The whole job in one place
Budget, schedule, purchasing, site log and finances for every project, always in tune.
Projects is the home for every job in Matterial: it brings the budget, the schedule, purchasing, the site log and the finances together in one space. Everything stays connected, so a change in one part shows up in the others without re-entering a thing. You stop hopping between spreadsheets, chat threads and folders just to see how the project is really going. It is the construction management software that pulls together what today lives scattered: what you budgeted, what you have already spent and what has actually been built in the field, all on one screen and always up to date.
What problem it solves
A job's information lives scattered: the budget in one spreadsheet, purchasing in another, the photos in a chat thread and the progress in the superintendent's head. When you want the full picture you have to piece it all together by hand, and by the time you do it's already out of date. No two people see the same thing: the superintendent thinks it's going fine, purchasing doesn't know how much budget is left in each line item, and management finds out about the overrun once the money is already spent. Decisions get made blind, and always too late.
How it works
Create the project
You set the job up once, with its baseline budget and its details, and that becomes the starting point for everything else. It does not matter whether the job is just breaking ground or has been running for months: you load the budget by line item and the project starts measuring against that baseline.
Everything connects on its own
Schedule, purchasing, site log and finances all hang off the same project: you enter it in one place and it shows up in the rest without duplicating work. A purchase order draws down the budget of its line item; progress logged on site moves the physical percentage; a photo in the site log stays tied to the date and the job.
Each role in its own view
The superintendent logs progress and consumption, purchasing centralizes orders and the director sees the health and the cost, all working off the same information. Nobody exports or forwards anything: each role opens the same project and sees what they need to decide on.
Keep a finger on the pulse
At a glance you see budget against actual, physical and financial progress, and the risk signals, always up to date. When spending starts running ahead of progress, you see it before it turns into a problem you can no longer fix.
What's included
- A single space per job with budget, schedule, purchasing, site log and finances
- Automatic sync between modules, no re-entering data
- Budget against actual and physical vs. financial progress by project
- Site log with photos and material consumption tied to the project
- Views by role: superintendent, purchasing, costs and management on the same data
- A direct base for reporting, cost control and job health
- Several active jobs at once, each with its own project
How to run a job from a single project
From baseline budget to actual cost, without losing the thread
Every job starts with a budget by line item: foundations, structure, framing, MEP, finishes. That budget is the baseline everything else is measured against. The classic problem is not the lack of a budget, it is that the moment the job starts the budget freezes in a spreadsheet while the real spending runs somewhere else: purchase orders, material requisitions, piecework and advances that nobody ties back to the line item they belong to.
In Matterial the budget lives inside the project, not off to the side. Every purchase you record draws down the budget of its line item, so the actual cost builds itself as the job moves forward. Instead of waiting for month-end close to know how much you have spent, you see budget against actual in the moment, line item by line item. When a line item starts eating into its budget ahead of schedule, the signal shows up right there, not in the meeting three weeks later.
That connection is what changes the conversation. It stops being "how much have we spent?" answered from memory, and becomes a number that comes from the real orders and consumption already loaded on the job. The director stops asking for the report and starts reading it directly.
- Budget by line item as the baseline for every job
- Actual cost builds itself from recorded purchases and consumption
- Budget against actual visible by line item, not just the total
- The variance shows up while there is still time to correct it
Physical progress and financial progress, side by side
Spending 50% of the budget does not mean the job is 50% done. That is the trap that sinks margins: the money goes faster than the concrete gets poured. That is why a job needs two numbers read together, not one. Financial progress tells you how much of the budget has already been spent. Physical progress tells you how much of the job is actually built in the field. The gap between the two is the most honest signal of how the project is going.
The superintendent logs physical progress from the site — which line items are moving and by what percentage — and that figure sits next to the financial progress that comes from the purchasing and finances of the project. When the financial runs several points ahead of the physical, that is the early warning of an overrun: money is going out faster than the work is getting done. When it runs behind, it can mean a delay, a stalled job, or simply invoices already committed that have not landed yet.
Reading those two numbers together, by job and by line item, is what separates managing a job from merely recording it. It is not a pretty dashboard: it is the difference between catching the drift in time or signing off on the loss at the end.
- Physical progress logged in the field by the superintendent
- Financial progress derived from the project purchasing and finances
- The gap between the two as an early warning of overrun or delay
- Read across the whole job and by line item
A single source of truth for the field, purchasing and management
The real cost of running the job in spreadsheets and chat threads is not the Office license: it is that everyone works off a different copy. The superintendent keeps progress in a notebook, purchasing builds the orders in its own file, management asks for a report that someone has to sit down and reconcile on Friday. By the time the report is ready, it has already changed. No two people see the same thing at the same time, and decisions get made on stale information.
In Matterial there are no copies: there is one project and several views onto it. The superintendent logs in and records progress, material consumption and site-log photos directly on the job. Purchasing centralizes the orders for that same job. Management opens the cost and health view without asking anyone for the file, because it is looking at the same project the superintendent just entered data into. The site log, with its photos and consumption tied to the date, also leaves a record of what happened and when, without depending on who happened to send the photo in the group chat.
The practical effect is that the meetings to "agree on the numbers" go away. The numbers are already there, they are the same for everyone, and the meeting is used to decide instead of to reconstruct reality.
- Field view: progress, consumption and site log with photos from the job
- Purchasing view: orders centralized for each project
- Management view: cost, progress and health without asking for reports
- Site log tied to date and job as a record of what was built
Several jobs at once, without opening ten files
A builder rarely has a single job. It has three, five, eight running at the same time, each in its own phase, with its own superintendent and its own budget. In spreadsheets that means one file per job, each with its own format and a different last-updated date, and one person building the consolidated view by hand every time management asks for it.
Each job lives in its own project, and from the management view you see them all together: how much each has spent against its budget, how its progress is going and what risk signals it carries. Instead of opening ten files to find out which job is going off the rails, you see in one shot which one needs your attention today. That is the job of a construction management platform done right: not to bury you in modules, but to give you the picture of the whole building company without anyone having to assemble it.
For the owner or director splitting the week across several jobs, that consolidated view is what decides where to go on Monday. For the superintendent, it is the reassurance that what they record on their job already counts upward, without having to explain it again in a report.
- Each job in its own project, with its own budget and progress
- Management view with every job at once
- Actual cost, progress and risk signals comparable across jobs
- The consolidated view builds itself, not by hand every week
Running the job in spreadsheets and chat vs. with Matterial
The same job, two ways to manage it. The difference is not how much information you have, but whether it is together, connected and up to date when you need it to decide.
| Today (spreadsheets and chat) | With Matterial | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the job lives | Scattered across spreadsheets, chat, email and folders | A single project brings together budget, purchasing, site log and finances |
| Budget vs. actual | Reconciled by hand at month-end close, already too late | Builds itself with each purchase, visible by line item in the moment |
| Job progress | A percentage the superintendent gives from memory | Physical and financial progress side by side, with the gap in plain sight |
| Photos and site log | Loose in the chat, no date or context | Tied to the job and the date in the site log |
| Who sees what | Everyone their own copy, no two see the same thing | One project, several role-based views on the same data |
| Updates | The report is born stale and has to be rebuilt | Always up to date: you enter it in one place and it shows up in the rest |
| Several jobs | One file per job and a consolidated view by hand | Every job together in the management view |
| Risk signals | Found out once the spending has already happened | Show up when spending runs ahead of progress |
How to read a project: an example job
Illustrative figures for a hypothetical single-family home to show how a project reads in Matterial. These are not market data or a promised result.
Illustrative example. Financial progress (52%) running above physical progress (45%) is the early warning of an overrun; the foundations line item is already $18,000 USD over its budget. Those numbers come straight from the purchases and progress loaded on the project; they do not represent any real job or a guaranteed saving.
How each role uses it
Opens the management view on Monday morning and sees all five jobs together: which one is on budget and which has spending running ahead of progress. Decides which job to visit this week without asking anyone for a report.
Before authorizing a large purchase, opens the project and sees how much budget is left in that line item and how the total actual cost of the job is going. Signs off with the number in front of them, not from memory.
At the end of the day logs the progress on their line items, the material consumption and the site-log photos directly on the job. What they record already counts for management; they do not have to build a separate report on Friday.
Notices that foundations is consuming more material than budgeted and sees it reflected in the actual cost of that line item the same day, in time to flag it before the overrun grows.
Who it's for
Works with the rest of Matterial
Frequently asked questions
What does a project bring together in Matterial?
Each project pulls the budget, the schedule, purchasing, the site log and the finances of that job into one place, all connected to one another. It is the home for the job: instead of having it scattered across several files, you manage it from a single screen.
Do I have to enter the same information in each module?
No. Everything hangs off the same project, so a figure you record in purchasing or the site log shows up in the finances and the progress without re-entering it. A purchase order draws down the budget of its line item and progress logged on site moves the physical percentage automatically.
Can I run several jobs at the same time?
Yes. Each job lives in its own project and from the management view you can see the cost, the progress and the health of all of them together, without opening a file per job or building the consolidated view by hand.
Who works inside a project?
The whole team: the superintendent logs progress and consumption on site, purchasing centralizes the orders and management checks the status, each with their own view of the same information. There are no different copies of the file: there is one project and several views onto it.
How is it different from running the job in spreadsheets and chat?
In spreadsheets and chat the information is scattered and born stale: the budget in one place, purchasing in another, the photos in the chat and the progress in the superintendent's head. In Matterial all of that lives in one project, connected and up to date, so budget against actual and physical against financial progress read in the moment, not at month-end close.
Is Matterial construction management software or a construction ERP?
You can see it as the construction management software where each project brings together budget, schedule, purchasing, site log and finances. That is the construction ERP idea done right: not to bury you in loose modules, but to give you the full picture of each job and of the whole building company without anyone assembling it by hand.
How do I know if a job is going over budget?
You see budget against actual by line item and physical against financial progress in the same project. When spending runs ahead of progress, the risk signal shows up in time, while there is still room to correct it, instead of discovering the overrun once the money is already gone.
What do I need to start with a job that is already underway?
You set up the project with its baseline budget by line item and its details, and that is the starting point. From there, the purchases, the site log and the progress you record start building the actual cost and the progress of the job, even if the job has been running for months.
Do the superintendent and management see the same information?
Yes. It is the same project for everyone, only each role opens their own view: the superintendent to log progress, consumption and the site log; purchasing to their orders; management to the cost and the health. What one records, the other sees in the moment, without forwarding files or reconciling reports.
Get started today with Matterial
From blueprint to build, with clarity. Try it free, no card.