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Field note 03 · Heavy civil operations · CMMS, ERP & field data

Weekly meter-hour updates from 4 hours to 20 minutes

Several weekly fleet tasks had predictable inputs but were done by hand. Power Automate flows (cloud and desktop) now do the work.

Built by RootN’s founder as an engineer inside a Western Canadian heavy-civil contractor’s equipment operation. The employer and its systems are not named.

4 h → 20 min
weekly meter-hour update
≈190 h
of admin time a year back (3 h 40 min × 52 weeks)
4 flows
meter hours, approvals, locations, purchase orders
No API?
Desktop flows bridge the gap

The situation

An admin spent about 4 hours a week moving equipment meter readings from Excel into the fleet system. Timecard approvals in the construction ERP had to be clicked through one record at a time, and equipment location changes and placeholder purchase orders were entered by hand.

What was built

A Power Automate flow runs the meter update from a prepared Excel file. Where the ERP had no API for a task, desktop flows perform the clicks for bulk timecard approvals, location changes and placeholder purchase orders. These are an interim step, with a defined path to API integration.

The result

The weekly meter update takes about 20 minutes instead of about 4 hours, roughly 190 hours of admin time a year. Approvals, location changes and placeholder POs no longer need record-by-record entry.

What’s still manual

Preparing the meter-reading file. UI automation also needs watching when ERP screens change, which is why API integration is the long-term route.

What this means for you

Where the same pattern applies

Any task with a predictable input and a fixed set of clicks is a candidate, especially the ones done every week.

More field notes

Field note 01 Admin & workflow automation Digital timesheets 60,000+ timesheets processed, over more than two years Read the field note Field note 02 Equipment lifecycle cost Lifecycle-cost engine 8 h → ~20 min per equipment model Read the field note Field note 04 Admin & document automation Payroll & document automation 2 h → ~5 min payroll file sorting, every two days Read the field note Field note 05 Equipment cost visibility Labour cost by machine Per machine labour cost visibility Read the field note

Next step

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Bring the workflow or the report. In 30 minutes we’ll tell you whether the same approach fits, and what we’d do first.

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contact@rootn.ca · +1 (825) 436-3300