Clients are driving digital transformation in civil engineering
05.09.2025Billing in civil engineering: when the measuring wheel becomes a cost trap
08.09.2025
“When someone on-site says: ‘Where’s the note with Friday’s measurements?’ – it’s a clear sign: time to put the measuring wheel away.”
Because measuring wheels, notepads and Excel may have "worked" for a long time - today they are one thing above all: a risk to complete documentation. And therefore for billable services and hard cash.
Everyday life in civil engineering and the measuring wheel
The colleague measures with the measuring wheel, makes rough notes on paper, takes a few pictures with his cell phone - and sends you "everything by e-mail" at some point.
The site manager should then reconstruct the measurements in the office.
But:
- The figures do not match the implementation plan
- The sketch is incomplete or illegible
- The photos have no date, no position, no significance
The site manager is on the phone afterwards. Estimates. Reconstructs. Corrected.
In the end, the site manager has to make phone calls, estimate, reconstruct and correct. The result: an incorrect measurement. The client does not accept it - and the work remains unpaid.
The fact is: According to industry surveys, civil engineering companies lose an average of 10-15 % of their services because documentation is missing or incomplete.
Typical weak points of the analog measurement
Whether in civil engineering, road construction or pipeline construction - the measuring wheel & slip systematically create problems:
- Inaccurate on long or uneven stretches
- Handwritten notes get lost or are barely legible
- Excel is not suitable for construction sites, especially not on a cell phone
- Photos without GPS timestamp or commentary
- Reports cost hours in the office - rework eats up valuable time
- If you only document days later, you risk gaps and cuts
The solution: direct measurement with app & GNSS
The SitePlan app turns every measurement into a digital record:
➔ Measurement by cell phone
➔ Radically easy to use
➔ 5x faster for field measurements
➔ Saved & retrievable
➔ Accurate to the centimeter
➔ Measurement report created in 3 clicks
No more slips of paper. No more reworking. No more headaches.
The result: watertight measurement reports, fewer disputes, more billable work - and profitable construction sites.
SitePlan is like Google Maps for the office - for photo documentation, measurements & staking out. without extra training, MS Office or CAD knowledge.
Before and after:
| Classic | Digital with SitePlan |
| Measuring wheel + notepad | Smartphone + GNSS antenna |
| Photos without GPS timestamp | Georeferenced images with timestamp |
| Manual Excel | Automatic PDF & DXF export |
| Effort in the office: high | Documentation: directly on the construction site |
| Incomplete billing | Total construction work invoiced |
Settle more instead of discussing
If you want to be able to provide clean proof of all services rendered, you need a solution that works directly on the construction site - without training or reworking.
SitePlan delivers watertight measurement reports. For more billable work - with less effort.



