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For years, spreadsheets have been the default tool for managing procurement. They’re familiar, flexible, and require no additional costs. But, as projects grow in scale and complexity, Excel starts to show its limits.
Procurement isn’t just about tracking numbers. It’s about managing risk, maintaining visibility, and ensuring contracts align with project requirements. Yet, many main contractors still rely on disconnected spreadsheets, email chains, and manual approvals to manage millions in subcontractor packages.
This approach isn’t just slow — it creates gaps, delays decisions, and increases the likelihood of errors.
Spreadsheets work well for small-scale budgeting, but they weren’t built for procurement at construction’s pace.
Our conversations with commercial managers generally feature the phrase “I still can’t believe that we’re in (enter any year after 2008) and still relying so heavily on Excel". The truth is, Excel is here for the long haul, but in applications that require collaboration and scalability, it's being replaced by modern, collaborative solutions.
Spreadsheets don’t scale. They weren’t built to handle live collaboration, structured workflows, or procurement tracking across multiple teams and projects. Procurement software removes those limitations by centralising data, automating tedious admin, and providing real-time updates instead of version-controlled chaos.
Procurement teams waste hours updating spreadsheets, chasing approvals, and moving data between systems. Automation eliminates those steps.
Without a defined process, every team member approaches procurement differently. That leads to inconsistent scopes, missed inclusions, and contract disputes.
Tracking approvals, contract revisions, and scope changes is difficult when information is scattered across emails and spreadsheets. Procurement software creates a clear, time-stamped record of every decision.
Procurement gaps don’t appear out of nowhere. They creep in through incomplete scopes, misaligned expectations, and approvals that take too long. The result? Variations, cost overruns, and disputes that could have been avoided.
A well-prepared scope of works prevents costly adjustments later. Standardised templates, shared learnings, and early alignment across teams ensure every package is scoped correctly before tendering.
Choosing a subcontractor requires more than comparing bottom-line figures. Without a structured comparison process, low bids often come with exclusions that surface too late.
Approvals slow procurement when they rely on manual tracking. Delays in sign-offs mean packages sit idle, pushing back contract execution and impacting project timelines.
Standardising these processes keeps procurement on track, reducing risks that eat into margin and delay delivery.
Procurement teams need more than just spreadsheets and instinct. Real-time analytics pull together costs, supplier history, and project timelines, giving teams live data to act on before issues become costly.
Dashboards consolidate procurement activity across projects, highlighting patterns that spreadsheets miss. A subcontractor with consistent delays, for example, won’t seem like a major risk on a single project. But across multiple jobs, the trend becomes obvious — giving teams time to adjust.
Pricing inconsistencies are a hidden drain on profitability. Real-time data makes them easy to catch.
With live cost tracking, teams can challenge inflated rates before they become locked into contracts.
A supplier’s history tells you everything you need to know about their reliability. Analytics dashboards surface performance trends that might otherwise go unnoticed.
By tracking supplier risks across projects, procurement teams can make informed decisions instead of reacting to problems as they arise.
Procurement decisions should be based on today’s data, not last month’s reports. A quantity surveyor in Manchester reviewing a cost report from four weeks ago might see that steel prices spiked 6%—but by then, the contracts are signed, and the opportunity to negotiate has passed.
Live dashboards ensure teams act on financial risks as they emerge, whether that’s locking in better rates, adjusting procurement strategies, or reallocating budgets. The result? Fewer cost overruns, stronger margins, and fewer surprises at the end of a project.
Supply chain instability isn’t new, but procurement teams still rely on outdated methods to manage subcontractor relationships. Without real-time data, risk assessment becomes reactive rather than strategic. A procurement solution gives main contractors live visibility over vendor capacity, financial health, and performance history, helping prevent supply chain failures before they happen.
A subcontractor’s reliability isn’t always obvious from a single project. Tracking their past performance, delivery consistency, and contract compliance across multiple jobs provides a clearer picture.
Labour shortages and material delays can derail a project, but early indicators often go unnoticed. A procurement solution helps teams spot problems before they impact timelines.
Disconnected teams create procurement blind spots. Site managers, commercial teams, and procurement leads need real-time access to the same data to avoid delays and misalignment.
With digital procurement, supply chain risks don’t go unnoticed until it’s too late. Instead, teams have the data they need to make informed, proactive decisions.
Many contractors are rethinking how they manage procurement. Below are two common questions about procurement solutions and how they fit into existing workflows.
No. While tier-one contractors benefit from procurement software at scale, mid-sized firms and regional builders face the same challenges. A £50 million contractor managing 20 subcontract packages per project deals with scope gaps, approval delays, and risk exposure just like a £500 million firm.
Procurement software structures workflows, reduces admin, and ensures consistency — whether for a small fitout or a multimillion-pound development.
Yes. Most procurement solutions connect with construction management, finance, and document control platforms. For example, a contractor using Procore for project tracking, Viewpoint Jobpac for financials, and DocuSign for contract execution can link all three to procurement software.
This eliminates duplicate data entry, improves cost tracking, and keeps procurement schedules updated without manual inputs. Cloud-based platforms also sync with Microsoft Power BI for live reporting, removing the need for static Excel dashboards.
Spreadsheets still serve their purpose (we've even incorporated spreadsheets into our pricing breakdowns), but procurement has largely outgrown them.
Main contractors managing multiple projects can no longer afford to rely on version-controlled files, email chains, and manual approvals. Procurement solutions centralise data, automate workflows, and provide a structured process that works across teams — eliminating the gaps that spreadsheets create.
A single platform means procurement isn’t scattered across tools. Tendering, contract execution, and analytics live in one place, giving teams visibility over every package. Quantity surveyors no longer have to chase approvals, commercial managers get real-time cost tracking, and directors can see procurement risks before they impact project timelines.
Contractors are moving fast to modernise procurement. The teams making the shift aren’t just improving efficiency — they’re reducing cost overruns, mitigating risk, and making procurement a strategic advantage.
See how a construction-focused solution can streamline your processes.
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