The Cost of Poor Documentation
By Janine Lee, City of Turlock, Capital Projects Manager | December 23, 2025
Poor documentation is a silent killer on many project teams. While it may not cause dramatic failures, it quietly erodes trust, frustrates stakeholders, and creates knowledge bottlenecks that slow progress and decision-making.
Prior to Virtual PM, the City managed construction documents primarily through email chains and files saved on an internal network. Separate spreadsheets were created to track payments and change orders. This decentralized approach required staff to navigate multiple systems to locate information, often relying on individual inboxes or shared drives to confirm the status of documents.
As projects progressed, tracking the most current information became increasingly difficult. Version control issues emerged, duplicate or outdated files circulated among team members, and critical approvals, directives, and decisions were often buried within lengthy email threads. Staff spent significant time searching for documentation or verifying timelines—time that could have been better spent moving projects forward.
This fragmented process not only slowed communication and decision-making, but also increased the risk of missed deadlines, delayed responses, and inconsistent information being shared with consultants and contractors. The absence of a centralized, time-stamped system ultimately created inefficiencies that impacted both staff workload and overall project delivery.
While the City was initially cautious about implementing a new construction management system, there was also excitement about the opportunity to improve communication and collaboration. Confidence in Virtual PM was quickly reinforced when the City saved nearly $200,000 on one of its first projects simply by having all project information centralized and time-stamped.
Since adopting Virtual PM, the City has improved the way construction documents are managed. With everything housed in one simple, effective platform, project teams are better informed and able to communicate more efficiently. Projects can be set up in just minutes, with all appropriate team members easily invited to participate.
The City also benefits from unlimited projects and users, eliminating the need to make difficult decisions about access as multiple consultants and contractors are brought on board. Inspectors and project managers alike have seen their workflows simplified through a straightforward, web-based system that keeps all documentation in one secure location—accessible anytime, from anywhere.
Today, Virtual PM has proven to be one of the simplest and most effective project management systems on the market—and, without question, one of the best values for public agencies managing complex construction projects.