SiteCommand Help Guide

Set up your company, run your first project and report to clients.

Welcome to SiteCommand

SiteCommand runs your projects in one place, from the quote to the client report: tasks and programme, site reports, timesheets, costs, documents, approvals and progress. It works in any browser, on a computer or a phone. Your company's data is private to your company.

This guide takes you from your first sign-in to a running project in about 30 minutes. Follow it in order the first time, then use it as a reference.

Quantities done on site update task progress automatically.

The daily site report is the engine: once tasks have quantities, the team's daily updates move progress, costs and every report without anyone retyping them.

Signing in: go to app.creativepulsemedia.co.za. New to SiteCommand? Start a free 14-day trial at app.creativepulsemedia.co.za/trial.

Step 1: Set up your company (10 minutes)

The person who started the trial is the company's admin. Do these once.

1. Invite your team. Open User Management, click Invite User, and enter each person's name, email and role. SiteCommand emails them an invite with a sign-up link. They click it, choose Register with that same email, and confirm their email address. They join your company automatically.
2. Pick the right role for each person. See Who can do what at the end of this guide.
3. Set your cost categories. Open Cost Categories and keep, rename or add the categories your team reports costs against, for example labour, materials, plant hire, subcontractors and fuel. These appear on every daily site report.
4. Add your people and equipment (optional, but needed for timesheets and costing):
   • Workforce: each worker or subcontractor, their role, phone, certifications with expiry dates, and pay type and rate.
   • Equipment: plant, vehicles and tools, with serial number and next service date.
5. Name your stages (optional). Open PMO Hub > Open Full PMO > Stage Gates > Rename stages and use your own words for the five project stages, for example Tender, Planning, Construction, Commissioning, Handover. Under Rename for, choose All projects: company default (admin only) to set the names every project uses, or pick one project to give only that project its own names (admins and PMs). A project saved as a template keeps its stage names.
6. Add your company logo (optional). Open User Management > Company Logo > Upload logo and choose a PNG or JPG. It shows on your SiteCommand header, your printed and PDF reports, and the screens your Site Partners see. A wide logo on a white or clear background works best. Only the admin can change it.

Tip: set a worker's status to Cert Expiring, or a machine's to Due Service, and filter by it on the Workforce and Equipment pages to see who or what needs attention.

Step 2: Set up your first project (20 minutes)

A project needs four things before your team can work on it: its details, its tasks with quantities, a programme, and its documents. Admins and PMs can do all of this.

Finding the Full PMO: several tools below sit in the Full PMO. Click PMO Hub in the menu, then Open Full PMO (top right).

2.1 Create the project (New Project)

Open New Project. The form has five short steps:

The internal budget is what you plan to spend. SiteCommand compares your actual costs to it all through the project.

Save time with project templates

If you build the same kind of project often, set one up once and reuse it.

• Save a template: open Project Tasks, click the project's tab, then Save as template. Give it a name, for example 3-Bed House. SiteCommand saves the main tasks and sub-tasks with their quantities and units, each task's timing (as days from the project start), dependencies, milestones and the document list. Progress, costs, reports, notes and files are not copied.
• Start a project from it: in New Project, step 4, choose the template under Start from a template. Tasks, programme dates, links and milestones are created from your project's start date. Use Size factor to scale sizes for a bigger or smaller job, for example 132% for a 240 m² house from a 182 m² template. Lengths, areas, volumes, tons and points scale; counts (Each, Set) and % stay the same.
• Manage templates: Project Tasks > Templates lists them, with Use, Rename and Delete. Admins and PMs can save and change templates; templates are private to your company.
• SiteCommand library: ready-made templates from Creative Pulse Media, for example New-build house (12 construction phases with inspection hold points, order lead times, client decisions, payment claims and a document checklist). Find them under Project Tasks > Templates and in New Project, step 4. Use one as it is, or click Copy to my templates to change it for your company. Your own templates stay private; nothing you do with a library template is shared.

2.2 Add tasks with quantities

Open Project Tasks and add each piece of work, for example Excavate trench, 450 m or Install poles, 24 units.

• Every task needs a Total Quantity and a Unit (m, m², m³, units, tonnes, or % for work you can't count).
• Progress updates automatically when your team reports quantities done on the daily site report. Nobody has to retype progress.
• Set Priority and Assigned To. Mark a task Blocked and say why in Notes when work can't continue.

Group work under main tasks. For a bigger piece of work, such as Site Establishment with temporary water, power, site toilet, storage and fencing:

1. Click + New Task, tick Main task, give it a name and save. A main task has no quantity of its own.
2. Click + Sub on the main task's row to add each sub-task, with its own quantity and unit. You can also put an existing task under a main task: edit it and choose the main task under Part of.
3. Each sub-task can go to a different contractor (Site Partner).

The main task shows its sub-tasks indented under it. Click its name to open or close the group. Its progress is the average of its sub-tasks. Its dates run from the first sub-task's start to the last one's finish, and it shows as a grey bar on the Gantt. Deleting a main task keeps its sub-tasks as tasks on their own.

2.3 Put tasks on a programme

Open Gantt Schedule and give each task a Planned Start and Planned End. Add Actual dates as work happens. In Full PMO > Dependencies, link tasks that must finish before others can start. SiteCommand flags the knock-on delay when one runs late.

2.4 Set milestones and stage gates

• Full PMO > Project Tracker: add milestones such as Site handover, Practical completion or Client presentation, each with a due date and owner. The tracker shows days left and flags late ones.
• Full PMO > Stage Gates: record when each stage is submitted, reviewed and approved, and by whom.

2.5 Upload documents

Open Full PMO > Document Register and add contracts, drawings, permits and specifications. Give each a document number, revision and status, and attach the file (PDF, DWG, Word, Excel or images, up to 25 MB). Set an Expiry Date on permits and insurance, and the register will count those due within 30 days.

2.6 Allocate your team (optional)

In Full PMO > Capacity Planning, allocate workers to the project with a percentage of their time and dates. SiteCommand shows anyone booked over 100% across projects.

Your project is now ready. Next, your team starts reporting from site.

Step 3: Run the project day to day

Once a project is live, most updates come from site. The office reviews, approves and keeps the money side current.

Daily site report (Daily Intake): foremen, every working day

Open Daily Intake on a phone or computer and fill in:

• project, date, weather and number of workers on site
• quantities done today for each task, which updates task progress automatically
• costs under your cost categories
• safety (HSE) status, with details of any incident
• work stoppages, blockers to escalate, and a short progress note
• photos or PDFs from site

Admins and PMs get an email when a report includes a safety incident.

Approve reports: PMs

Open Approvals on the dashboard to review each submitted report. Approve it, or reject it with a reason, and the person who submitted it is told. The Daily Reports page lists every report by project.

Timesheets: foremen or the office, daily

In Timesheets, record clock-in, clock-out and breaks for each worker and project. SiteCommand works out normal time, overtime and weekend time from each worker's rates, and totals pay by week and month. PMs approve or reject entries, and sign off monthly payroll, under Reports > Approvals.

Issues and risks: anyone in the office

On the Issues page, click + Log Issue for delays, blockers, client comments or risks. Rate likelihood and impact, which gives a risk score from 1 to 9. Give it an owner and close it when it is resolved.

Variations: PMs

When the client changes the scope, log it in Variations with a VO number, type (Addition, Omission, Substitution, Dayworks, Provisional Sum), the amount to the client and the cost to you. Move it from Pending to Approved or Rejected as it progresses.

Money in: admins and PMs

Open PMO Hub, choose the Revenue tab, and click + Add Entry for each invoice, payment, claim, variation, retention or advance. SiteCommand then shows revenue and profit by project.

Step 4: Track progress and report to clients

SiteCommand builds the picture from what your team enters, so the dashboard is always current.

Email alerts. Admins and PMs are emailed when a site report records a safety incident, and when a project's spend (committed costs, site-reported costs and approved labour) reaches 80% of its budget.

Client progress report. Open Full PMO > Stakeholder Report, choose the project and the period (monthly, quarterly, milestone or ad hoc), add an executive summary, and print or save the preview as a PDF. It includes progress, stage gates, budget, milestones and risks.

Lessons learned. At the end of a project, record what went well and what to change in Full PMO > Lessons Learned, so the next project benefits.

Before you win the job: the Estimator

Use the Estimator to price a tender or quote and see your margin before you submit it.

1. Click + New Estimate and enter the opportunity name and client.
2. Add cost line items: labour, materials, plant, subcontractors and anything else the job will cost you.
3. Set Contingency % and Overhead Recovery %.
4. Enter the price you plan to quote in Proposed PO Value. SiteCommand shows the projected profit and margin.
5. Track the status: Draft, Submitted, then Won or Lost. The Estimator totals your won value and average margin.

When a job is Won, click Create project next to it. New Project opens with the name, client, value and cost budget already filled in.

Site Partners

Use Site Partners when contractors and subcontractors (the main contractor, electricians, plumbers, bricklayers and so on) do the work and you oversee it. Each contractor reports progress on its own tasks from a phone. You approve the updates and see every trade's progress in one place.

What a Site Partner sees: only the tasks you assign to its company, on those projects. It can send progress updates with photos, open the current drawings for those projects, and report issues. It never sees fees, budgets, other projects, other contractors or your team. Site Partner logins don't count towards your plan's users.

Set up a contractor (admin)

1. Open User Management and, under Site Partners, click + Add Site Partner. Enter the company name, trade and contact person.
2. In Project Tasks, open each task the contractor does and choose it under Contractor (Site Partner), for example Electrical first fix, 40 points to Spark Electrical.
3. Click + Invite User, choose the role Site Partner, pick the contractor's company, and enter their site lead's name and email. SiteCommand emails them the invite. To send it by WhatsApp as well, click 🔗 next to the invite to copy the sign-up link.

What the contractor does

1. Registers with the invited email, confirms it, and signs in. SiteCommand opens their Site Partner page.
2. Each day, under Send today's update, enters the quantity done on each task (sub-tasks show under their main task's name), people on site, safety, a short note, anything holding them up, and photos.
3. Opens Current drawings and documents to work from the latest revision.
4. Uses Report an issue when something stops their work, for example another trade not finished.

Check progress (PMs)

• Updates arrive in Approvals like any site report. Approve them, or send them back with a reason, which the contractor sees.
• Project Tasks shows Progress by contractor for each project, and you can filter tasks by contractor.
• Issues from contractors appear in Issues under the category Site Partner.
• To stop a contractor's access, switch off its company under Site Partners. Its logins then see nothing.

Who can do what

Give each person the lowest role that lets them do their job. An admin can change anyone's role later in User Management.

Everyone sees only their own company's data.

Questions, billing and help

Common questions

• The invite email hasn't arrived. Ask them to check spam. In User Management, click ✉️ next to the invite to email it again, or 🔗 to copy the sign-up link and send it on WhatsApp.
• Someone can't sign in after registering. They must click the link in the confirmation email first. Ask them to check spam.
• A new person sees an empty screen. Their email hasn't been invited, or they registered with a different email. Invite the exact email they used in User Management.
• Forgot password. Click Forgot password? on the login page.
• Task progress isn't moving. Progress comes from quantities on daily site reports. Check that reports name the task and include a quantity.
• Can I use it on site? Yes. It works in any phone browser, so no app download is needed.

Your plan. Trials run for 14 days with up to 20 people. Before the trial ends, the admin opens Billing and picks a plan: Starter (up to 5 users), Team (up to 20) or Business (no limit), paid monthly by card through Paystack. Your projects and data stay in place.

Help. Email info@creativepulsemedia.co.za. We can also set up your first project with you on a short call.