JOBTREAD DASHBOARDS
& REPORTS

Most contractors have the data and none of the visibility. It is all in JobTread — every budget, every task, every invoice — but answering a simple question like which jobs are bleeding margin still means opening six jobs and doing mental arithmetic. Dashboards fix that. Built properly, one screen tells you where the money is, where the schedule is at risk, and what needs your attention today.

WHY ONE SCREEN BEATS SIX REPORTS

A report you have to go and run is a report you do not run. A dashboard tile that is already on the screen when you open the software gets looked at every day. The goal is not more data — it is fewer decisions about where to look. Build dashboards around the questions you actually ask each morning, and the answers stop requiring a project manager to assemble them.

HOW TO SET IT UP

Step 1: Write Down Your Five Questions First

Before you touch a tile, list the five things you want to know every morning. Typically: what is in the pipeline, which jobs are over budget, what is overdue, what is billable now, and what is starting this week. Design the dashboard to answer those, and nothing else.

Step 2: Build a Dashboard Per Role

An owner, a project manager and an estimator need different screens. The owner wants margin and cash. The PM wants schedule and open tasks. The estimator wants proposals out and close rate. One shared dashboard serves nobody well — role-specific dashboards get used.

Step 3: Filter Every Tile to a Real Window

An all-time total is decoration. Scope each tile to a period you can act on — this week, this month, last 90 days — so the number changes when the business changes. A tile that never moves is a tile people stop reading.

Step 4: Add the Exception Tiles

The most valuable tiles show only problems: jobs over budget, tasks overdue, proposals sitting unanswered, invoices past due. These are the tiles that should be empty when things are healthy, which makes them impossible to ignore when they are not.

THE TILES WORTH BUILDING FIRST

• Pipeline by stage — what is quoted, what is pending, and what is likely to land this month
• Jobs over budget — an exception list that should read empty and demands attention when it does not
• Overdue tasks by owner — where the schedule is actually stuck, and with whom
• Invoices outstanding — billable work not yet billed, and billed work not yet paid