The amount of abandoned projects in U.S. nonresidential private construction climbed by as much as 25% since December 2024, coming close to a multi-year high, according to ConstructConnect’s most recent Project Stress Index report.
Learn how to reduce the risk of your projects being abandoned and protect your business from lost profits.
How to reduce the risk of abandoned projects
Projects in progress are abandoned for a variety of reasons, some that are impossible to predict in advance. The easiest ways to reduce your risk as a contractor are by:
Planning accurate bids that set clear expectations
Building trust between your business and your customers
Documenting all work in detail to ensure you’re paid correctly for your time and resources, no matter what happens
Planning accurate bids
Many projects are abandoned due to lack of funding, often out of the contractor’s control. Markets may fluctuate, the price of materials or labor may rise, and project owners may need to reallocate budgets unexpectedly due issues unrelated to the project.
However, there are some problems you can prevent, starting with your estimates. Many construction businesses purposefully underbid to win jobs, causing conflict once it becomes clear the work outlined in the contract is more expensive than anticipated. Make an effort to provide bids that truly reflect the actual cost of a project by using historical production data.
Make sure you fully understand the scope of work, take time to ask questions, assess risk factors, and review the budgets from your past projects to make the most accurate estimates possible. If you find that your bids aren’t competitive after doing so, it’s time to examine your construction process. Where are there inefficiencies? Software that provides automated production insights can help you analyze performance and identify productivity issues, without having to crunch the numbers manually.
While building better bids may take a greater investment of time and effort before you’ve even won a project, it’s worthwhile in the long run.
Building trust and confidence
A lack of clear communication—or a lack of any communication at all—is another common reason why projects are abandoned. Keep project owners informed of your progress throughout the construction process to build trust and make sure everyone is on the same page.
However, writing out texts and emails and making phone calls every day or even on a weekly basis can be difficult and time-consuming. These types of communications also leave plenty of room for error. Instead, help avoid miscommunication by sending project owners photos and videos of the jobsite to supplement more traditional progress updates.
With digital software like Raken, you can save time and capture visual media that automatically includes critical details like time and date stamps, watermarks with the project name and your company logo, and markups to highlight focus areas or add clarity. Being able to see what’s going on onsite can ensure project owners are confident you’re living up to their expectations, and if not, will give them the opportunity to identify any minor issues before they evolve into major ones.
You can also easily share photos and videos from the field with the office (and with stakeholders) in real time via cloud storage, so there’s little delay between updates.
Documenting your work in detail
Even with careful planning and frequent communication, owners may still abandon projects. In the event that a project owner cancels a project you’re working on, detailed documentation can help you get paid fairly for any work that’s already been completed.
Digital daily reports that show an accurate record of what happened and when it happened on the jobsite help defend your business if the project owner isn’t paying what you’re owed. Reports like Raken’s, which feature work logs, time, materials, safety data, photos, notes, and more in a clear, professional format, are proof of your hard work that can be used to defend against disputes better than disorganized pen and paper or spreadsheets.
Protect your business with Raken
"We have prevailed in almost every one of the disputes we've had because of Raken."
Raken is an all-in-one app for construction management, featuring detailed daily reports, safety and quality tools, and more, all with fast, flexible workflows. Field crews document daily progress in minutes (with photos and videos), and the office can track project progress in real time. Plus, everything can be shared with stakeholders with the click of a button.
See how we protect the pros at Dickinson Cameron with “the real story of what happened on the jobsite”. Or, connect with us for a personalized look at how Raken can help protect your business from abandoned projects, costly disputes, and litigation.