Self-Hosting for Construction Firms: Project Management and Field Operations

Construction firms operate across multiple sites with multiple subcontractors, each generating documents, reports, and invoices. The information is scattered across WhatsApp groups, email threads, and paper files in site offices. A self-hosted stack centralises everything and gives every stakeholder access to the information they need.

The Stack

• Project management: Taiga or Leantime for Gantt charts, task tracking, and milestone management. Both are free and self-hosted. Leantime includes project budgeting and time tracking. Taiga supports Scrum and Kanban for teams that use agile methods.
• Document management: Paperless-ngx for digitising and organising contracts, permits, invoices, and site reports. Nextcloud for shared project folders that subcontractors can access.
• Inventory and equipment tracking: ERPNext for tracking materials, equipment, and tools across multiple sites. Know which excavator is at which site and when it is due for maintenance.
• CRM and client management: EspoCRM for tracking leads, client communications, and project history. Link every client to every project and every document.
• Communication: Mattermost for team chat with channels per project. Site supervisors communicate with the office in real time. Subcontractors get guest access to project-specific channels.
• Quoting and invoicing: Invoice Ninja for creating quotes, converting them to invoices, and tracking payments. ERPNext or Dolibarr if you need integrated accounting.

Project Documentation That Does Not Get Lost

Construction projects generate enormous amounts of documentation: contracts, permits, drawings, variation orders, inspection reports, and completion certificates. These documents are legally significant for years after project completion. Paperless-ngx digitises every document as it arrives, OCRs it, tags it by project and document type, and makes it searchable. Six months into a project, when a dispute arises over a variation order, the project manager searches for the order number and finds the signed document in seconds.

Nextcloud provides shared folders per project. Architects upload drawings. Subcontractors upload completion reports. Clients upload approvals. Everyone accesses the same documents, from the office or from the site, on a phone or on a laptop.

Field Connectivity

Construction sites may have limited internet connectivity. Nextcloud's desktop and mobile clients support offline access. Documents synced to a device at the office are available on site without an internet connection. Changes sync when connectivity returns. This is not a compromise. It is how field operations work.

Mattermost's mobile app works on any cellular connection. Site photos uploaded to a Mattermost channel are immediately visible to everyone on the project. The office sees site conditions in real time, not at the end of the day when the supervisor emails photos.

Subcontractor Management

Subcontractors need access to project documents but not to the entire company system. Authelia provides granular access: a subcontractor can access the project's Nextcloud folder and Mattermost channel but cannot see other projects or company financial data. When the subcontractor's work is complete, disable their account. They lose access to everything immediately.

Invoice Ninja tracks quotes sent to subcontractors, approved quotes, work completed, and invoices paid. The project manager sees, at a glance, which subcontractors are on schedule and which are overdue, which invoices are approved and which are disputed.

Client Reporting

Clients want to know project status without daily phone calls. Grafana, connected to your project management database, generates a client-facing dashboard showing project progress, milestones achieved, budget spent versus budget remaining, and upcoming milestones. Share the dashboard link with the client. They check status on their own schedule. You spend less time on status update calls and more time on construction.

VPS1 builds complete construction management stacks. Project management, document control, field communication, and client reporting. One system, every project, every site.