Tracking construction hours: From field entry to profitability assessment with Dropia

Tracking work hours is a chain that goes from the site to the engineering office. Traditionally, this chain has multiple breaks, re-keying, and delays. Dropia completely streamlines this process by creating a continuous flow of data, from mobile time tracking to final profitability analysis.

The traditional process (and its breaks)

Step 1: Field Entry (paper)

Actor: Worker

• Manual filling of the hours sheet

• Risk of forgetfulness, error, loss

• Information fixed on paper, inaccessible to the office

Break 1: Transmission delay

The paper sheets remain on the construction site until they are collected (Friday evening or end of the week). During this time, the office has no visibility.

Step 2: Collection and verification

Actor: Team leader or site manager

• Physical retrieval of the sheets

• Verification of their completeness

• Correction of obvious errors

• Transmission to the office

Break 2: Re-keying

The paper data must be re-transcribed digitally.

Step 3: Computer entry

Actor: Administrative

• Deciphering handwritten notes

• Input in Excel or payroll software

• Verification of totals

• Allocation to projects

Break 3: Consolidation

The data is in multiple files/tools that do not communicate with each other.

Step 4: Profitability analysis

Actor: Manager or site manager

• Extraction of data from multiple sources

• Manual calculations in Excel

• Production of tables and graphs

• Generation of reports

TOTAL: 3-4 days delay, 4-6 hours of work, multiple risks of error

The Dropia process (continuous flow)

Step 1: Mobile site time tracking

Actor: Worker Tool: Dropia mobile app Duration: 10 seconds

The worker tracks directly from their smartphone:

• Selection of the project (auto-detected if geolocation is active)

• Tap "Start" in the morning, "End" in the evening

• Data instantly saved in the cloud

✅ No break: The data is immediately available at the office

Step 2: Automated validation

Actor: Team leader or site manager Tool: Web interface or tablet Dropia Duration: 2-5 minutes

Daily consultation of time tracking:

• Summary table of all time tracking for the day

• Automatic detection of anomalies (omissions, inconsistencies)

• Mass validation or individual correction with one click

• Notifications sent if correction is needed

✅ No break: The data remains in the same system

Step 3: Automatic calculations

Actor: Dropia System (automated) Duration: Real-time

Upon validation of the time tracking:

• Automatic allocation of hours to the correct projects and tasks

• Valuation at the loaded hourly cost of each worker

• Calculation of totals by project, by task, by employee

• Update of profitability indicators

• Comparison with projected budgets

✅ No break: Instant calculations without human intervention

Step 4: Real-time profitability analysis

Actor: Manager, site manager Tool: Dropia dashboards Duration: 30 seconds to 2 minutes

On-demand consultation:

• Opening the multi-project dashboard

• Instant view of the profitability of all projects

• Zoom on projects needing attention

• Generation of PDF reports in one click if needed

✅ No break: Analysis directly on the source data

TOTAL: Real-time, 10-15 minutes of human validation, zero re-keying, zero error

Zoom on each step of the Dropia flow

1. Mobile tracking: The source of quality

Principle: Capture the information only once, in the right place, at the right time

Fields captured automatically:

• Exact date and time (automatic timestamp)

• Identity of the worker (secure connection)

• Geolocation if activated (optional)

• Project (selection or auto-detection)

• Task (selection from predefined list)

Integrated quality controls:

• Impossible to start two shifts without ending one

• Alert for absurd tracking (e.g., 20-hour work shift)

• Verification of coherence between project/geolocation

• Automatic reminder if likely omission

Result: Reliable data from the source, no "garbage in, garbage out"

2. Validation: The informed human control

Principle: Automate 95%, validate the 5% requiring human judgment

What Dropia automates:

• Verification of total hours

• Detection of obvious anomalies

• Calculation of overtime

• Allocation to analytical codes

What requires human validation:

• Unusual but legitimate time tracks (e.g., urgent intervention)

• Site corrections (tracked on A, worked on B)

• Fine adjustments if necessary

Optimized validation interface:

• Synthetic view: all time tracks at a glance

• Color code: green (ok), orange (to verify), red (problem)

• Batch validation: click on "Validate all" if no anomalies

• Quick correction: dropdown to modify project/task

Time required: 2-3 minutes per day for 10 workers

3. Automatic calculations: The invisible engine

Principle: The computer calculates, the human decides

What Dropia calculates automatically:

For each time tracking:

• Exact duration (end - start, breaks deducted if configured)

• Applicable hourly cost (based on employee profile)

• Total cost of this time tracking (duration × hourly cost)

• Markup if overtime

For each project:

• Total hours consumed to date

• Total labor cost to date

• Distribution by task and by worker

• Comparison with projected budget

• Difference in hours, euros, and percentage

• Projected termination if trend continues

• Recalculated projected margin

For each task:

• Budgeted vs actual hours

• Productivity ratio

• Identification of non-productive tasks

For each worker:

• Total hours for the current month

• Distribution by project

• Any overtime hours

• Relative productivity

For the overall company:

• Total billable hours vs non-billable

• Total labor cost

• Average profitability of all projects

• Top/Flop projects

Calculation frequency: Real-time

With each new validated time tracking, all impacted indicators are recalculated instantly. No delays, no manual action.

4. Analysis and decision: Applied human intelligence

Principle: Provide actionable information, not data overload

Hierarchical dashboards:

Level 1 - Flash view (10 seconds): Multi-projects with color codes → Immediate identification of projects needing attention

Level 2 - Detailed view (2-3 minutes): Key indicators of a specific project → Precise understanding of the situation

Level 3 - Analytical view (10-15 minutes): In-depth analyses, historical, comparisons → Identification of root causes and trends

Automatic reports generated:

Daily (optional): Summary email of the previous day: time tracking, anomalies, alerts

Weekly: Consolidated report by project and by team Identifying trends for the week

Monthly: Complete assessment with comparative analyses Overall performance of the company KPI for management

Exports for third-party systems:

• Accounting format: for payroll software

• Client format: progress reports

• Excel format: customized analyses

• Via API: integration with ERP if existing

Concrete case: A typical week with the Dropia flow

Monday morning

7:45 AM - Villa Bertrand project

• Workers Jean, Marc, and Paul arrive

• Each tracks "Start" on their smartphones: 10 sec × 3 = 30 sec

• The time tracks are instantly uploaded to Dropia

8:00 AM - Office

• Sophie, site manager, opens Dropia on her tablet

• Sees that her 12 workers have all tracked correctly

• Validates in bulk: 1 click, 5 seconds

• Checks the dashboard: all projects in green

• Total time: 2 minutes

5:30 PM - Villa Bertrand project

• Jean, Marc, and Paul track "End": 30 seconds total

• Dropia automatically calculates: 8h × 3 × 45€/h = 1,080€ cost

• The project dashboard updates instantly

6:00 PM - Office

• Sophie checks the end-of-day time tracking: 1 minute

• Everything is compliant, validation

• Consults the updated profitability of the projects: 1 minute

• Total time: 2 minutes

Tuesday to Thursday: Same

Daily routine well-established, efficient, no surprises.

Friday 5:00 PM

Weekly summary automatic

Sophie opens Dropia:

• Generates the weekly report in 1 click

• 10-page PDF with:

  • Total hours by project

  • Associated costs

  • Comparison with previous weeks

  • Alerts and points of attention

• Automatic sending to management and accounting

• Total time: 2 minutes

Total time Sophie spent in the week: 15 minutes (vs 3-4 hours before Dropia)

The benefits of the continuous flow

Benefit 1: Massive time savings

Before Dropia:

• Workers: 2 min/day of paperwork = 40 min/month

• Team leader: 1h/week collection and verification = 4h/month

• Administrative: 3h/week entry = 12h/month

• Manager: 2h/week analysis = 8h/month

• Total: 24h/month for 10 people

With Dropia:

• Workers: 10 sec/day = 3 min/month

• Team leader: 5 min/day validation = 2h/month

• Administrative: 0h (automated)

• Manager: 15 min/week consultation = 1h/month

• Total: 3h/month for 10 people

Gain: 21 hours per month, or 2.5 days of work

Benefit 2: 100% data reliability

With the continuous flow Dropia:

• No re-keying = no transcription errors

• Automatic timestamping = exact hours

• Direct allocation = no project confusion

• Automatic calculations = no formula errors

Error rate: <0.1% (vs 5-10% traditional method)

Benefit 3: Real-time responsiveness

Before: Discovering a problem 1-4 weeks later With Dropia: Alert on the same day

Example: Productivity drift on a project

• Day 3: Dropia detects that the hourly cost is 15% above the projected

• Alert sent to the site manager

• Investigation on the same day, cause identified

• Correction applied from day 4

• Loss limited vs discovery at the end of the project

Benefit 4: Complete traceability

Dropia keeps comprehensive history:

• Who tracked what, when, where

• Who validated, when

• All changes and corrections

• All analyses and reports generated

Useful for:

• Audits and controls

• Dispute resolution

• Continuous improvement through learning

• Client or administrative justifications

Tips to optimize the flow

Tip 1: Ritualize daily validation

Set a fixed time for validation:

• Every morning at 8 AM (tracks from the previous day)

• Or every evening at 6 PM (tracks from the day)

Regularity ensures that no tracking remains pending.

Tip 2: Configure alerts intelligently

Set up alerts to be notified only of the essentials:

• Missing tracking

• Significant anomaly (>15% deviation)

• Exceeding critical thresholds

Avoid notification overload.

Tip 3: Exploit automatic reports

Schedule automatic sending of reports:

• Weekly to site managers

• Monthly to management

• Quarterly to financial partners

You receive the information without having to ask for it.

Tip 4: Gradually train on analysis

Don't just look at the numbers, learn to interpret them:

• What is a good productivity ratio?

• What deviation of advancement/consumption is acceptable?

• How to identify the causes of a drift?

Dropia provides the data, your expertise transforms it into decisions.

Testimonial: Flow before/after

Laurent, manager of a 15-employee company

"Before Dropia, tracking hours was an administrative nightmare. Papers lying around, data entry errors, calculations to redo three times... We spent a lot of time to get rough figures with a 2-week delay.

Now, it’s smooth from start to finish. My guys track on their phones, I validate in 5 minutes in the morning, and I instantly have all my dashboards up to date. I see in real-time where I stand on each project.

The time savings are massive: we went from 25h a month to less than 5h. But most importantly, the quality of management is incomparable. Before, I navigated by feel; now I manage by the numbers. It changes everything.

And my workers love it because it’s simpler for them too. No more paperwork, just 10 seconds morning and evening. Everyone wins."

Conclusion: The continuous flow, modern standard of construction

In 2025, maintaining breaks in the flow of work hours data is a competitive handicap. The continuous flow Dropia - from mobile tracking to profitability analysis - has become the standard for high-performing construction companies.

This flow eliminates waste (time, errors, delays) and transforms an administrative constraint into a lever for optimizing profitability.

For less than 60€/month with unlimited users, any construction SME can now benefit from this professional flow at the enterprise level.

→ Implement the continuous flow in your company