Wisdom in decision making
VissRad is an integrated suite of project controls, commissioning, work packaging and finance applications for industrial capital projects — where progress, cost, certification and payment stay tied to one another instead of drifting apart in eleven spreadsheets.
Narrated overview
A narrated walk through the fifteen applications, the chain from field quantity to certified payment, and how the exchange layer keeps the numbers agreeing. Recorded, so you can watch it before deciding whether a live walkthrough is worth your time.
Eight minutes fifty, 1080p, with narration. The screens in it are the browser demo running on the demonstration dataset.
The problem
Every discipline keeps its own version of the truth. The schedule says one thing, the field says another, the cost report is a month behind, and the invoice gets approved because nobody could contradict it in time.
Subcontractor claims arrive as a percentage on a cover sheet. Without rule-of-credit steps and shift-level quantities behind them, there is no defensible number to argue with.
Commitments sit in procurement, actuals sit in finance, and the forecast sits in a workbook on one engineer's laptop. Reconciling them is a monthly archaeology exercise.
Systemisation, ITRs, punch and certificates are managed apart from construction progress — so completion status never informs retention, billing or the forecast.
The chain
Progress is not a percentage somebody typed. It is a quantity, weighted by rule of credit, signed onto a certificate, and only then allowed to move money. VissRad keeps that custody chain intact across four applications.
A shift entry records what was actually installed — spools, welds, terminations — against the subsystem that owns the scope.
Evidence · shift recordRule-of-credit steps convert the quantity into earned progress. The earned-value picture updates on entry, not at month end.
Evidence · rule of creditMCC, RFCC and RFSU gates refuse to advance while check sheets or category A punch items remain open against the subsystem.
Evidence · signed gateA claim is checked against certified field quantities before approval. Retention releases on the certificate, and the cost report already knows.
Withheld unless verifiedThe rule: a link cannot be claimed without the one behind it — which is why an overclaim surfaces in the approval queue rather than in a reconciliation three months later.
What integration buys you
A subcontractor submits a progress claim at 62% complete. In VissRadPCS the same scope is carrying 54% of field-certified progress, built from weighted rule-of-credit steps and shift-by-shift quantity entries.
Because VissRadARAP verifies claims against PCS field data through the Link exchange layer, the eight-point gap surfaces in the approval queue instead of after payment — with the certified evidence attached.
Scenario from the VissRad Suite demonstration dataset.
A certificate is not paperwork. It is the moment money is allowed to move.
VissRad design principle
The suite
Each application is installed, licensed and run on its own — a cost engineer never has to open the payables system to do their job. They exchange business documents through Link, so the numbers agree.
Portfolio health
The overview above every other module: stage-gate pipeline health, the cost and forecast position, schedule and earned value, and the risk and readiness exceptions that need a decision this week — across FEED, preconstruction, detailed engineering, execution and commissioning.
FEED tracking
Front-end engineering design through the sanction gates: G0 to G3 gate readiness scoring, FEED deliverables against a 21-milestone skeleton, an optioneering study register, estimate basis by AACE class, a three-method duration benchmark and the pre-FID risk register.
Preconstruction
Making a sanctioned project buildable: constructability reviews, contracting strategy and bid packages, long-lead procurement with float to need-by, craft labour and logistics, permits, and a mobilisation readiness case.
Detailed engineering
Engineering to IFC: a deliverable register by revision and issue code from IFR through IFA, IFD and IFC to AB, man-hour progress by rule of credit, review and transmittal cycles, MTO quantity growth, changes and TQs, and EWP handover to the field.
Project controls
Completions, field progress, earned value, cost control and forecasting for one project per file. Rule-of-credit progress, shift entry, PF and CPI, five EAC methods and a contingency drawdown register.
Startup & commissioning
System, subsystem and tag hierarchy with ITR check sheets, punch lists and test packages, driving a gated certificate ladder from RVC through MCC, RFC, SCC and DCC to HOC.
Cost management
A cost breakdown structure with budget control, commitments, an actuals ledger, change management, forecasting, earned value, cash flow and reports — nine views over one cost engine.
Advanced work packaging
The full CWA → CWP → EWP → IWP hierarchy with a constraint matrix, readiness scoring, an IWP release gate, path of construction, look-ahead and field progress.
Finance core — FI + CO
General ledger, accounts payable and receivable, cost centre accounting and internal orders, driven by a keyboard-first transaction-code command bar with period control, carry-forward and reconciliation.
Payables & receivables
Invoice intake and coding, three-way PO/receipt/invoice matching, progress-claim verification against field data, a role-based approval queue, retention withheld and released on certificate, and payment runs.
Estimating
Discipline takeoff and cost estimating for piping, equipment, engineering and construction scope. Three methods sit side by side per discipline — parametric, known quantity and detailed takeoff — and only the selected one feeds the rollup to total installed cost.
Schedule analysis
Schedule development and analysis over XER, XML, CSV and XLSX sources, feeding activity structure and dates into progress, packaging and 4D sequencing. S-curve, earned value, critical path, float distribution and schedule quality in one place.
Visual sequencing
Pairs one P6, CSV or XLSX schedule with one elevation drawing and paints construction status over time. Planned sequence, progress versus plan and forecast views with SPI, finish variance and an S-curve. No 3D model required.
Reporting & exports
Star-schema exports and report packs designed for Power BI modelling, plus read-only ODBC connectivity for ad-hoc analysis. Man-hour loading, earned value and the controls pack read the same facts the applications wrote.
Research desk
A research and analysis desk that works online with citations, or offline over an index of your own PDFs, workbooks, schedules and XER files. Runs Python over project data, with one toggle between the two modes.
The exchange layer
VissRad Link
Document exchange
Not a sixteenth application — the outbox and inbox layer that carries eleven business document types between the fifteen, with idempotent resends, a retry ladder and full replay from the hub console.
The connective tissue
VissRad is not one monolith with one database. Each application owns its own data and sends signed business documents to the others through Link — the same way real organizations already work, only without the re-keying.
VissRadPCS
Issues a completion certificate
VissRadARAP
Releases the withheld retention
VissRadARAP
Codes and approves a vendor invoice
VissRadERP
Posts it as an AP document
VissRadERP
Records commitments and actual costs
VissRadPCS
Refreshes the cost report and forecast
11
Business document types on the exchange
3
Transports — folder, HTTP hub, same-machine direct
7
Retry attempts on a backoff ladder before escalation
0
Duplicate postings — idempotency keys make resends safe
VissRad4D
Most 4D tools demand a federated model, a modeling team and a license stack before anyone can see the sequence. VissRad4D asks for one schedule and one elevation drawing.
Draw the regions once, map them to activities, and the drawing colors itself by status over time — planned sequence, progress versus plan, and forecast, with SPI, finish variance, an S-curve and an activity register alongside.
VissRad Computer
A working assistant rather than a chat window. Point it at a folder of specifications, estimating workbooks, schedules and vendor documents, and it builds a local full-text index that answers with the source chunk cited back to the file.
Switch to online mode for web research with citations, or stay fully offline where network tools are hidden and blocked. It runs Python over your data for the estimating and schedule work that a chat interface cannot do.
Deployment
The same applications run in all three shapes. Nothing about the architecture forces you into a hosted subscription to get started.
Single machine
SQLite databases per application, with Link running over a watched folder or a same-machine direct exchange. Suitable for one estimator or one controls engineer.
On premises
PostgreSQL behind the Link hub, with an authenticated REST transport across the site network. Data never leaves your environment.
Cloud
Managed PostgreSQL with a replicated Link hub behind TLS, for joint ventures and multi-office teams working the same capital project.
Primavera P6 is a file-based import, not a live two-way integration. Payment files are generated in NACHA and ISO 20022 formats but are not bank-certified for transmission. Live 3D model translation depends on your own Autodesk platform entitlements. We would rather tell you this on the website than in month three.
Built by practitioners
VissRad is built by Pennington Group Associates, a Houston practice delivering data driven project management and controls. Every screen exists because a live capital project needed it — industrial takeoff, P6 schedule data, earned-value reporting, procurement and payables. We still take that work on directly.
