Industries · Sitework & site prep

sitework contractor software

Andrew Drish, founder
Published October 25, 2026. Updated November 3, 2026

Sitework contractor software has to keep up with a job that comes in phases: clearing, mass grading, storm and utilities, pads and subgrade. Usually on somebody else's schedule. SmartCrew puts the crew schedule, machine moves, extras with photos, daily reports and job cost by phase in one app. It's built for dirtwork and heavy civil companies with 5 to 100 employees. The management-software page is best all-in-one dirt work management software. Read all-in-one heavy civil software for the full module list.

What does a sitework company's week look like?

Several jobs at different stages, and a schedule somebody else keeps changing. That's sitework.

On Monday one crew is clearing and putting up silt fence on a new commercial lot. Another is mass grading a subdivision phase. A third is setting storm structures on a job where the GC wants the building pad by Friday. The lowboy spends the week hauling iron between all three.

Then the GC calls. The pad has to wait two weeks for the steel. Your dozer sits, or you move it and move it back. On most sites the money gets lost in the gaps between phases, not in the dirt.

How a site job makes money, and loses it

You make money when each phase runs straight through with the right crew and the right iron. You lose it on extra moves, on standby while other trades catch up, on extras nobody wrote up, and on plan revisions the field never saw.

What does site preparation contractor software have to track?

Each phase as its own piece of the job, plus the moves, extras and paperwork in between. Here's the list, phase by phase.

Feature availability varies by plan. Fleet Management, Sales CRM, and Scheduling & Communications are Premium categories.

How does SmartCrew keep a phased site job straight?

By making each phase an activity code and each day a report. The crew does the same simple thing every day on their phone, and the office sees the job by phase.

1. Set the job up by phase

   We set your jobs up with the activity codes you bid with: clearing, erosion control, mass grading, storm, sanitary, water, subgrade. Your bid budget goes on the job.

2. Schedule crews and machines

   Drag a crew and a machine onto a site for the week. When the GC moves the date, drag it again. Your guys get the update as a notification.

3. Clock in to the phase

   Each worker clocks in to the job and the activity code with the machine he's on. When the pipe crew finishes the storm line and starts on water, they tap Log & Switch.

4. Write up the extra the day it happens

   Unsuitable soil under the pad? The foreman snaps photos and adds a field note to the daily report. The office turns it into a change order while the proof is fresh.

5. Read the job by phase

   The job page shows budget against spent for labor, materials, equipment, other costs and change orders, plus hours by employee. You see which phase is eating the profit.

The scheduling calendar with crews and jobs by day, and the phone screen where a worker picks the project, activity code and machine. (Demo account.)

How do you get paid for extras and standby?

Write them up the day they happen, with proof. Sitework extras are almost always real. They get lost because nobody wrote them down until billing time, and by then the GC doesn't remember the rock.

In SmartCrew the foreman's daily report carries photos and field notes from the site. Change orders and extras sit on the job page next to the budget. Hours by employee show who was standing around while the site wasn't ready. No photo, no note, no extra. Get the photo.

Your books stay in your accounting software. SmartCrew integrates with QuickBooks Online today, and we're working on QuickBooks Desktop, Foundation, ADP and more.

A job page: revenue, expenses and profit, budget against spent for each cost type including change orders, and hours by employee. (Demo data.)

Where should plans, revisions and site chatter live?

In one place the field can open from the truck. Site plans change: a revised grading plan, a moved storm structure, a new pad elevation. If the crew is working off last month's printout, you pay for the work twice.

SmartCrew's file storage keeps plans, photos and job documents in the cloud, with sharing and permissions. The foreman sees the current sheet and the office decides who sees what. Job-specific chat channels keep the talk about each site on that site, instead of one group text for the whole company, and company announcements go to everybody at once.

Company announcements on the office screen, and the crew's chat channels on the phone. (Demo account.)

Is SmartCrew site development contractor software or land development software?

It's for the contractor building the site. If you're the company putting in the roads, lots and utilities in a subdivision, SmartCrew is for you. If you're the developer tracking lot sales, approvals and investors, you need land development software, and that's not us.

A site development job is usually the longest one on your board: several phases, months of work, machines coming and going. Hours by phase, equipment by job and the job page against the bid keep it from drifting. The erosion control that comes with it is often yours to install and keep up, and the grading and drainage page covers how to track that. The pipe phases are on the underground utilities page.

What doesn't SmartCrew do for a sitework contractor?

SmartCrew runs the site after you win the job. Here's what it leaves to other tools.

• Takeoff and estimating. Cut and fill quantities and the bid come from your estimating tool. SmartCrew tracks the job against that bid once it's yours.
• Surface models and GPS machine control. SmartCrew doesn't build or run models for your grade control. It tracks the hours of the machine that's running it.
• Telematics hardware. We don't sell GPS boxes. Machines are tracked through the operator who clocks in on them.
• Payroll processing. Timecards come out payroll-ready by job and cost code. Payroll runs in your payroll or accounting software.
• ELD for your trucks. SmartCrew does DOT inspections, not electronic logs or hours of service.

Time tracking apps vs enterprise software for sitework

A sitework company outgrows a time clock fast, and gets buried by enterprise software just as fast. Here's how each one looks from a phased site.

A time tracking app like ClockShark, BusyBusy, QuickBooks Time, WorkMax or ExakTime will tell you who was on the subdivision job Tuesday. It won't tell you the storm phase is over budget while mass grading is under, or which loads belong to which phase.

Enterprise and construction management software like Procore, HCSS HeavyJob, JobTread and Contractor Foreman does a lot more. It's built to run big projects or every kind of contractor. That means more setup, more screens and a bigger bill than most site crews need.

SmartCrew is the middle: built for dirtwork companies with 5 to 100 employees, and nothing else. The best software for small dirtwork contractors guide lays out the choice in more detail.

What should a sitework contractor ask a software vendor?

Bring your messiest site to the demo. These questions show fast whether the software was built for phased dirtwork.

1. Can I set up a job by phase and see profit for each phase, not only the whole job?
2. When the GC moves my start date, how do I move the crew and the machine, and how do they find out?
3. Show me how a foreman documents standby time and an extra, with photos, from the field.
4. Where does the current plan sheet live, and can I control who sees it?
5. Can a pipe crew and a grading crew on the same site clock in to different activities?
6. Does it handle my trucks' haul tickets, or is that another app?
7. Who sets it up, and how long until the field is actually using it?

Our answer to the last one: we do the heavy lifting. Our team sets up your account, moves your information over, organizes your workflows and trains your people. Most companies are up and running within a few weeks.

site work contractor software

site work contractor software is the two word spelling. Sitework, one word, is this page's title. Same phased week: clearing, mass dirt, utilities, pads. SmartCrew schedules crews and machines and costs the phases. It starts at $99/month.

best site prep contractor software

best site prep contractor software is the search for the early phases of sitework. We do not keep a separate site prep product. A site prep crew that self performs with machines is a sitework contractor. If the work is only takeoff of the site, keep the takeoff tool. If the work is crews on the site, it is this app.

Is SmartCrew right for a small sitework company?

Yes, if you have about 5 to 100 employees. That's who we build for: small to midsized contractors. Small, for us, means a real crew. Not a one-man shop.

Questions people ask