blog
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5 things tradies can learn from the collapse of Condev and Probuild
The collapse of Condev and Probuild has devastated the industry, with many Tradies subcontracting to these giants feeling the effects. Some have already started to fold under the weight of missed progress payments, unable to pay wages and purchase materials for other projects. So, what can you learn from these collapses to better protect your…
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A picture is worth $1000! (or more)
Defect Management: Protecting Your Construction Business In the world of construction and trades, dealing with defects is an inevitable part of the job. However, when you’re asked to rectify a defect that wasn’t your fault, it can be frustrating and costly. This article explores strategies to protect your business from unfair defect claims and manage…
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Put your bloody ruler away, and hang out with your family more on the weekend!
Being a subcontractor is a hard slog! Most of the time you are working 12 hour days, 6 days a week, and then trying to fit takeoffs and quotes around your on-site hours. Now we’ve written before on how having the right systems in place can save you time on-site and at the office, but…
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How are you protecting yourself against defects that aren’t yours?
If you’ve been a subcontractor for a while, you would have almost certainly had a defect chalked up to your workmanship or supplied products when it wasn’t you at fault. If you haven’t yet….just wait, it’s coming. How do you protect yourself and your business from this event occurring and taking up your precious time…
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Your records are only useful if you can find them
If you’ve been running your subcontracting business for a while now, you probably have a small collection of paperwork you’ve created to satisfy the powers that be on-site. If you’ve been running for a while longer you probably also got records of SWMS, incident reports, prestarts and toolbox talks that you’ve uploaded somewhere on your…
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The importance of Safe Work Method Statements (SWMS) for Tradies and Subcontractors
Why is a SWMS important? A Safe Work Method Statement is important for two reasons: It keeps you, your workers, and other workers safe on site. The main purpose of a SWMS is to make sure that all people involved with a high risk construction activity: It keeps your business out of trouble! The business…
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Feel like your invoices are always getting paid late?
We can help create an approach that makes it easy to send invoices, manage retentions, account for variations and automatically chase up outstanding invoices – so you get paid on time. Invoices How much time does it take you to get everything together to send an invoice? 5 mins, 10 mins? 30 mins and 2…
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Are timesheets driving you crazy?
We can help create an approach custom to YOUR business that takes timesheet data from staff hands right through to payroll, and automatically follows up staff who are late! We’ve all been there before, waiting on the final timesheets on a Friday afternoon, gently (or more pointedly) reminding staff of the importance of timesheets and…
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5 things you should use in Office 365 (but probably aren’t)
There is no doubt that Office 365 is the juggernaut in the room when it comes to enterprise email. There are over 240 million users of Office 365 worldwide. If you run a trade or commercial subcontracting business you are probably using it for email yourself! What you may not know about Office 365 though,…
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Convert a PDF to Excel
How many times have you received a PDF file that you needed to quickly edit or copy some data from, but found that you couldn’t because it was in PDF format? This post will show a few different ways you can get around this problem. Free vs Paid solutions There are both free and paid…
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Convert a PDF to Word
How many times have you received a PDF file that you needed to quickly edit or copy some data from, but found that you couldn’t because it was in PDF format? This post will show a few different ways you can get around this problem. Free vs Paid solutions There are both free and paid…
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Office 365 is like Meccano
Who remembers this stuff?? I used to love Meccano as a kid. I mean Lego was fun, but Meccano gave you more room to move. More possibilities. What could you build with Meccano? Pretty much anything you wanted. Structures, Vehicles, Robots, it was all possible. The School of Planning, Architecture & Civil Engineering, Queen’s University…
