Sign InHow Digital Twins and Big Data Improve Cost Control in Construction
In construction, profits are measured in millimeters. The vast majority of businesses see an average net profit margin of just 3-7%–barely enough to cushion against a simple botched measurement or shifts in scope. Small deviations compound to completely derail cost forecasts, with industry studies showing that 75% of projects overrun their initial budget and even more are delivered later than anticipated.
Cost control is typically built on after-the-fact reporting. Most projects still rely on periodic, retrospective updates, and teams rarely have a real-time view of site conditions. Without data, they can’t apply ongoing build insights and costs snowball.
In this article, we’ll share actionable strategies that help to control costs on a construction site. You’ll learn how to combine precision documentation with big data and shift from reactive to proactive cost control.
The shift from reactive budget management to strategic cost control
Historically, cost control in construction has been a rear-view exercise: tracking actuals against the budget, identifying discrepancies from clashes or RFIs, and making adjustments after the fact. By the time cost variances appear in reports, the underlying issue has already done its damage and rework, idle labor, and schedule slippage have eaten into the budget.
This reactive pattern is a product of fragmented workflows and siloed data that leads to uncertainty. In construction, uncertainty is the most expensive variable. When site conditions, measurements, or progress remain unclear, project teams are forced to work from assumptions rather than facts. This drives inflated contingencies, reactive decisions, and hidden risks that surface too late.
Reality capture solutions are changing that dynamic. By integrating precise site documentation from digital twins with construction management platforms, teams can maintain a continuous, visual record of site conditions. This creates a live, single source of truth that documents progress and feeds into analytics for early risk detection.
By leaning on modern integrations, project managers can make data-driven decisions that prevent scope creep, reduce rework costs, and keep projects aligned with both budget and schedule.
7 tactics for controlling construction costs
Shifting from reactive to proactive cost management requires more than technology. Standardized processes should use real-time data to guide decisions at every stage of a build. These tactics show how combining precision site documentation with integrated analytics can help teams anticipate problems, eliminate waste, and maintain financial control.
1. Validate site conditions early to avoid rework
Few things frustrate project teams more than rework. Unresolved clashes or misaligned measurements often trace back to small oversights in the earliest stages, yet they can result in demolition, replacement materials, and additional labor.
The costs of rework are separated into two categories:
Direct costs are obvious and tangible expenses such as extra materials, extended equipment rentals, or added labor hours for demolition and reconstruction.
Indirect costs are less tangible: lost productivity, reduced morale, and reputational damage.
Indirect costs often hit hard. Idle crews wait for corrections, trade sequences are disrupted, inspections are delayed, and financing charges grow. Each error triggers missed milestones and strained relationships with clients or subcontractors.
Rework happens for a number of reasons:
Inaccurate or outdated site measurements
Insufficient early coordination between design and engineering teams
Gaps in verifying actual conditions against design documents
Using reality capture during preconstruction provides a precise, photorealistic model of the site, which helps to avoid discrepancies or scope drift. Matterport’s digital twins can be exported as BIM-ready files for early clash detection and design validation.
Follow a standardized process for avoiding rework:
Capture initial site scans before any significant work begins.
Export to BIM and integrate into your coordination workflow.
Run clash detection to identify and resolve conflicts early.
Hold review sessions with all stakeholders to confirm site readiness.
Document approvals to establish a clear baseline before construction starts.
Quick win: Adopt a policy requiring a “condition validation checkpoint” before issuing work orders on major tasks. This single step can prevent a significant number of mid-build surprises.
2. Connect field reality with construction project management systems
Without a unified, up-to-date view of what’s actually happening on site, teams waste valuable time reconciling conflicting information. Approvals stall, and mistakes multiply–each one adding to the cost sheet.
The roots of many costly delays and disputes lie in fragmented data workflows. Financial consequences include:
Increased administrative costs due to manual data entry and repeated clarifications.
Approval delays that push out schedules and raise labor expenses.
Higher risk of scope creep as stakeholders work off different versions of site conditions.
Rework and disputes caused by inaccurate or incomplete documentation.
To prevent these pitfalls, integrate precise reality capture data with construction planning platforms. This creates a single source of truth that all stakeholders can access.
Matterport provides direct integrations with Procore and Autodesk Construction Cloud, centralizing visual and spatial data. Stakeholders can conduct virtual walkthroughs, make approvals, and respond to RFIs or questions inside the digital twin.
Here’s how you can create that unified view and keep every team member aligned from anywhere.
Capture frequent, high-quality digital twins of the site using Matterport scans at key project milestones.
Link scan data directly with project management software to centralize visual documentation alongside RFIs and schedules.
Enable virtual walkthroughs for remote stakeholders to assess conditions and approve work without unnecessary site visits.
Use integrated dashboards to track conversations and decisions in real time.
Set up automated alerts within your project management platform that prompt timely responses.
Archive all visual documentation for audit trails, post-project analysis, and continuous improvement.
Pro tip: Encourage teams to use Matterport Tags proactively during daily or weekly site reviews. This habit reduces delays by tagging issues and capturing questions and concerns in real time, speeding up resolution and keeping projects on track.
3. Implement change management protocols with digital verification
Change orders and scope adjustments are inevitable, but unmanaged change is a serious contributor to cost overruns. Without clear documentation and verification, change requests can lead to disputes, delayed approvals, and unexpected expenses.
Digital twins are a useful resource for verifying and quantifying change requests visually before approval. By overlaying proposed changes on top of detailed site captures, stakeholders gain clarity and confidence in decision-making.
Establish change management policies that require change orders to be processed with corresponding digital verification via reality capture scans and annotations. This helps to quantify impact early.
Add annotations and notes directly within a digital twin to describe the nature and scope of proposed changes.
Link visual documentation with change orders in project management platforms to maintain a clear audit trail.
Review and approve changes via virtual walkthroughs to speed up the approval cycle.
Maintain up-to-date records by updating digital twins post-approval.
4. Optimize resource allocation & mitigate risks through visual planning
Inefficient or improper use of resources is one of the more obvious ways by which construction costs are inflated. Without proper planning, projects are vulnerable to easily-avoided risks, such as:
Overordering of materials with excessive purchase expenses
Poor trade sequencing that inflates labor costs
Equipment downtime or underutilization
Rework from installation errors
Compliance failures that result in costly inspections and corrective actions
Scheduling conflicts that delay critical path tasks
Inefficient use of storage and staging areas that increases site congestion
Digital twins provide precise spatial data and up-to-date site visuals, so project managers can:
Generate accurate quantity takeoffs. Accurate dimensions captured from digital twins using Measurement Mode can be used to validate material quantities at each stage and adjust procurement accordingly.
Coordinate trades effectively. By virtually assessing workspace conditions, project managers can sequence trades more efficiently, identifying potential conflicts or overcrowding before they occur.
Monitor contractor compliance. Frequent capture of installation progress via digital twins allows project teams to verify workmanship against specifications and contract requirements before subsequent work proceeds.
5. Replace manual documentation with automated as-built documentation to reduce on-site visits
Creating as-built documentation manually requires multiple site visits by surveyors, engineers, or project managers to measure, photograph, and verify conditions at different construction phases. Each visit drives up costs through:
Travel expenses for multiple stakeholders, especially on large or remote sites.
Lost labor hours while waiting for inspectors, subcontractors, or approvals on-site.
Project delays caused by scheduling conflicts and limited availability.
Safety risks and logistical challenges associated with frequent site access.
Digital twins are an exact 3D record of site conditions that is accessible at any time. With these models, AEC teams can:
Verify measurements and conditions remotely without mobilizing field teams.
Conduct virtual walkthroughs to review progress, identify issues, and approve work.
Document changes automatically for a permanent, searchable project record.
Thorough as-built documentation also helps to future-proof potential costs on specific sites. As-built scans provide an accurate reference for renovations and refits, so future project teams won’t have to start from scratch or rely on outdated drawings, avoiding costly discovery work.
Anthony Carrino, the host of HGTV’s Kitchen Cousins, uses Matterport and SIMLAB’s Stages feature to overlay BIM and engineering data onto Matterport scans, creating a visual timeline that enables construction stage comparison.
“You can put a finished model and a rough construction model next to each other and they move in sync with each other. If I have a customer that, years down the line, wants to do some kind of renovation, or they have a repair to do, or they want to know what’s in a wall. I can sync these two models next to each other and we can point the camera at finished walls and we basically have X-ray vision. I know where every pipe and wire is. We can avoid unintended damage before it ever becomes a thing.”
Based on digital twins, decisions made, even years later, are based on verified, not assumed, conditions.
Watch how the pros do it – Matthew Byrd and Anthony Carrino share how to nail as-built documentation, save time and money, and keep every project on track.
6. Increase bid accuracy with virtual site access and historical data
Accurate bids depend on a clear understanding of site conditions and project scope. Traditional evaluations sometimes miss subtle complexities. Factors like limited visibility, temporary site conditions, or inaccessible areas may cause important details (such as hidden obstacles, precise measurements, or spatial constraints) to be overlooked. These gaps lead to inaccurate scope assessments and force estimators to add risk premiums or contingencies that result in inflated bids.
Digital twins provide subcontractors and estimators with virtual, photorealistic access to precise site models anytime and from anywhere. This enhanced visibility allows for more thorough scope reviews, better visualization of constraints, and precise quantity takeoffs.
When combined with historical project data from construction management platforms, digital twins also provide richer context for cost benchmarking. Relevant historical data includes:
Actual costs
Schedules
Change order histories from previous projects
This information can be analyzed alongside the current site’s exact conditions to refine bid accuracy across projects.
7. Use big data for forecasting and future cost planning
Many construction management platforms provide tools that analyze historical project data. Integrating precise visual context from digital twins enhances the accuracy and relevance of those insights. Teams can then use insights to benchmark unit costs, forecast productivity and compare and optimize budgets across projects.
1. Begin by aggregating historical data from past projects, such as:
Labor hours per task
Material usage rates
Frequency and cost of change orders
2. Next, combine this data with current site conditions captured by digital twins, such as:
Exact spatial measurements
Visual progress documentation
Installation quality checks
Uniting these insights helps to validate assumptions against real site visuals and link actual progress with labor and material data.
3. Finally, analyze patterns to:
Identify recurring cost drivers
Anticipate potential overruns
Evaluate financial impact of different construction scenarios
By leveraging predictive intelligence, AEC teams gain a comprehensive view that helps them make informed, proactive choices. Matterport’s visual documentation delivers field-verified context to reduce blind spots and ensure the data feeding analytics platforms reflects true site conditions.
