it in MS Excel, with the following columns across the top in this order: Class, Item, Description, Quantity, Man hours. Class in my case is for landscaping, tree work, paving, and excavating. Of course tailor it to your operation. I'll work on loading the spreadsheet. A buddy of mine keeps a mini tape recorder in his truck and records everything during the day, and then has his office staff enter the data. I am going to give that a try during the next snowstorm. I've thought about carrying a laptop, but don't think it will work out great since I often jump between a few different trucks.

denick

Joe,

We have a paper daily log sheet where we track,
day, date, weather, ground conditions, incidents on one side.
The other looks like a spread sheet with rows of,

Employee, Job, Equip, phase, Cost Code, Hours, Equip, hours notes
repaired operated

It is supposed to say Equip repaired and Equip operated

We use a computer program called Heavyjob by HCSS where all this info is entered. As well as in our accounting program.

We track many different things we do as cost codes.

Our guys use the "Job Clock" for tracking attendance.

We are thinking of using a small recorder that is by dictaphone that you can download the digital file and store it as a document on a computer. My lawyer says if you do it as a daily thing and stay consistent it would be a permissible document in a legal proceeding.
They also can be read by a transcriber for the information to be entered into any program that it need be.

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Nick

"Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving" Albert Einstein

Dirtguy

Denick,

We are considering some of the software from HCSS. How do you like it?

denick

Dirt,

We use HeavyBid lite as an estimating software and HeavyJob Foreman for job tracking. The software works and the people are great. 24 hour a day support everyday by people who know the software and your work. IN THE USA. We are probably the smallest company using their software. It's worth the money. It can't be too hard to use if I can figure it out.

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Nick

"Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving" Albert Einstein

Dirtguy

Thanks, I'm going to give them a call tomorrow!!

joesauers

Cool, I'll look into it.

PipeGuy

FYI-I'm going to buy this http://sharpesoft.com/ if I make it through the winter. In my opinion it might be the best 'packaged' estimating application I've seen in the almost 20 years I've been looking at them. Mind you, it's not a takeoff application and doesn't have "modules" that facilitate interfacing with digitizers but it's an extremely powerful, flexible and user friendly application in which to archive historical cost information and with which to compile cost estimates.

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Fortunately I keep my feathers numbered for...for just such an emergency. -Foghorn Leghorn

denick

Pipeguy,

If you have the time consider HeavyBid! www.hcss.com

Hey Where have you been! Happy New Year P. G.

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Nick

"Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving" Albert Einstein

PipeGuy

Back at ya' Denick.
The last time I looked at Heavy Bid the cost was way beyond that I'm inclined to spend. I also thought it had a pretty steep learning curve. Maybe I need to talk to a sales rep and take it for a spin again before making any buying decision. I see a lot of familiar names on their list of users. In the mean time, I still like my big spreadsheets. I'm just starting to convert them from 1-2-3 to Excel.

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Fortunately I keep my feathers numbered for...for just such an emergency. -Foghorn Leghorn

Dozer Junky

FYI,

Dirt- Are we gettin some new stuff? Bring it!

denick

Dozer Junky,

I've been waiting to hear about your new purchases myself. You guys can go right down to their office and see for yourselves. No travel time for a trainer to come out.

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Nick

"Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving" Albert Einstein