Choosing a closed construction ERP means adopting somebody else's theory of your business, and losing access to it the day a subscription lapses or a policy changes. That would be tolerable if the theory fitted. It usually does not, and when it does not the software is the party that refuses to move: the company adapts to the vendor rather than the other way round. The same is true of a stack assembled from a closed common data environment, a closed model server, a closed facilities tool and a closed cost tool, each holding one part of the answer and none of them holding the project.
If the model does not match how you build, the model will not adapt. You will.
That is the argument for open source in construction software, and it is why the logic behind OpenConstructionERP has been six years in the writing. Over 180 modules cover the whole lifecycle: quantity surveying, CAD and BIM takeoff, estimating, 5D cost, requests for information, inspections, procurement, programme, site billing and handover. All of them read and write one data model. The licence is AGPL-3.0 and the deployment is your own server.
One number, measured once
The reason a single data model matters is not tidiness. It is that a quantity measured once on a drawing should reach the bill, the purchase order, the valuation and the failed inspection without ever being typed a second time. Every retyping is a place where two documents can disagree, and on a real project they eventually do. In version 15 a figure taken off a plan carries its own units, its own locale and its own link back to the line it priced, all the way to the report that reads it.
What is in version 15.0.0
- Two markets rather than one. Nine playbooks written for the American market ship beside twelve written for the German one, with Texas and California packs carrying their own state rules, weekly certified payroll for public works, and the statutory payment clocks of VOB/B and BGB.
- GAEB is an exchange format in both directions. A plain X84 export is a Hauptangebot, alternate bids opt in rather than being guessed at, imported sections keep their hierarchy, and a bill states only what it can state.
- Markups an estimator can reason about. A section carries its own rate, a bond is priced off its rate card and an escalation off an index, and the contingency stays out of a base that already carries profit.
- A register that cannot fit on one screen says so. The count comes from the register rather than from the page, and a guard runs at commit time so a new list cannot ship silently truncated.
- Measurement from drawings is real work. Seeded floor plans carry verifiable quantities and a second issue so revisions can be compared, and calibration is stated in the reader's own units and digits.
- Forty one locales, with module manifests introducing themselves in the reader's language and numbers written the way the reader writes them rather than the way the operating system does.
Use ours, replace ours, or write your own
A module is a folder with a manifest. You can run the ones that fit, ignore the ones that do not, and write your own against the same data model when your firm does something nobody else does. That is the practical form of owning the theory: the parts of the system that describe your business are parts you can open, read and change, and nothing about that depends on a relationship with us continuing.
Watch the walkthrough
By the numbers
180+
modules across the lifecycle, all reading one data model.
41
languages carried by the product, not by a translation layer bolted on top.
6
years spent writing the logic this release stands on.
484
list endpoints the truncation guard still counts as waiting, printed by the guard rather than estimated here.
Install or upgrade
pip install --upgrade openconstructionerp
Desktop installers for Windows, macOS and Linux are on
openconstructionerp.com/download.
If you run an external PostgreSQL through DATABASE_URL,
nothing about that connection changes. Questions or trouble upgrading,
write to
info@datadrivenconstruction.io.
Tell us how it went
If you have installed or tested OpenConstructionERP, we would like to hear what happened, including the parts that did not work. Open an issue on GitHub or write to info@datadrivenconstruction.io. Setup guides and full documentation are in the docs. And if you know a team still copying figures by hand between CAD, BIM, facilities tools and spreadsheets, this is the post to send them.
Try v15.0.0 today.
Live demo in your browser, or self-host in five minutes. AGPL-3.0, no signup required.