Executive handbook

ConstruC is the operating system for your construction firm. Instead of chasing spreadsheets, WhatsApp threads and email chains across projects, everything lives in one workspace that is always current.

As an executive you don't work inside any single department — you sit above all of them. ConstruC rolls up every project and every department into a live picture of the firm, then lets you drill into any detail or take action without leaving the page.

The idea that shapes everything is department-first. Each project is made of the departments that do the work — Design, QS, Procurement, Site, Finance, Equipment. People belong to a department and see their own work. You see across all of them.

The one thing to remember: a department lead sees only their department. You see everything — every department, every project — and you can act on any of it.

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Five concepts and you understand the whole system.

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Everyone has a company role. It decides, automatically and everywhere, what they can see and do.

Firm-wide oversight & "act authority". Making someone a CEO or Manager gives them oversight (the firm-wide, read-everything view). On top sits act authority — permission to make changes across the firm. Every executive gets it by default. To make an executive read-only (a board member who should see but not touch), switch their act authority off in People; they keep the full view but can't change anything. Every executive change is recorded with their name.

Sensitive numbers — Company P&L, cash position, at-risk analysis — are locked to executives. A department lead can't reach them, in the app or by any other route. The system checks this on every request.

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When you sign in you land in the firm workspace. A single menu on the left is your home base.

Everything in that menu is firm-wide. Clicking into a specific project swaps you into that project's workspace — the same department tabs your teams use daily. One click back returns you to the firm view.

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The Overview answers, in thirty seconds: What's in trouble? Are we making money? What's waiting on me? Have we got the cash?

1. At-risk projects — the health ranking. Every live project scored on five things at once — schedule slip, progress vs plan, forecast profit/margin, quality (open snags & RFIs), and money tied up in pending change orders / EOT claims. One plain verdict per project, worst first: Red — At risk · Amber — Watch · Green — On track. Each row spells out why in words you can act on — e.g. 14 working days behind baseline · forecast loss GHS 210,000 · 23 open snags.
2. Portfolio financials. The firm's money on one band: contract value won, forecast profit/loss and margin, work-in-progress, jobs in profit vs loss. If numbers can't be computed or currencies differ, it says so rather than under-reporting.
3. Approvals backlog. The whole firm's backlog — how many are stuck, split into fresh (≤3d), aging (4–7d) and stuck (8+d), plus which kind and project is the bottleneck.
4. Cash position. Money coming in (client-certified, unpaid) vs going out (approved supplier/sub invoices due), with pipelines, and the net.
5. Department comparison & trends. Each department side by side, the planned-vs-actual progress and financial S-curves, and a live activity feed.

The health ranking, cash position, approvals backlog and Company P&L are executives-only. A department lead opening the same page sees their own department's rollup — never the firm's money.

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The Company P&L answers the most important question: are we going to make money? — for the whole firm and each job.

It reconciles what each project is worth (contract value) against what it's costing and forecast to cost, and rolls every project into one firm position: forecast profit/loss, portfolio margin, and jobs-in-profit vs at-a-loss. Projects list worst first, so a loss-making job is always at the top.

• Value earned & WIP — work done vs billed. A big WIP figure is cash earned but not yet invoiced.
• Forecast at completion — where each job lands if it continues as it's going.
• Honest totals — a project that can't be computed is flagged and excluded (not dragged into the total silently); mixed-currency portfolios are marked indicative.

Click any project through to its detailed cost ledger.

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ConstruC AI is not a chatbot — it's an operator that reads anything across the firm and acts on your behalf, always with your confirmation, always within your permissions.

Ask it to find (it answers from real data, never invents a number):

• "Which project is most behind schedule, and why?"
• "What's our total exposure to pending change orders across the firm?"
• "What did we decide about the foundation redesign on Ridge?" (searches your documents & discussions)
• "Materials delivered to Riverside this month — did they arrive on site?"

Tell it to do (it plans, gathers, then proposes for your confirmation):

• Create a task, chase/answer an RFI, record progress, raise/resolve a snag — on any project.
• Notify a person, or post to a channel.
• Approve or reject an item waiting on you.
• Generate a branded PDF report (status/financial/progress/equipment) for any project, delivered to your WhatsApp or email, on your firm's letterhead.
• Draft a bespoke letter/document in your firm's writing style, then deliver it.

How it stays safe — propose, then confirm. It shows exactly what it's about to do; nothing happens until you Confirm; on confirm, your permissions are re-checked and the action is recorded against your name. The AI can never do more than you could yourself, and never touches another firm's data.

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Add each person to the firm once, give them a role and a department, and they're set across every project their department touches. No per-project invites.

1. Add the person — People → Invite person; enter email, pick a role, and (for leads/members) a department.
2. Send the invite link — ConstruC gives you a shareable link; send it any way (email, WhatsApp).
3. They create an account & accept — right there on the page.
4. They join with exactly the role you chose — nothing more, nothing less.

From People you can also change anyone's role/department later, grant or revoke oversight, toggle an executive's act authority, and designate a Project Manager on a specific project (manage-access across all departments on that one project).

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Approval routes are ordered chains of sign-off steps for a kind of record (change order, PO, expense, material request, subcontract…). Each step names who approves (a department + role, a custom role, or a specific person) and how many are needed. Submitting that record walks the chain automatically.

• Routes per project — a firm-wide default and a different route for a specific project; the project's route overrides the default.
• Approver roles — define your firm's own sign-off titles ("Operations Manager") and assign people, so routes read in your language.
• Separation of duties — the person who raised a request can never approve it. Built in, can't be switched off.

Set routes and roles under Customize. Decisions waiting on you are in your Approvals inbox; the firm's whole backlog and aging are on your Overview.

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Authoring firm-wide rules (workflows, approval routes) is a cross-department power. A single department lead can't do it — only executives, an owner/admin, or a genuine project-wide manager. Hardened deliberately.

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When finance generates a report, or the AI drafts a client letter, it should look and read like your firm's paper. Under Customize → Templates & branding, per document kind (letters, reports, financial reports, invoices, or a default) you set:

• Your letterhead image — across the top of every document.
• Your house colours — headings and tables.
• A header, footer & page numbers — on every page.
• Writing-style notes the AI follows when drafting — tone, how you open and sign off.
• Your example documents as house-style references.

A live preview beside the settings shows exactly how a letter or report will look as you edit — before you save.

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The Projects area is your portfolio: every job with its progress, budget and open items. Click a card to enter that project's full workspace.

• New project — a name is all you need to begin; the seven departments are set up automatically.
• Past project — in the same dialog, tick "This is a past (completed) project" and record dates, contract value, currency and final progress. It appears correctly in your portfolio and firm history straight away.
• Drilling in — opening a project swaps you into its workspace with every department tab. You see across all of them; a lead sees only their department. One click returns to the firm view.

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Two promises the system enforces on every request — by design, not by policy:

• No firm sees another firm's data. Your workspace is completely isolated — no screen, link, report or search crosses into another firm. Independently audited and confirmed.
• Roles are enforced everywhere. A department lead can't reach another department's data or the firm's money — in the app, by direct link, or through the AI.
• Everything is audited. Every executive and AI change is recorded with who did it. Approvals enforce separation of duties. Documents leave only to the people you configured.
• You hold the controls. You decide who's an executive, who has act authority, who approves what — revoke any of it any time.

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1. Open the Overview — the at-risk ranking tells you which jobs need attention today, and why.
2. Follow the money — glance at cash position and Company P&L; anything sliding toward a loss is already at the top.
3. Clear the decisions — your Approvals inbox holds what's waiting on you; the backlog card shows what's stuck elsewhere.
4. Delegate to the AI — "Draft the monthly status report for Ridge and send it to my WhatsApp." Confirm, and it's done.
5. Drill in only where needed — open a project when a number warrants it; everything else stayed at the firm level where you act fastest.

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ConstruC — Firm Operating System · Executive Edition. A companion guide for department leads follows.