One of Winnipeg’s fastest growing tech companies has created a new blueprint for construction site accounting.  

As you could imagine, construction sites come with plenty of logistics – especially when it comes to keeping track of labour and payroll. Enter, David Peters' ConstructionClock, which uses a worker’s phone to do everything from log them in and out of the job site, to send their hours directly to payroll.

“I owned a construction company called Peters Build, and for nearly two decades I was renovating and building literally anything that Southern Manitoba could throw at me,” said ConstructionClock founder and CEO David Peters.   

“Adding more people to our construction company wasn’t making us more profitable. I would look at time sheets and say, ‘this one doesn’t really match how much time I thought this project took.’ It felt like we were way overpaying on time sheets and none of it made sense when we went to billing,” continued Peters.      

Peters then broke his back, and while he was holed up on the coach, he decided he needed to address this payroll problem.   

“The number one challenge in construction is finding amazing people to work in the industry,” said Peters. “And the second biggest challenge is tracking all their labor and making sure that we're profitable on jobs.”   

“So, over the course of a couple weeks or months at home, that's where I decided to tackle this second challenge and ConstructionClock formed.”   

The tech works by connecting a cell phone to the job site. It doesn’t require manual use, all a worker has to do is keep their phone on them and the app automatically accounts for them.    

“You set up projects around different geo locations, and you set the size of them,” explained Peters. “When your workers come onto the site, it clocks them in. When they leave, it clocks them out. If they're going from one site to another. It tracks all the travel time between sites, so construction workers no longer have to track their time.”  

On top of tracking an employee’s hours, ConstructionClock is also integrated with payroll software like QuickBooks, Xero and local company, Payworks.   

Peters launched the app in October 2022 after developing it over the course of a year with new graduates from the University of Manitoba’s computer science program – all of whom still work for Peters.   

“I can barely use an iPhone, so I knew I needed to hire tech people to build this,” said Peters.   

“I could only hire the people I could afford, and a lot of these people were young. They were looking for their first job… and I worked with what I had, and it turned out that I found amazing people.”  

After some tweaks, as Peters admits ConstructionClock wasn’t ticking like a Swiss watch right after inception, the app’s initial users began to see what a useful tool this is for running any sort of construction business.   

By 2023, there were around 100 companies using it across Southern Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. By 2024, more than 1,000 companies were using ConstructionClock, while today it’s being used by 3,000 companies in over 50 countries.   

“Last year, we tracked 96,000 projects across the world, so that will probably triple this year as we continue to grow,” said Peters.   

The five-to-seven year plan is for 100,000 companies across the world to be using the app, and to be one of the first unicorn tech companies –– which is a privately held startup valued at over $1 billion –– in Manitoba.   

Peters recognizes that ConstructionClock has obvious applications far past the construction industry, but for now he’s focused on building this market.   

“For me, the reason why I called it ConstructionClock instead of Industry Clock or Company Clock is because I know the construction industry, and that's the industry I love, and that's the industry I want to serve,” said Peters.   

“Construction is way underserved in terms of tech, in terms of innovation. It's time that software is built for this industry, and specifically the small-medium businesses,” said Peters. “They need great tech, and so that's who we're building it for. Yes, would we be able to find lots of customers outside of construction? For sure, but that would take our focus away from this industry. And the construction industry is massive.”  

Here in Winnipeg, Jeff Olafson, CEO of Gardon Construction, has been using ConstructionClock on its sites for the past few years.   

“We needed clearer real-time labour tracking and stronger site accountability, and then we heard about Construction Clock through industry connections” said Olafson.   

“It aligned well with how we manage projects and support our teams: It’s simple, practical, and gives us reliable workforce data without adding administrative burden.”  

ConstructionClock’s 32+ employees, all of whom are based out of Winnipeg, continue to grow, with Peters saying they typically onboard someone new every Monday. They’ve outgrown every space they’ve been in – from North Forge to Manitoba Innovates – and they are now building their own office.   

“Everything has been done right here in Winnipeg, our office is in Winnipeg, and we’re never changing that,” said Peters.   

Staff roles currently include engineers, developers, customer service, quality assurance (QA) and sales, while they’ve just began to hire marketers.   

“I didn't know what a QA was until two years ago,” joked Peters. “I was like, ‘’Oh, they test the app to make sure it works properly!’ It's all these roles that were brand new to me – that's why we hire across the entire spectrum of tech.”