Automatic site analysis: 5 key indicators monitored by Dropia to boost your profits

The automatic site analysis is not just a simple profitability calculation. Dropia constantly monitors 5 key indicators that together provide a complete view of the health and profit potential of your construction sites.

Indicator 1: Actual hourly cost vs. forecasted

Why it is crucial

The hourly cost is at the heart of construction profitability. If you estimate a task costs €40/h but it actually costs €50/h, your margin shrinks by 25% on that task.

How Dropia calculates it automatically

Forecasted hourly cost: Defined during the creation of the site, based on:

• The average loaded hourly cost of your workers

• The type of tasks to be performed

• Your history on similar sites

Actual hourly cost: Automatically calculated in real-time:

• Total hours logged on the site

• Valued at the loaded hourly cost of each worker

• Divided by the total number of hours

Example

Site "House Bertrand"

• Forecasted hourly cost: €45/h

• After 200h of work:

  • 120h by senior workers at €52/h = €6,240

  • 80h by junior workers at €38/h = €3,040

  • Total: €9,280 for 200h

  • Actual hourly cost: €46.40/h (+3.1%)

Dropia's Interpretation

✅ Small deviation (-5% to +5%): Normal situation, reliable estimates

⚠️ Moderate deviation (+5% to +15%): Caution, slightly lower productivity or suboptimal allocation

🚨 Significant deviation (>+15%): Alert, investigation needed

Possible corrective actions

• Reassigning more productive workers

• Training teams on optimal methods

• Revising site organization

• If structural deviation: increase future quotes

Indicator 2: Budget consumption rate

Why it is crucial

Knowing how quickly you are consuming your budget allows you to anticipate overruns before it’s too late.

How Dropia calculates it

Formula: Consumption rate = (Actual cost to date / Total budget) × 100

This rate should always be compared to the physical advancement rate.

Example

Site "Commerce Renovation"

• Total budget: €75,000

• Physical advancement: 40%

• Actual cost to date: €35,000

• Consumption rate: 46.7%

Dropia's Interpretation

In this example, we have consumed 46.7% of the budget for 40% advancement.

• Deviation: +6.7 points

• ⚠️ Moderate alert: "consumption slightly exceeds advancement"

The Dropia trajectory chart

Dropia displays a chart showing:

• Physical advancement curve

• Budget consumption curve

• Ideally, both curves should overlap

When the consumption curve moves up: danger!

Corrective actions

• If small deviation (< 5 points): increased monitoring

• If moderate deviation (5-10 points): detailed analysis and optimizations

• If significant deviation (> 10 points): urgent corrective actions or client renegotiation

Indicator 3: Advancement/consumption gap

Why this is the most critical indicator

This is THE metric that instantly reveals whether a site is on track or not. A site can have a good hourly cost but still drift if the overall productivity is insufficient.

How Dropia calculates it

Formula: Gap = Consumption rate - Advancement rate

The three zones

🟢 Negative gap (consumption < advancement): Excellent! You are progressing faster than planned or spending less. Be careful not to sacrifice quality.

🟡 Zero or small gap (-5% to +5%): Perfect, you are on the planned trajectory.

🔴 Positive gap (consumption > advancement): Caution, you are spending faster than you are advancing. Investigation needed.

Dropia's visual dashboard

Dropia displays the gap with an immediate color code:

• Green: gap ≤ 0%

• Orange: 0% < gap ≤ 10%

• Red: gap > 10%

A simple glance at the multi-site dashboard reveals problematic situations.

Case study

Company with 8 active sites

• 5 sites in green (gap -2% to +3%)

• 2 sites in orange (gap +7% and +9%)

• 1 site in red (gap +14%)

The site manager immediately knows where to focus their attention: the red site requires urgent intervention, the two orange ones need close monitoring.

Indicator 4: Projected margin at completion

Why this is crucial

Knowing the projected final margin allows you to anticipate and decide: should you correct, accept a reduced margin, or renegotiate with the client?

How Dropia calculates it

Projection method:

If the site is at 40% advancement and has consumed 50% of the budget, Dropia projects linearly:

• Total budget: €100,000

• Consumed at 40%: €50,000

• Projection at 100%: €50,000 / 0.4 = €125,000

• Projected overrun: €25,000

If the client quote was €120,000:

• Initial margin expected: €20,000

• Projected margin: -€5,000 (loss!)

Refining the projection

Dropia can refine by taking into account:

• The varying difficulty of remaining tasks

• Corrective actions already implemented

• The recent performance history

Use for decision-making

Projected margin > target margin: ✅ Excellent, you can afford some unexpected events

Projected margin = target margin ± 2%: 🟡 Compliant, stay vigilant

Projected margin < target margin by more than 3%: 🟠 Corrective actions needed

Negative projected margin: 🔴 Critical situation, urgent intervention or client discussion

Indicator 5: Productivity per task and per worker

Why this is crucial

Not all workers and tasks are equal. Identifying the most/least productive allows for optimization of allocations and overall profitability.

How Dropia tracks it

Productivity per task: For each type of task (masonry, plastering, electricity, etc.):

• Budgeted hours

• Hours actually consumed

• Productivity ratio = budgeted hours / actual hours

Ratio > 1: task faster than expected (good) Ratio < 1: task slower than expected (problem)

Productivity per worker: For each employee, over a given period:

• Hours worked

• Value produced (based on task advancement)

• Value/time ratio

Example analysis

Task "Installing plasterboard partitions" on 3 sites:

• Site A: 80h budgeted, 75h actual → Ratio 1.07 ✅

• Site B: 100h budgeted, 100h actual → Ratio 1.00 ✅

• Site C: 60h budgeted, 78h actual → Ratio 0.77 🔴

Investigation on site C reveals:

• Unforeseen complex configuration

• Less experienced worker

• → Lesson for future similar quotes

Use for optimization

Intelligent allocation: Most productive workers on critical tasks or sites in difficulty

Targeted training: Identification of workers needing training on specific tasks

Improvement of estimates: Real data refines future quotes

How these 5 indicators work together

Real scenario analyzed by Dropia

Site "Restaurant Extension" - Orange alert week 5

Indicator 1 - Hourly cost: Actual €48/h vs. planned €44/h (+9%) ⚠️

Indicator 2 - Budget consumption: 42% consumed for 35% advancement ⚠️

Indicator 3 - Advancement/consumption gap: +7 points 🔴

Indicator 4 - Projected margin: Projected 8% vs. target 12% 🔴

Indicator 5 - Productivity: Task "framework": ratio 0.85 (underproductive) 🔴 Worker "Martin": 15% less productive than average 🔴

Dropia's Diagnosis

Identified problem: The framework task consumes too many hours, primarily due to an inexperienced worker on this type of work.

Action plan

1. Strengthen the framework team with a senior for 1 week

2. Train Martin or reassign him to other tasks

3. Optimize the organization of the framework task

Follow-up week 7

After corrective actions:

• Hourly cost framework: reverted to €45/h

• Advancement/consumption gap: reduced to +4 points

• Projected margin: increased to 10.5%

The site is saved thanks to early detection and reaction.

Configuration of indicators in Dropia

Initial setup (30 minutes)

In Dropia:

• Define hourly costs by profile

• Configure alert thresholds for each indicator

• Customize dashboards (which indicators to display as a priority)

Daily use (automatic)

Once configured:

• All indicators are calculated automatically

• Alerts go out according to defined thresholds

• Dashboards update in real-time

Recommended consultation

• Multi-site view: daily (5 min)

• Detailed analysis of orange/red site: weekly (15 min/site)

• Overall review of all indicators: monthly (1h)

Testimonial: Public works company, 28 employees

"The 5 Dropia indicators have doubled our profitability"

Marc, technical director:

"Before Dropia, we primarily looked at one figure: the total cost at the end of the site. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, but we didn’t really understand why.

With the 5 Dropia indicators, we have a much finer analysis. We see exactly where the problems are:

• A site with good hourly costs but poor advancement gap → global productivity problem

• A site with good gap but poor margin → initial quote issue

• A task consistently underproductive → need for training or method revision

In a year, we went from a 6-7% average margin to 12-13%. We doubled our profitability simply by finely managing with the right indicators.

And the craziest part is that Dropia does all the calculations automatically. We don’t spend hours producing Excel spreadsheets; we simply check the indicators and act."

Conclusion: Data at the service of profit

The 5 key indicators automatically tracked by Dropia transform raw data (hours, costs, advancements) into actionable intelligence. You no longer manage by intuition but by facts.

This data-driven approach to site management is the standard for the most profitable construction companies in 2025. And contrary to what we
Post-site analysis report

At the close of a site:

• Complete financial report

• Comparison forecast vs. actual by item

• Lessons learned for future similar sites

• Significant deviations and their causes

These reports constitute a valuable database for refining future quotes.

Use profitability analysis to make better decisions

Decision 1: Accept or reject an amendment

A client requests a modification during the site. With Dropia's real-time analysis, you instantly know:

• What the current margin of the site is

• How many hours and budget remain available

• If you can absorb the modification or need to bill for it

Decision 2: Reallocate resources

A site is drifting, another is ahead. Dropia allows you to quickly see where to reallocate workers to optimize overall profitability.

Decision 3: Negotiate with the client

If a site shows signs of drifting for reasons beyond your control (scope changes, unforeseen conditions), the data from Dropia provides a factual basis for negotiating an adjustment.

Decision 4: Improve future estimates

The history of sites in Dropia allows identifying:

• Actual productivity ratios by type of task

• The most profitable types of sites

• Cost items that are systematically underestimated

This data improves the accuracy of future estimates.

Testimonial: General contracting SME, 22 employees

"Dropia saved us €40,000 on a site"

Frédéric, manager:

"We had a significant site, budgeted at €220,000. With our old method, we checked in once a month. By the end of the 3rd month, we realized we had already consumed 75% of the budget for barely 60% advancement.

With Dropia, it would have been detected by the end of the first month. The automatic alert would have warned us that we were exceeding the forecasted hourly cost by 10%. We could have reorganized teams, optimized methods, discussed with the client.

On the next equivalent site, we installed Dropia from the start. At 30% advancement, the analysis showed we were 8% over budget. We immediately:

• Reassigned a more productive worker

• Renegotiated our supply prices with two suppliers

• Optimized some work methods

Result: We finished the site with an 11% margin instead of 6% projected. Dropia saved us at least €40,000 on this project."

Configuration of profitability analysis in Dropia

Step 1: Initial setup (30 minutes)

• Definition of loaded hourly costs by category of employee

• Configuration of alert thresholds (80% budget, margin below 8%, etc.)

• Customization of reports (logo, format, displayed information)

Step 2: Inputting sites (5 minutes per site)

For each new site:

• Amount of the client quote

• Budget hours by task

• Budget supplies

• Target margin

• Specific alert thresholds if necessary

Step 3: Daily use (automatic)

Once configured, the system works by itself:

• Clock-ins automatically feed labor costs

• Supplies logged are integrated into costs

• Analyses and alerts are generated in real-time

• Reports are available in one click

The advanced indicators of Dropia analysis

Budget consumption velocity

Dropia calculates the speed at which the budget is consumed. If this velocity is greater than the advancement speed, an early alert is triggered.

Productivity per worker

Identification of the most/least productive workers on each type of task. Allows for optimization of future allocations.

Profitability by type of task

Some tasks are consistently profitable, others are loss-making. This analysis refines estimates and can inform business strategy.

Cross-site comparison

For similar sites, comparison of performances: which site is the most profitable and why?

Temporal evolution

Graphs showing the evolution of profitability over time: allows you to see if corrective actions are bearing fruit.

Conclusion: from retrospective accounting to predictive management

Traditional profitability analysis is retrospective: you discover problems when it’s too late. Dropia’s automatic analysis transforms profitability into a predictive management tool: you see deviations forming and can act in time.

This transformation has a direct impact on the average profitability of companies. Users
With an average gain of 13 hours per month and rates tailored to SMEs (from free to €59.90/month unlimited), Dropia represents the best investment to modernize your construction management in 2025.

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