Dashboard builder

One construction dashboard for every job
from award to closeout.

Describe how you run a job and the agent builds a web app for cost-coded budgets, forecast dates, the RFI and change order log and daily site photos — live preview, code you own.

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Starter prompt

Build a construction project dashboard for a general contractor running six jobs. Store projects with the owner, awarded contract value, notice to proceed, contract completion date and retainage percent. Break each job into cost-coded budget lines with budget, committed and cost-to-date amounts plus a planned and a forecast finish. Log RFIs and change orders together, each with a number, a ball-in-court party, a needed-by date, a status and a cost impact. Superintendents post a daily log with weather, crews on site, a delay reason and a photo. Show budget versus actual per cost code and add approved change orders to the contract value.

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Overview

Who this construction dashboard is for

A job goes over budget weeks before anyone sees it on a cost report. A sub works to a change the owner never signed, the RFI that would have stopped the rework sits in an inbox, and the monthly owner meeting runs on a workbook the project manager rebuilt the night before. A construction dashboard built with Netiva holds the cost-coded budget, the commitments, the change orders, the RFI log and the site photos on one screen, updated by the people already standing on the job.

Key features

What your construction dashboard can do

  • Budget versus actual by cost code

    Each job carries its schedule of values as cost-coded budget lines. The report sets budget against committed subcontracts and cost posted to date, so a line drifting over shows up while there’s still scope left to price.

    • Budget, committed, spent and remaining on every line
    • Cost codes numbered the way your estimator writes them
    • Contract value that moves as change orders are approved
    • A saved view per project manager and per job

  • Planned dates against forecast dates

    Every budget line carries a planned finish and the date the superintendent now expects, so the schedule of values doubles as the milestone list and slip is measured in days rather than argued about.

    • Slip in days on each line, worst first
    • A two-week look-ahead grouped by trade
    • Contract and forecast completion on the job header
    • A Monday email to each project manager

  • RFIs and change orders in one log

    Questions to the design team and changes waiting on a signature sit in the same log, each with a number, a needed-by date and the party holding the ball, so nothing waits quietly for three weeks.

    • Items sorted by days past their needed-by date
    • Ball in court on every row: architect, owner or trade
    • Cost impact posted to the code the change lands on
    • Signed forms and markups attached to the record

  • A daily log the field will post

    Superintendents open the app in the phone browser and fill one short form: weather, crews on site, work performed, any delay and a progress photo. The entry is stamped with whoever posted it.

    • One dated entry per job, in the browser, nothing to install
    • Delay reasons kept to a short list you choose
    • Photos held against the day and the job
    • Entries stamped with the signed-in superintendent
Data model

The collections behind it

Netiva keeps your records in built-in collections. Here’s a starting structure — the agent adapts it to your prompt, and you can change it any time.

Projects

One row per job, with the contract it was awarded on.

  • Name (required) Text
  • Owner or client (required) Text
  • Project manager Used to filter the board to each manager’s jobs Text
  • Awarded contract value (required) The contract amount before any change orders Number
  • Notice to proceed Date
  • Contract completion Substantial completion date named in the contract Date
  • Retainage percent Share of each payment held back, set by the contract Number
  • Stage (required) Preconstruction, active, closeout or warranty Text

Budget lines

The schedule of values, one line per cost code, with its dates.

  • Project (required) Relation to Projects
  • Cost code (required) Your estimator’s numbering, such as CSI MasterFormat sections Text
  • Description (required) Text
  • Budget amount (required) Schedule of values amount for this line Number
  • Committed amount Subcontracts and purchase orders written against the line Number
  • Cost to date Sub invoices, labor and material posted so far Number
  • Planned finish When this scope was due to finish Date
  • Forecast finish When the superintendent now expects it to finish Date

RFIs and change orders

Everything waiting on an answer or a signature, in one numbered log.

  • Project (required) Relation to Projects
  • Item type (required) RFI or change order Text
  • Number (required) The RFI or CO number for this job Text
  • Subject (required) The question asked or the change proposed Paragraph
  • Ball in court (required) Architect, owner, GC or the trade waiting on it Text
  • Needed by Answer-by date for an RFI, signature date for a change order Date
  • Status (required) Open, answered, submitted, approved, rejected or void Text
  • Cost impact Change orders only; enter a credit as a negative number Number

Daily logs

What happened on site, day by day, with the photo that proves it.

  • Project (required) Relation to Projects
  • Log date (required) Date
  • Weather Conditions and temperature at the start of the shift Text
  • Crews on site Trades present and head counts Paragraph
  • Work performed Paragraph
  • Progress photo One photo per entry; post several entries for a full set Image
  • Delay reason Weather, access, materials, inspection or none Text
  • Posted by (required) Filled in from the signed-in superintendent Text

Required field. Types are Netiva collection field types.

Screens

Pages and screens to start with

A typical first version. Ask the agent for more, or annotate the preview to change any of them.

  • Job board

    Every job on one row: contract value including approved changes, cost to date, days to contract completion and how many log items are past their needed-by date.

    Your team

  • Cost report

    Budget, committed, cost to date and remaining for each cost code on one job, with lines already over their budget pulled to the top.

    Your team

  • Open items

    RFIs waiting on an answer and change orders waiting on a signature, sorted by days past the needed-by date and grouped by who holds the ball.

    Your team

  • Two-week look-ahead

    Budget lines whose forecast finish falls in the next 14 days, grouped by trade, so the Monday coordination meeting works from one list.

    Your team

  • Daily log

    A phone-sized form for weather, crews on site, work performed, a delay reason and a progress photo, posted from the trailer or the deck.

    Signed-in users

  • Owner view

    A signed-in page for the owner’s rep: forecast dates, approved change orders, the current contract value and this month’s photos.

    Signed-in users
How it works

From prompt to a live construction dashboard

  1. Describe how you run a job

    Tell the agent how many jobs you carry, how your estimator codes costs and who signs a change order. It drafts collections for projects, budget lines, the RFI and change order log and daily logs.

  2. Load one live job

    Type this month’s schedule of values into the collection grid, or describe the lines and let the collection assistant draft them for review, then set a planned finish on each one.

  3. Shape the screens with your PM

    Open the cost report and the open items list in the live preview, annotate what a project manager would want moved and keep chatting until the numbers sit where they look for them.

  4. Publish to the field

    Publish in one click and send the link to superintendents and the owner’s rep. Every later change is checkpointed, so an edit you regret rolls back without losing the rest.

Why Netiva

Netiva vs a traditional build

Building a construction dashboard with Netiva compared with a traditional build
Criterion With Netiva Traditional build
Cost reporting Budget, committed and spent per cost code, current whenever someone opens the job A job cost workbook the project manager rebuilds the night before the owner meeting
Field reporting A dated entry per job with weather, crews, the delay reason and the photo attached Photos and delay notes spread across camera rolls and a group chat nobody can search
Getting started Describe what you need in chat and watch it take shape in a live preview Hire developers, or stitch together templates, plugins and a hosting plan
Content and data Built-in collections with nine field types, bound straight to your pages Set up and connect a separate database or CMS
Making changes Ask the agent; every change is checkpointed and reversible File a ticket, wait for a sprint, redeploy
Hosting and domain Global hosting and automatic SSL; connect a custom domain from the Starter plan Buy hosting, then install and renew SSL certificates yourself
Code ownership Clean production code you own and can export Locked into a template, plugin or agency setup
Examples

Ways teams use it

  • A commercial GC with six jobs running

    Two project managers carry three jobs each. The board totals contract value including approved changes and cost to date across all six, and each manager keeps a saved view of only their own.

  • A custom home builder billing on a schedule of values

    Allowances and selections change every week. Each change order is logged against the cost code it lands on, so the finishes line shows what the client has actually approved rather than what was estimated.

  • An owner’s rep watching a tenant fit-out

    The rep doesn’t need the contractor’s cost report, only forecast dates, approved changes and this week’s photos, so the owner view is the one page they land on when they sign in.

Good to know

Before you build

  • Your accounting system still owns the ledger

    The dashboard reports cost, it doesn’t post it. Amounts arrive by hand each week or from your accounting or job-costing provider’s REST API if it has one. Pay applications, payroll and sub invoices stay where your bookkeeper works.

  • One log for RFIs and change orders

    To keep the dashboard light, both share a collection with a type field. If you send dozens of formal RFIs a month with their own numbering, response periods and attachments, ask the agent to split them into two collections.

  • Waivers and retainage are contract matters

    Signed lien waivers and pay applications can be stored as files with their dates. Waiver wording and deadlines are set by state law — California, for example, prescribes statutory forms — so your contract and your attorney decide what you send.

  • Drawings stay in your drawing tool

    Netiva builds the dashboard, not a sheet viewer. Details and markups can be attached to a log item and opened in the browser, but sheet versions, overlays and models belong in the tool your design team already uses.

FAQ

Questions about building a construction dashboard

How does the construction dashboard work out budget versus actual?

Each budget line holds a cost code with its budget amount, the committed amount from subcontracts and purchase orders, and cost to date. The cost report subtracts them to show what is left on the line and pulls anything already over to the top. Approved change orders are added to the code they land on, so the contract value on screen is the current one rather than the awarded one.

Can superintendents post daily logs and photos from the job site?

Yes. Netiva builds web apps that open in the phone browser, so there is nothing to install on a site phone. The daily log screen takes weather, crews on site, work performed, a delay reason and a progress photo, and stamps the entry with the signed-in superintendent and the date. Entries then read back in date order on the job page.

Can the owner’s rep see the job without seeing our costs?

Yes, if you describe it that way. End users sign in and each one sees their own records, so the owner view can show forecast dates, approved change orders, the current contract value and recent site photos, while the cost report and the committed amounts stay on the internal pages your own team uses.

Can it pull job costs from our accounting software?

Apps built with Netiva can call any REST API with the key stored securely, so if your accounting or job-costing system publishes one, describe the sync and the agent wires it — for example, refreshing committed and actual amounts per cost code every night. Check your provider’s API documentation first. Without an API, project engineers post the week’s costs by hand.

How do we see which RFIs are past their answer-by date?

Every item in the log carries a needed-by date and a ball-in-court value. The open items screen sorts by days past that date and groups rows by who holds it, so the coordination call runs off one list. A scheduled email can also send each project manager the items on their jobs that went past due in the last week.

Do we own the construction dashboard’s code?

Yes. Netiva writes clean, framework-standard code you can read in the editor, edit and export whenever you want, with no proprietary runtime. Every change the agent makes is checkpointed, so you can branch, compare and roll back. You can start on the free plan, and custom domains are available from the Starter plan.

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Drafted with AI assistance from Netiva’s product pages and reviewed by the Netiva team. Example data models, screens and prompts are illustrative starting points, not customer projects.

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