5 Reports Every Construction Executive Should See Weekly
Most construction executives get buried in data but starved for insight. Monthly financials arrive too late. Project updates are scattered across emails and spreadsheets. By the time problems surface, they’ve already cost you money. Here are the five reports that should hit your desk every Monday morning, and what to look for in each.
Why Weekly Reporting Matters
Construction moves fast. A job that looked profitable last month can start bleeding money this week. A subcontractor who was on schedule Friday can be three days behind by Wednesday. Cash that was coming in 30 days is now sitting at 60.
Monthly reporting is a rearview mirror. You’re seeing what already happened, not what’s happening now. Weekly reporting gives you time to act. You can have a conversation with a PM before a job goes sideways, call a customer before receivables age out, or reallocate crews before productivity tanks.
The goal isn’t more reports. It’s the right reports, with the right information, at the right frequency.
Cash Position & AR Aging
Cash is oxygen. You can be profitable on paper and still run out of money. This report shows you exactly where you stand: cash on hand, what’s coming in, what’s going out, and who owes you money.
What to include: Current bank balance, projected cash position (2-4 weeks out), accounts receivable by aging bucket (current, 30, 60, 90+ days), upcoming payables, and retainage balances.
Review cadence: Monday morning, before anything else. Cash problems don’t wait for your schedule.
- AR over 60 days growing faster than current AR
- Same customers appearing in 90+ repeatedly
- Projected cash dipping below 2 weeks of payroll
- Retainage aging beyond contract terms
Job Profitability & Margin Fade
Every job has a story. This report tells you which jobs are making money, which are losing it, and which are trending in the wrong direction. Margin fade is the silent killer of construction profits.
What to include: All active jobs with original estimated margin, current projected margin, variance, percent complete, and cost to complete. Sort by margin variance to surface problems first.
Review cadence: Weekly, with a deeper dive on any job showing more than 2-3 points of margin erosion.
- Margin dropping week over week on the same job
- Jobs past 50% complete with margins below bid
- Large “cost to complete” revisions
- Multiple jobs from the same estimator underperforming
Labor Productivity & Utilization
Labor is your biggest cost and your biggest variable. Small changes in productivity compound quickly. A crew that’s 10% less productive than estimated doesn’t just cost you 10%. It throws off schedules, delays other trades, and burns through contingency.
What to include: Hours by job vs. budget, crew utilization rates, overtime percentage, labor cost per unit of work (where applicable), and billable vs. non-billable time.
Review cadence: Weekly, with immediate follow-up on jobs exceeding labor budgets.
- Overtime exceeding 15% of total hours
- Jobs burning through labor budget faster than percent complete
- High non-billable or indirect time
- Utilization below 80% across crews
Backlog & Work-in-Progress
Backlog tells you where you’re going. WIP tells you where you are. Together, they paint a picture of revenue visibility and capacity. Too little backlog means scrambling for work. Too much means you might not have the crews to deliver.
What to include: Total backlog value, backlog by month (when revenue will be recognized), WIP schedule showing over/under billings, and projected revenue for the next 90 days.
Review cadence: Weekly snapshot, with monthly trending analysis.
- Backlog declining without new awards in pipeline
- Significant under-billings (you’ve done work but haven’t billed)
- Over-billings approaching completion (billed ahead of work)
- Revenue concentration in one or two large jobs
Safety & Compliance Dashboard
Safety isn’t just about avoiding injuries. It’s about avoiding the cascade of problems that follow: OSHA fines, project shutdowns, insurance premium spikes, and reputation damage. This report keeps risk visible.
Last Recordable
Compliance
Rating
Actions
What to include: Incidents and near-misses (current week and trailing 12 months), EMR status, training compliance percentage, open corrective actions, and days since last recordable.
Review cadence: Weekly, with every incident reviewed within 24 hours.
- Near-miss reports declining (people stopped reporting, not stopped having near-misses)
- Training compliance below 95%
- Same job or crew appearing in multiple incidents
- Corrective actions aging past due dates
What These Reports Have in Common
Notice what these reports share:
- They’re leading indicators. They show you what’s happening now and what’s likely to happen next, not just what already happened.
- They surface exceptions. You don’t need to review every job. You need to know which jobs need attention this week.
- They drive action. Each report should lead to a specific conversation or decision, not just awareness.
- They’re consistent. Same format, same time, same metrics. Consistency lets you spot trends and anomalies.
The Executive Dashboard Test
If you can’t get these five views in under 10 minutes on Monday morning, your reporting system is failing you. Executives shouldn’t be pulling reports. Reports should be pushed to them, automatically, with exceptions highlighted.
Making It Happen
The challenge isn’t knowing what reports you need. It’s getting the data in one place, in a consistent format, updated automatically. Most contractors piece this together manually, pulling from accounting software, project management tools, spreadsheets, and emails.
That works until it doesn’t. Manual reporting is always behind. Data gets stale. Formats vary. Someone’s on vacation and the report doesn’t get built. By the time you see the numbers, they’re already a week old.
The contractors who get this right have systems that:
- Pull data automatically from accounting, project management, time tracking, and field tools
- Update in real-time or at least daily, not monthly
- Highlight exceptions so you see problems first, not buried in a spreadsheet
- Are accessible anywhere so you can check them on your phone, at a job site, or in a Monday morning meeting
Start With What You Have
You don’t need perfect systems to start reviewing these reports weekly. Even if you’re pulling data manually at first, the discipline of weekly review will surface problems faster than monthly reporting ever could.
Pick one report. Build it this week. Review it Monday. Then add another. The goal is momentum, not perfection.
Once you’ve established the rhythm, you’ll see exactly where your data gaps are. And you’ll have a clear case for investing in systems that fill them.
Get All 5 Reports in One Dashboard
ConstruSense pulls data from your existing systems and delivers executive dashboards that update automatically. See cash, jobs, labor, backlog, and safety in one place.
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