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Cost Control is Crucial, but so is Project Management

Guest Blogger — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 19:57:04 +0000

While too few builders have appropriate measures and processes in place to track and manage the cost side of their business, too many of those who do put the appropriate measures in place, are focusing on just one of the two key operational dimensions of the building business.

All too often tract home builders put a 6-month building period, when planning for their project carrying costs – 4 months of construction and 2 months for weather and miscellaneous delays – and stop there, leaving all thought towards proactive timeline management aside.

Now imagine such a situation, only involving custom homes, where each house is completely different from any other house built before. Whether the builder pays a superintendent to worry about the details, or does the job him/herself, delays cost money. If the builder is in a unique cost-plus situation where even carrying costs are the home buyer’s responsibility, the builder’s reputation is still on the line. I sold more homes through referrals than I ever did to buyers who came in as a result of other marketing efforts. Our reputation and delivery was our greatest marketing tool.

Generally, builders ‘fire fight’ every morning, and rely daily on the schedules of subcontractors and vendors, rather than having suppliers working to the builder’s schedule. Although this is generally not true at the start of the project, it is a stark reality halfway through the project, despite the fact that the builder is the client. At this point in time, any subcontractors involved in multiple work stages (e.g. rough-in and finish), can start to dictate when they need to be paid for prior work done, before they will come to the site again. The added communication and administration burden only adds to the builder’s woes, making the job seem harder than it is.

BuildSoft provides visual tools to build up your job schedule, and all the inter-relationships between work stages and tasks, allowing you to easily prepare the job schedule in advance, and provide initial timelines to suppliers and trades.

Subcontractors, being piece workers, are paid per job rather than per hour. So once they start a job, they generally do not move to the next job until they finish the one they are on – going back to finish something left unfinished is generally not to their benefit. Why travel to the same job site twice, when you will get paid only once?

As a result, if the subcontractor shows up at the jobsite, ready for work, only to find that the vendor has not delivered the materials yet, or the trade for the previous work stage has not finished up yet, the builder will invariably lose the workers to another job site, and will not have them back on site till much after the site is ready for the trade. The builder has to wait in queue now.

Once the builder loses control of the timeline of one work stage, the related work stages all get affected, and from this point on it’s a vicious cycle of waiting on subcontractors and vendors every morning, and recalculating the ripple effects of each lost day – many builders find such recalculation to be too tedious to perform anyways.

As these time lapses aggregate, the project schedule slips by a lot more than had been originally budgeted for. The builder starts to not feel in control of the project, and may even blame the trades, when it is his/her fault for not having appropriate management systems in place.

There are several integrated solutions available to help solve these types of problems. I am very familiar with BuildSoft, so I will use it as an example. BuildSoft provides visual tools to build up your job schedule, and all the inter-relationships between work stages and tasks, allowing you to easily prepare the job schedule in advance, and provide initial timelines to suppliers and trades. Once the job starts, the project management component reminds you to send out Purchase Orders and Work Orders in advance, as well as send timely reminders for trades to show up when they are needed, and when the site is ready for them. When an invoice arrives, the accounting module’s integration with the project management system ensures that you never pay before the work is done. Most importantly, when a work stage slips out of synch with the original timeline, affected work stages are updated automatically, and trades and vendors can be informed immediately of schedule changes. The daily agenda of action items is pushed up to the user, allowing the builder to keep things flowing as per his schedule.

This allows for a forward-looking approach towards time management, allowing the builder to retain control of the project, and eventually the cash cycle of his/her business.

About the author:

In a prior career, Bilal Mahmood worked in a Marketing & Sales role, as well as in an Information Systems role for an International real estate developer’s Canadian Home Building operations. After bringing production and custom home projects to market at Best Homes Canada, and performing information systems implementations at their Canadian and Dubai operations, Bilal joined Constellation HomeBuilder Systems, a division of Constellation Software Inc., and the largest home construction software company. Bilal holds a Software Engineering degree and an MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto, ON.

A CPAs Advice on How to Manage the Software Selection Process

Guest Blogger — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 22:54:26 +0000

So you’ve decided to consider getting the proper financial accounting and reporting package for your construction business. It’s a daunting task on the one hand and exciting on the other. The general idea is to bring into your organization a tool that will better allow you to understand what is making money, what is costing money, and to provide information allowing you and your in-house accounting team to keep up with the paperwork requirements that go along with being in the construction business.

Why would I suggest this process is daunting? You may have found yourself saying on more than one occasion, “I’m a contractor and I know how to build things. What do I know about [fill in the blank]?”

As a CPA, I have dozens of clients who are contractors. In fact my entire book of business is comprised of general contractors and subcontractors. I’ve heard something close to this sentiment expressed time and time again. The prospect of having to choose a general ledger/job cost package is one of those things that certainly elicits this sentiment.

Unless you are an expert in financial reporting systems, it is probably best to consult with someone who either knows more about it than you or is connected in some way to those who are expert in that area.

How to Decide which Packages to Review

So, how to select the best construction accounting software package? It is imperative to have a strong team of outside business partners around you. Those partners include your CPA firm, surety broker, banker, and attorney. One suggestion is to speak with one or all of those outside partners.

Surety brokers deal with numerous contractors, and the best surety brokers make it their business to understand their clients’ businesses. Your broker may be able to let you know what he/she sees throughout their client base in terms of software. Your CPA firm might specialize in the construction industry. If so, he/she may be an even better resource as they work closely with many CFOs/Controllers or Accounting Managers, and they may have a better feel for the different software packages out there.

Once your CPA or surety broker gives you some options in terms of what packages you might review, ask them for the names of some of their clients using those packages so you can speak directly with someone who uses the tool on a daily basis.

Managing the Software Demonstration Process

Every software salesperson has what I call “ABC Construction Company” – the dummy company on their computer used to demonstrate their software’s abilities. ABC Construction Company is irrelevant because it probably doesn’t operate the same way as your company. You and your management team have reports that you’ve used effectively for years, and while those reports might be manually generated, the specific format and data work well for you.

My strong recommendation to my clients is that they schedule the software demonstrations at least four to six weeks in advance. At the same time they schedule those demonstrations, they should provide copies of all the management reports they wish to reproduce in the software package their company will eventually purchase. The four- to six-week lead time should allow ample time for the software salesperson to reproduce that report in their software package.

The key to a successful demonstration is to be well prepared. Your management team should develop a program, more specifically a list of questions you wish to have answered and processes you wish to observe. Using a standardized question list will enhance your “apples to apples” comparison of the different packages.

Another suggestion I make is to have a stack of your billings as well as invoices, payroll data, etc. and ask for the salesperson to enter them into their system. Your team should take note of the ease of data entry, the number of keystrokes required to get data into the system, etc. In today’s day and age, one should be looking for the ability to have data uploaded into the package with little to no keystrokes. Electronic delivery of data allows for uploading, after a batch review (you don’t want data to be received into your general ledger/job cost package without the ability to first review that data), directly into your system.

Perceptions of Software in Construction

I decided to include a section regarding industry perceptions because as the old saying goes, “perception is reality.” Over the years I’ve seen many a “small” contractor using Quickbooks, and this program has historically been associated with the “Mom and Pop” contractor. Financial people in the construction industry, bonding agents, surety bond underwriters, bankers, etc. tended to associate lesser quality, smaller contractors with Quickbooks, and I have sat in meetings with contractors and bond companies where this issue was raised as a concern in terms of the contractor obtaining the surety program they were seeking.

The fact is that Quickbooks has its place in the market. However, you must consider whether your business can successfully use Quickbooks to meet all of your information needs or if you require a more robust solution. Additionally it is always appropriate to consult with those who provide credit to your business, be it your banker or bonding agent, and ask what their opinions of your choices are.

Summary

The choice you make regarding your financial software package is one of the most important decisions regarding your business infrastructure. Use all resources at your disposal, e.g. other contractors who perform work in the way you do, your outside business partners, and their clients.

The goal is to obtain the “best fit” for your business. That best fit is the one which will best allow you, your project management, and accounting staff to make use of the best information in the simplest format. Manage the process by thoroughly preparing your team and the salespeople for a successful demonstration. Be ready with a standard format of both questions and processes you want addressed and be sure to give those salespeople ample time to incorporate your company’s reports into the software.

Be aware that implementing the software is a sizeable undertaking and a job unto itself. You need to designate one project manager (vs. a committee) to be responsible for the successful planning and execution of the transition to the new software package. Be sure you have arranged the appropriate training and support. Proper training and commitment to learning about the functionality and how to extract the potential from the package are essential. Lastly, be excited once you have made the commitment to better the financial management of your business and use the information as a tool to improve your bottom line!

Glenn Carniello is a partner at SingerLewak where he is the Partner-in-Charge of the Orange County office, as well as Director of the Construction Industry Practice Group in Orange County.

5 Reasons to Replace Construction Accounting Software

Houston Neal — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:55:46 +0000

This time of year, we talk with many construction companies considering a new accounting software purchase. Maybe it’s the change in seasons, the closing of the calendar year or the tax season looming on the horizon; what ever the psychological trigger, there are rational reasons to replace generic accounting software with a construction-specific accounting and job costing system. Here are the 5 top reasons we hear from companies thinking about a purchase.

Eliminate double-entry – Reducing double-entry helps construction firms realize significant time and cost savings. In many cases the increased efficiency alone will provide a strong ROI on the software purchase. Construction accounting software automatically allocates information to corresponding jobs and categories in a system. Combined with construction project management software and construction estimating software, it can eliminate double-entry of data and financial transactions across an entire organization.
Improve audit trails – Audit trails help companies track not only what changes were made, but who made them, and when and where they occurred. With multiple users accessing the system, it’s likely that mistakes will happen and therefore necessary to identify errors before they become problematic. Construction accounting systems allow you to set unique levels of authority and permission for each user in the system. What’s more, audit trails reduce disagreements and risks of litigation.
Accommodate multiple pay rates – Managing wages for both union and non-union employees complicates payroll. Accounting is often required to manually enter data for the pay rates of each employee. Construction-specific payroll systems automate this process, and pay the correct rate based on the job and classification of work. Additionally, most systems are able to generate certified payroll and worker compensation reports that meet the requirements of government regulations.
Manage equipment and machines – Equipment management is critical to controlling whether you win or lose money on a job. Accounting systems with an equipment management module allow you to see how much is being spent on maintenance and repairs, how many hours equipment is used, and whether it’s cost effective to make repairs on individual machines. Advanced systems will automatically calculate depreciation and assign usage costs to work orders.
Improve job costing – Possibly the most important reason for switching to a construction-specific accounting system is that it provides advanced job costing and reporting capabilities. A job costing system provides detailed cost breakdowns for each component of every job. These systems “speak your language” with support for CSI codes, T&M billing and AIA billing. In turn you can assign costs to the right code and generate reports that allow you to see what was spent on each division of the job. This helps you identify unexpected material costs, overtime hours and other factors affecting your profitability.

We’ve heard many other reasons for replacing accounting systems, but these are the most common at this time of year. What ever your reason for replacing, construction accounting software creates efficiencies, and helps construction firms gain better control over finances.

Project Portfolio Management for the Building Owner

Don Fornes — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:37:59 +0000

Regardless of how responsibility is shared in a project, building owners bear the ultimate risk. They write the checks for overruns. They feel the pain of delays in the form of lost revenue opportunity. Finally, they pay the additional costs of a facility built for project profitability rather than long-term operating efficiency. Everyone but the lawyers will agree that litigation won’t recover these costs.

Mitigating capital project risks requires a project management approach that mandates the building owner’s priorities. Easier said than done: any major project includes contractors, architects, engineers and subs with competing interests and plenty of opportunity for miscommunication. How then, can building owners assert control and ensure all of these constituents are working in the best interest of the owner?

Proactive building owners have gained control over their project portfolio through owner-centric, web-based program and project management software. As opposed to contractor specific software, these tools allow owners to access information in a way that is meaningful and relevant to them. Also, by adopting Internet-based collaboration to manage key project data, these owners have realized benefits such as:

proactive insight into project status and costs across the portfolio;
collaboration and accountability amongst constituents;
compliance with regulatory requirements and certification goals;
auditable controls to manage costs, schedule, and scope;
benchmarking for ongoing business process improvement and automation, and,
long-term efficiency in building operations and maintenance.

EADOC is web-based project management application that allows facility owners and construction managers to exchange project documents like RFIs, submittals, change orders, and drawings electronically.

Proactive insight into project status across the portfolio
There’s far more value in seeing an out-of-control truck headed your way than being told that you’ve just been run over by a truck. Extending the metaphor to project management, owners need to identify potential causes for overruns and delays before they get out of control. An integrated project management tool that incorporates cost and schedule controls offers, among other things, a daily view of what is paid versus committed, and daily reports that flag issues that impact the critical path.

By maintaining a single system for portfolio management, owners can achieve a single view of all projects in a clear, consolidated view. However, unlike a general contractor that needs to track detailed job costs for a single project, an owner should focus on macro-level consolidation of budgets, spend and variance across all projects and contractors. Another contrast between owners and contractors is that owners may be willing to incur additional costs to accelerate project completion; reason being, completing the facility sooner may increase revenue opportunities. This insight into cost and timeline priorities requires an integrated system with both project cost and schedule management.

Integrated project cost and schedule management software such as e-Builder helps owners focus on consolidation of budgets, spend and variance across all projects and contractors.

By owning the system of record and mandating its use by constituents, owners can achieve real-time, daily views of each project, rather than waiting for problems to bubble up from contractors. Moreover, with the completion of each project, the owner gains a valuable repository of historical data with which to estimate costs for future projects.

Collaboration and accountability amongst constituents
Building owners can enforce accountability and take action on problems as they arise if they mandate use of the owner’s web-based system for sharing project information, status reporting and document control, collaboration, and overall communications. These systems essentially replace email and fax.

Web-based systems provide a centralized on-line repository and workflow management system for RFIs, submittals and change orders. Rather than faxing, emailing, and filing documents, each member of the team can submit or respond to requests online while the owner has access to a detailed record of each party’s commitments and responsibilities. This way, the owner doesn’t have to wait for monthly OAC meetings to get a detailed view into the critical path. Moreover, the resulting audit trail reduces the potential for disagreement and future litigation.

Web-based systems such as e-Builder provide a centralized on-line repository and workflow management system for RFIs, submittals and change orders.

In addition to the improved accountability, streamlining collaboration means far less time pushing paper, fewer delays due to delayed communications and reduced errors in the field through better collaboration.

Regulatory compliance and certification goals
Every owner faces strict regulatory requirements: healthcare has OSHPD; schools have DSA; and, restaurants have health department codes. These regulations not only require detailed checklists and documentation, but regular approvals at each stage of project delivery. The same web-based workflow and document control can be used to manage regulatory compliance.

More advanced project management systems will incorporate certification (i.e., SAS70) and the software vendor’s industry domain expertise into its regulatory compliance modules. Moreover, the centralized nature of a web-based system will allow that vendor to continually update the system for the latest changes in industry-specific regulations and immediately roll that functionality out to all of the building owners using the system.

Moving beyond compliance, forward-thinking owners are seeking advanced certifications such as the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building certification, a nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of environmentally friendly buildings. Like regulatory compliance, these certifications require a rigorous approach to punch lists, approvals and document control. However, don’t expect contractors to take responsibility for LEED initiatives. The owner will have to be hands-on in ensuring certification and that will require an effective project management system.

Ongoing efficiency in building operations and maintenance
For the owner, project completion is just the beginning of a facility’s true cost and benefit. Likewise, a web-based project management system continues to demonstrate value after occupancy.

The reality is that a facility “as built” may vary substantially from the initial owner specifications. As a result, the owner must track all changes to the design throughout the project and maintain a detailed record of the as-built facility. Operations and maintenance staff will need efficient access to information on installed equipment (e.g. HVAC or elevators) to effectively manage and maintain the facility.

Web-based project management systems like EADOC continue to demonstrate value after occupancy. Operations and maintenance staff will need efficient access to information on installed equipment (e.g. HVAC or elevators) to effectively manage and maintain the facility.

Unfortunately, the status quo is for the contractor to deliver a set of as-built paper documents that are consist of a mark-up of the original design. This physical deliverable consists of boxes, drawings, warrantees and manuals, which are rarely accessible and searchable by the people that need the information most.

With a web-based project management system, owners can assemble a repository of electronic documents for easy reference. As emerging technologies such as the building information model (BIM) take hold, it will be even more important for owners to maintain an online repository for this critical data.

While the aforementioned benefits are likely to be attractive to any owner, too many are hesitant to require that their project team use a specific system, especially if each party already has their own system in place. The owner can take the lead in providing a ‘neutral’ solution that all teams can leverage for their own benefit, while at the same time benefiting the owner. The vision is that contractors, architects and engineers will be eager to use any tool that saves them time and money and ultimately reduces finger-pointing. An auditable system that also speeds RFI and submittal responses will serve as an incentive that will benefit all involved. If that’s not enough motivation, remind them – and yourself – who ultimately writes the checks.

Bridging the Gap Between Field and Office

Don Fornes — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:28:16 +0000

Project managers and accounting staff are often a world apart. They differ in personality, computer skills and the type of work they do. While many contractors are content to let these two worlds remain separate, the best companies are integrating what’s managed in the field with what’s accounted for in the office. Importantly, these industry leaders are finding that opposites do attract.

Project managers need accurate, up-to-date job cost data. How much has been spent so far? How does that match to the budget? However, they probably don’t know what invoices have come in and what’s been paid. Accounting takes care of that. What they do know is what’s been done in the field, what’s late and who’s performing (or not).

Accounting has the job cost data. But they can’t put that information in the context of project status. Accounting folks often have a hard time answering critical questions: How do costs-to-date match to our percent-complete? What is our cost-to-complete estimate? Has this sub performed or should payment be withheld?

Forward-thinking contractors are getting a handle on their project profitability by implementing integrated project management and accounting systems. By deploying an integrated system to share data between accounting and the field, they know their profits at each point in time. Even better, they can correct course before it’s too late to get a tough project back on track.

Below we highlight six principal benefits of integrating accounting and project management in a single construction management software suite.

Accurate Revenue Recognition
Accountants play by-the-book (we hope), which in construction usually means recognizing revenue on a percent completion basis. Yet while they are charged with recognizing revenue, accountants aren’t the ones with the most up-to-date percent completion data. The project managers have that info. Publicly traded contractors, and even most private companies, will want to smoothly match their revenues to their expenses so as to avoid reporting losses.

By integrating project management and accounting, the office can understand exactly where each project stands and recognize revenue accordingly. This is especially important in light of the steady stream of invoices and payables processed by accounting.

Accurate Cost-to-Complete Estimates
Managing a project to profit is critical, but too many firms find out in retrospect that they lost money on a job. They may already be half way into the next job when they figure out why. To maintain profitability, the contractor needs to identify cost over-runs on each job and at each phase of the project. What’s over budget? Is it a sub, labor or materials? Did we blow the estimate? Maybe we should be using different equipment… Regardless, contractors need to identify overruns early and take action.

The best contractors know their cost-complete on each job, every week or month. They identify cost over-runs immediately and have adequate time to change course towards profitability. However, to achieve this goal, they need to integrate job costs with performance data from the field. By combining project status with job costs, an integrated system can identify what’s left to be done with what it’s going to cost.

Control Expenses and Avoid Errors
What if accounting is paying a sub far more than that partner is producing in the field? A sub may be behind schedule on pouring concrete, but that doesn’t mean they’re not up-to-date on invoicing. Meanwhile, a payables clerk may not realize that a given material is $61/yard, not the $67 deciphered from a scribbled invoice. Operations could have caught that mistake. Accounts payable needs Operations’ input on what invoices to pay, what to modify and what to withhold.

Computer Guidance Corporation’s eCMS software presents detailed project collaboration and invoicing modules for up-to-date invoice data and accurate cost-to-complete estimates.

Leading contractors are implementing a highly structured, electronic process for handling expenses. Within 24 hours of getting an invoice, it’s keyed into the system with an accompanying electronic image of the paper invoice. It is then routed to the project manager to approve, disapprove, comment on or modify. Payments are made in accordance with contract terms to improve accountability and carefully manage cash flow. This disciplined process provides easy access to up-to-date invoice data so that managers can generate accurate cost-to-complete estimates.

Maintain Profits on Change Orders
Change orders can be a great source of above-average profits on a job. However, too often they go unbilled or end up in dispute. Even if you end up negotiating a resolution to a change order dispute, you’ll probably end up making far less than you should have. It’s therefore critical that any change that has a cost or procurement impact must be tracked, approved and billed.

By integrating operations and accounting, leading contractors can manage a tight change order process. RFIs, submittals and change orders that originate in the field are documented and tracked through a disciplined approval process that reaches back to the office, the client and any subs. In the end, these contractors are able to present a detailed cost impact analysis and the associated paper trail to their client. As a result, they are able to bill in full for the change in work.

Spectrum Construction Software by Dexter + Chaney allows contractors to issue RFIs, submittals and change orders from the field and track them all the way back to the office for improved project management.

Measure Productivity
Ultimately, productivity leads to profitability. The costs of labor and materials each day are fairly certain. What’s less certain is how much progress you’ll make by employing these resources. Hit your metrics for “soil-moved” or “pipe-laid,” and you’ve got a profit. Fall short of those metrics and you won’t recognize enough revenue to cover costs. Smart contractors realize that key productivity metrics are a leading indicator of job profitability. Where possible, they gather detailed metrics that measure their cost per unit of work.

Achieving this level of detailed measurement requires collaboration between operations and accounting. The superintendent contributes the quantities of work completed each day. These quantities when combined with the related cost information yield unit costs. An integrated system for construction management can provide the environment to collect, analyze and report this information. The resulting unit cost information is a powerful tool for gauging and improving productivity in the field.

Conclusion
While the personalities in operations and financial management may not necessarily match, their view on the business can. Bridging these two worlds requires a well-designed, integrated construction management program. The good news is that the technology is available to automate the ideal scenarios presented above. The challenge is to gain consensus throughout the organization that communicating, sharing data and automating those processes will make everyone’s life a lot easier. Compare leading construction project management programs

Is it Time to Deploy Construction-Specific Accounting Software?

Austin Merritt — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 16:56:24 +0000

The last thing most construction executives want to worry about is their accounting software. But as your company grows, accounting becomes more complex and more integrated with operations. While a generic accounting package like QuickBooks or Peachtree got your business off the ground, it may be time to deploy accounting software designed specifically for the construction industry.
The right software isn’t cheap; in fact, you’ll likely spend $3,000 to $30,000 to deploy a construction-specific accounting system. However, the benefits of the move will pay out early and often. Construction accounting software will help you get a better grip on your job costs, manage your risks and generally “speak your language.” Here we highlight six powerful benefits of accounting software built for the construction industry.

Job Costing: Get a Handle on Your Profits
You probably know if you’re losing money on a job or not. But do you know if you are losing money on subs, materials or labor? Do you know what phase of the project is over budget? Perhaps the biggest benefit of switching to construction accounting software is that it provides integrated job costing and reporting. Rather than simply recording invoices and payments, a job cost module will provide detailed cost breakdowns for each job and for each component of the job.

A construction specific accounting system like Master Builder from Sage Software will track costs at a level of detail that allows you to measure budget versus actual costs by divisions and cost code.

Moreover, you can start each job with a detailed budget, and later compare your actual costs against your original estimate. You’ll be able to identify unexpected materials costs, overtime hours and other factors affecting your profitability. Most importantly, this data will be available early enough to change course on unprofitable jobs. Detailed job cost data will also help you on future projects. You’ll be able to better estimate your next job and even understand what types of jobs are most profitable for you. For example, you might realize that government jobs are less profitable than commercial or residential work.

CSI Codes: Software that Speaks Your Language
Does your current accounting software speak your language? Most jobs are put out for bid using CSI codes, so it helps if your accounting software is built around those codes. Construction accounting software packages integrate industry-standard CSI codes into their database. With a CSI dictionary in your accounting system, you can easily assign codes to purchase orders and invoices. As a result, all expenses invoiced and paid will be allocated to the right divisions in your job costing system.

A generic accounting system may allocate costs to detailed accounts, but won’t be able to offer the granularity and standardization of CSI codes. By assigning costs to the right CSI code, you can break down each division of the job and know exactly what was spent on permitting, site work, finish work, etc. With that level of costing, you’ll be able to tell exactly which components of the job are exceeding the budget.

Insurance Certificates: One More Thing to Track
Most construction software packages have features to manage a major construction management headache: insurance certificates. Insurance and risk management has become one of the most important issues in the construction industry today. Your subs need to be insured to a certain level; it’s your responsibility to verify this. They need to submit documentation; you need to track it. The more subs, the more complicated it is to track your compliance for each phase of the job.

Construction-specific accounting systems such as Contractor V from Contractor Software Corporation support detailed tracking of insurance certificates, including coverage, carrier ratings and requirements.

Unlike generic accounting packages, a construction-specific system will typically track certificates for each sub, by job. By integrating complex insurance certificate tracking with accounting, you have the power to withhold payables until you get the certificates you need. Instead of having your staff dedicate time tracking down certificates for each sub, your system will simply enforce compliance. Withholding payables is a sure way to ensure compliance.

Audit Trails: Track Down Mistakes, and Even Fraud
Do you ever get the feeling that everything isn’t adding up? As your company grows, so too will the number of people using your accounting system; you’ll have more accounting staff, new operational users and perhaps an accountant. Unfortunately, not everyone is perfect, or even honest. What happens when someone makes a mistake and tries to cover it up by deleting it from the system?

A sophisticated construction accounting system will offer a new level of security and auditing to avoid these risks. With detailed audit trails, you know which user changed what and when they changed it. You can also assign various permissions. So, different users will have different levels of access to different jobs and different authority throughout the system. For example, you can force rigid workflows on approval processes to cut checks.

Reporting: Fast Answers to Important Questions
A construction-specific accounting system will transform your accounting department from simple tax compliance and financial management to a valuable operational resource. To-date, your accounting system has probably been the domain of the accounting department, not operations. The reports you run probably relate more to year-end accounting than project status.

With an integrated job costing and accounting system, you can provide your field project managers and executives with powerful reports that answer questions such as:

How many hours and dollars have we spent so far?
How does that match to the budget?
What is our cost to completion?

Complex Payroll: Comply and Simplify
If you do any union or prevailing wage work, you know that payroll is complicated. Your jobs require certified and auditable payroll reports. Maybe you’re doing jobs in different states with different tax rates. If you are finding yourself nervous when having to notarize payroll reports, or just exhausted from compiling them, you need a payroll system that is designed for construction firms.

A construction payroll system will track hours, ethnicity, social security numbers, work type, check numbers, images, fringe benefits, and everything else you need to comply with state, local and union payroll requirements. Accurate reports can be produced for each worker, so that compliance is efficient and complete. You can do away with the spreadsheets and file cabinets that currently complement your generic payroll system as these industry-specific requirements will be in your accounting system.

Conclusion
If any of the six benefits outlined above strike a chord with you, it might be time to consider a construction accounting system. While the investment is substantial, the returns are many times great. You might even be surprised how much of your staff’s time is being spent generating basic reports and how many opportunities there are to make errors.. By automating more construction specific processes in your accounting system, you’re sure to get a better handle on your business. Compare leading accounting & job costing programs

Benefits of a Database-Driven Cost Estimating System

Austin Merritt — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 16:46:44 +0000

Still estimating the old-fashioned way? Pen, paper, and bare-bones spreadsheets still comprise the cost estimating “systems” of the majority of construction firms. Why is this so, when just about everyone uses accounting and project management software applications? We hear lots of excuses, ranging from “I’m the only one who really knows the material and labor costs in my region” to “It’s easier to do it by hand than to learn a new program”.

The bottom line is, contractors using today’s cost estimating systems are generating bids faster and more accurately than those who are still kicking the tires.

The Case for Estimating Software
Switching to packaged estimating systems such as Sage Timberline, Maxwell Quest Estimating or Accubid (a system for electrical and mechanical work) is bound to yield a number of benefits that cannot be achieved with manual processes.

Process standardization. While sometimes a double-edged sword, the structure inherent in a packaged application enforces takeoff and estimating best practices, which increases efficiency and reduces user errors.
Multiple user support. Most packaged applications enable collaboration by supporting multiple users over a local area network. This eliminates the problems that contractors experience when emailing spreadsheets around the office.
Application integration. Since most estimating applications are built on a standards-based database, it is easier to integrate data into other applications such as accounting and job costing systems.
Data analysis. Modern databases are better suited to supporting analysis of their data. Therefore, packaged applications typically offer some “out-of-the-box” reports that are guaranteed to be more accurate than a quick analysis on a napkin.
Pre-built assemblies. Packaged applications are often designed with specific trades in mind, supplying formulas for cut and fill quantities, electrical requirements, and everything in between.

From our experience, each of these capabilities presents attractive reasons for construction firms to stop delaying the inevitable and to start estimating more effectively.

Four Trends That Are Impacting Adoption
The good news is that advances in modern estimating and takeoff technology are helping the late adopters get up to speed. Just as innovations such as Microsoft Windows drove increased adoption in past decades, new technology trends are once again speeding up the adoption of estimating and takeoff software.

Up-to-date materials pricing and catalogs are integrating with cost estimating systems to generate fast, accurate bids. No more materials prices from 1998.
Digitizers and onscreen takeoff systems are improving in accuracy, becoming easier to use, and are increasing in flexibility to cover a wide range of jobs.
Preconstruction management analytics allow firms to review their estimate accuracy, win rates, and business processes.
Improved ease of use has allowed contractors to shorten the learning curve and start getting results sooner.

Let’s take a look at the way each of these trends has the potential to improve contractors’ bottom lines.

Integration of Up-to-Date Materials Pricing
Materials pricing databases in one form or another have existed for decades. Pricing for a variety of materials – lumber, concrete, wire, bricks, mortar – used to be a monumental task. Not today. Buying a packaged cost estimating system gives users access to the most up-to-date pricing list possible. Databases such as RS Means and RemodelMAX are updated regularly to provide users with pricing that reflects the going rates in their specific industries.

Database-driven estimating systems can also generate estimates for the amount and cost of labor involved. Taking into account the intensity and difficulty of each job, number of men on the crew, and external factors such as overtime and holiday pay, users can get accurate estimates of labor’s contribution to the total project cost.

Digitizers and Onscreen Takeoff
Depending on the size and complexity of a project, contractors can spend anywhere from a few hours to a few days generating a takeoff by hand. And how accurate are such measurements? Depends on the estimator.

Fortunately, digitizer pens and onscreen takeoff applications have become easier to use over the last decade. Whether a firm uses paper or digital plans, accurate quantity takeoffs can be generated far more quickly. With paper plans, the estimator traces around the perimeter of buildings or lots to measure lengths and areas. A digitizer tablet underneath the plans records these measurements and sends the data to a computer for analysis.

It gets even better with digital plans. Onscreen takeoff programs dramatically improve speed and accuracy with CAD files or electronic versions of plans. Onscreen takeoff is used by a wide variety of firms – from large commercial GCs to excavators to electricians – to save time, improve efficiency, and generate more accurate quantity takeoffs.

Pre-Construction Management Analytics
How well do you currently do with your manual bids? What is your final job cost relative to the original bid? What aspects of the job were over or under bid? Users of packaged applications can typically answer these questions quickly, but questions such as these can be difficult for contractors estimating with pen and paper.

When one considers the value of being able to know that they consistently underbid the amount of labor for one aspect of a project, or that they lose most bids because their competitors’ proposals are more accurate and professional, the costs of upgrading to a packaged application are justified.

Ease-of-Use and User-Friendliness
Are you worried about investing in a system that will require an engineering degree to learn the software? Fortunately, software has been getting easier to use as the World Wide Web influences user interface designers. Moreover, the current generation entering the industry is more computer-savvy than past generations. As this generation ascends the corporate ladder, they will expect more automation and will have the basic knowledge required to take advantage of it.

A Happy Medium: Excel-Based Applications
If these benefits sound appealing, but you still love the familiarity and flexibility of Excel spreadsheets, there is a happy medium. Excel-based estimating software such as Tally Systems’ QuickMeasure allows users to realize many of the above-mentioned benefits, while still using Excel as their estimating tool. These systems are built entirely in Microsoft Excel, but provide onscreen takeoff, digitizer integration and the core components of a cost estimating system, such as a straightforward cost item database. These extra capabilities evolve Excel from a generic desktop application to a purpose-built construction estimating tool.

Find the right cost estimating & takeoff software tools for your organization.

Remodeling Estimating: How Not to Lose Your Shirt on the Next Bid

Austin Merritt — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 16:37:22 +0000

Did you end up paying the homeowner to do your last remodeling project? You thought you had applied enough of a markup to be profitable, but realized you actually lost money in the end. It took a lot longer than planned to demo the wall in the kitchen. You forgot that the new hardwood floor would require shoe mold around the cabinets. And the last-minute change order for a tile backsplash upgrade was a total disaster.

Does any of this sound familiar? Hopefully not, but we talk to a lot of remodelers who are encountering these and similar problems. Given the large number of bricks and sticks involved in a typical remodeling job, these issues are understandable and expected when generating bids by hand. Fortunately, many of them can be avoided or entirely eliminated by implementing effective remodeling estimating software.

Remodelers do not need to hire an IT staff and spend thousands to get an estimating system that can address these problems. Fact is, the 21st century has arrived and technology is cheaper and easier-to-use than ever. So let’s take a look at how a relatively small investment can have a profound impact on these difficult aspects of your business.

Knowing Costs Instead of Guessing
Too many remodelers rely on past experience and personal knowledge to estimate the costs of a project. With material and labor prices constantly changing, these “guesses” often become just that. Theoretically it would be possible to call your building materials supplier and inquire about the costs of every material right before starting a project. But what about labor? If you’re not totally sure, you’d probably just bid a fair amount and hope that the markup is enough to keep you making money.

Fortunately you can eliminate a lot of this guesswork with cost estimating software. Today’s remodeling estimating programs come with cost databases that have up-to-date pricing information on thousands of construction materials. RemodelMAX, a popular database that is offered with many remodeling-focused programs, includes prices for the materials that you would use in a typical job – lumber, drywall, trim, etc. It tracks pricing trends and costs from different building suppliers all over the country. This eliminates the uncertainty involved with manual estimating processes and gives you a solid starting point in your bid.

A construction specific cost estimating system like RemodelMAX from Clear Estimates allows you to track costs on thousands of materials using an up-to-date cost database.

And what about labor? You know that labor downtown is going to cost more than out in the suburbs. Databases such as RemodelMAX typically have several regions for each state to account for geographic pricing trends. Furthermore, updates are introduced every few months to reflect the changing prices for materials and labor. A thorough and up-to-date cost database is the foundation of an effective estimating program, and the best way to ensure that your bids are based on fact instead of memory.

Pre-Built Templates: Saving you Time and Headaches Since 1998
Most remodeling contractors estimating by hand are very aware of how much time they spend creating detailed bids: too much. With today’s cost estimating systems, you don’t need to spend several hours or days generating a bid. Pre-built templates allow you to generate bids for typical projects – such as new additions, bathroom and kitchen renovations, and window replacements – in minutes.

Most estimating programs come packaged with a number of these assemblies and templates. By selecting the type of project that one is bidding on – a bathroom remodel, for example – the program automatically generates a list of materials needed to complete a typical job. From there, you can adjust the quantities to reflect the specific job. Two sinks instead of one? A top-of-the-line Jacuzzi tub? These specific requirements can be adjusted with a few clicks of the mouse. From here, you are well on your way to generating a bid and are already hours ahead of your peers who are doing it all by hand.

Time savings are not the only benefits to be gained by using pre-built templates. When the program generates a thorough list of necessary materials, the chances of forgetting a key component are almost entirely eliminated. This reinforcement of estimating best practices saves you the pain of confessing to the homeowner that a mission-critical aspect of the job was left out of the original bid.Estimating with templates will often provide extra levels of confidence when bidding on jobs that are outside of your normal line of work. By having a pre-defined list of necessary materials, you can remove the dread and fear of submitting an incomplete bid. Most systems even let you save completed bids so that you can use them later for a different job. All of these aspects of pre-built templates allow you to turn bids around more quickly and confidently, ultimately protecting your bottom line.

Raising the Bar on Professionalism
Let’s assume that your client is approached with two bids. You feel like you’re being professional because you didn’t hand-write yours. It was cut and pasted from an old bid, but you submitted a pretty detailed description of the project and gave a competitive estimate. Your competitor, however, submitted a five-page document with a highly detailed list of every material to be used for the job. He even outlined different scenarios for the homeowner, explaining exactly what the different costs would be for each decision. His bid was slightly higher, but the intangibles – a thorough document, a professional image, and a sense of legitimacy – more than made up for it. Which bid do you think the homeowner will accept?

Construction specific estimating programs like Contractor’s Office from Priosoft allow you to forward detailed material and labor costs directly into a proposal.

Leading estimating programs contain a number of these features that help users present higher levels of professionalism. After walking the user through the steps of creating a bid, complete with alternate scenarios, the software sends all of this data directly into a proposal. The proposal contains lines for every material to be used for the job, including their associated quantities and costs. Some systems even let you insert a company logo, add your own text throughout the document, and present a detailed payment schedule.

Aside from presenting a professional image, automatic proposals prevent you from forgetting any materials at the last minute, or from cutting and pasting the wrong information from a previous bid. And since the proposal is automatically generated, you won’t spend hours modifying an old bid and checking your work to make sure you didn’t forget anything. Your complete bid will be ready in minutes instead.

Construction estimating systems like Bid4Build allow you to create proposals with custom logos, material costs, and detailed payment schedules.

And what about change orders? There certainly has never been a remodeling project without one. Everyone knows what a pain they are. They can often require as much forethought and attention to detail as the original bid. Fortunately, most programs generate complete change order bids as well. No more forgetting to account for an aspect of the project or grossly underestimating the amount of work required. It will all be handled in the program – saving you time and effort, and raising the homeowner’s level of confidence in you.

Conclusion
We all know how tough the remodeling business is. The balance between winning the bid and maintaining profitability is notoriously hard to strike, especially when the market is slow. So instead of underbidding to make sure you get the job and then figuring out later that you lost money, pick up a professional remodeling program. You’ll be able to tell right away what you need to charge and when you should not lower your bid anymore. And the time savings will allow you to actually do your job instead of think about it. You’ll be amazed that it won’t cost an arm and a leg to prevent yourself from losing your shirt on the next job. Compare leading construction estimating & takeoff software products designed for residential contractors

The Service Contractor’s Software Challenge…and Opportunity

Don Fornes — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 16:27:01 +0000

One of your techs is sleeping in his van behind Arby’s. Purchasing has no idea where to allocate the $1,000 invoice they got from Midtown Supply. Meanwhile, you can’t figure out if the ACME Corp service contract you negotiated last summer turned out to be profitable.

Hopefully you don’t have all of these problems, but many service contractors do. Electrical contractors, mechanical contractors and other service organizations face a unique set of challenges. In addition to managing their large jobs towards profit, they must manage complex planned maintenance contracts, and a high volume of both service calls and small quotes. To be successful, these firms must optimize their dispatch, meticulously track purchasing and ensure that gross margins stay in the black.

Software is the solution, but not just any software. Generic accounting systems won’t do it. Nor will construction software designed for general contractors. Service contractors need software designed for their unique needs.

When selecting software, the service contractor needs to focus on four areas where generic solutions may fall short: 1) dispatching; 2) purchasing; 3) contract management; and, 4) financial reporting. We explore each of these areas below.

Dispatching: It’s Time to Ditch the White Board
Too many service organizations still rely on spreadsheets, paper and white boards to manage their dispatch. Not only are these firms missing out on the optimization and reporting capabilities in modern dispatching software, they’re making costly errors as a result of “best guess” dispatch decisions.

By implementing a dispatch software system, service organizations can:

Send the right technician to the right job based on location and skill set;
Know which technicians have capacity for emergency calls;
Prioritize calls based on urgency, contractual obligations and customer value;
Track time for each technician and job for accurate billing; and,
Alert technicians to schedule changes via pager or mobile phone.

Leaving the whiteboard behind, a dispatch and time tracking system such as Shaker COINS Ti optimizes the dispatch of reps by location, skillset and urgency, while accurately tracking hours for billing.

At its simplest, a dispatch system will provide an intuitive call management screen which lets dispatchers know which techs are on which jobs at which times. More advanced capabilities will allow the dispatcher to assign “preferred technicians” to customers based on skills, location and customer relationship. While you need to assign a technician that can do the job, you also do not want to assign a $30/hour tech when a $20/hour tech can do the job just as well.

With a basic dispatching system in place, you can start to deploy more advanced technologies such as mobile communications and global positioning systems (GPS). Ruggedized mobile devices allow the technician to receive all dispatch information, manage a task list and track both billable and non-billable time on the job. By integrating time tracking, timecards can be maintained in real-time rather than in one Monday morning rush. That way, the contractor can approve and manage payroll much faster and more efficiently.

Jonas Software allows technicians to use ruggedized mobile devices directly from the field. This mobile technology simplifies communication between the service tech and the Jonas back office system allowing accurate management of tasks, new work orders and time tracking.

Purchasing: Who Bought 1,000 Bucks of CAT5 Cable?
While their trucks may be full of spare parts, many service contractors try to avoid the challenge of managing inventory. Instead, they seek to procure materials on a “just-in-time” basis based on the requirements of each job. This, of course, comes with its own set of problems; most critically, how to match purchases to the right work order.

At a minimum, contractors should be standardizing and enforcing their purchase order processes using an accounting system with purchase order controls. The more disciplined organization will require techs to call in and report a purchase at the time of procurement. This will allow the purchasing department to record a liability at the time the materials are received and match that liability to the appropriate work order. It is critical to have a purchasing module that is capable of efficiently matching a high volume of purchases and rigidly enforce the company’s purchasing workflow.

The more advanced organization will issue procurement cards (AKA “P-Cards”) to their techs. Similar to credit cards or debit cards, p-cards allow a tech to purchase materials wherever necessary and authorized. Service-specific accounting systems will efficiently integrate p-card transaction data into the purchasing system and assign the transaction to a work order. This essentially eliminates the need for purchase orders and keeps costs up-to-date.

Contract Management: Profit on Planned Maintenance
A service contractor needs an accounting system that can simultaneously manage planned maintenance, time and materials (T&M) jobs and small quotes. However, of all of these, managing planned maintenance contracts and billing is the biggest challenge.

First, the system must help you bid effectively through a library of the hours, costs and pricing for common service tasks. This way you can start off by pricing the contract for profit. Next, the system should track the terms of the contract to identify what work is billable or non-billable. This way you can meet your obligations, but maximize your profit by billing for work that’s outside the contract. The system should also offer the flexibility to manage a wide range of service offerings, billing models and contract types simultaneously.

More advanced systems will integrate contract management with the dispatch systems so that planned maintenance is scheduled automatically. When the dispatch system shows the work is complete, the contract and accounting modules are automatically updated.

Advanced service contract management systems such as PENTA Service Management track key contract statistics such as term, amounts and scheduled maintenance. Managers can than track actual work performed against contracted work.

Reporting: Bringing it All Together
Most service contractors are fixated on one critical metric: gross margin. Unfortunately, few of them can tell you what theirs is at any given point in time. With a wide range of job types and a high volume of billings, it’s tough to match costs with revenues to truly understand profitability on a daily or even monthly basis.

Sophisticated reporting that analyzes data from all modules within the system is critical to answer questions such as:

What is our gross margin on each contract?
What is our gross margin by line of business?
What were my expected versus actual hours and costs for each job?
What contracts have a gross margin under 20%?
What is causing us to lose money on this particular contract?

To achieve this type of sophisticated reporting, you need to have all of your financial and operational data in a single repository. That won’t be easy if your dispatch info is on a white board, your purchasing data is on paper and your accounting system is designed for a general contractor. A system designed exclusively for service contractors will provide reports that answer the questions service contractors need answered.

Conclusion
You know your business is tough to manage. You know your business is unique. What you also now know is that there are software systems designed exclusively for your service business.

If you are currently getting by on paper, spreadsheets and white boards, it’s time to explore the benefits of automation. If you are automated, but you’re running a generic accounting system, compare its capabilities against the service oriented capabilities outlined in this article. You can probably make life a lot easier by deploying a system designed exclusively for your type of business. Find the right service management system for your organization

The Benefits of Integrated Estimating and Job Costing

Austin Merritt — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 18:12:33 +0000

You’ve got a pretty slick cost estimating system. Your estimators generate bids quickly, complete with line item quantities, costs, and even “what-if” scenarios. Accounting upgraded from Quickbooks a few years ago and is running smoothly.

Sounds like a pretty efficient operation, right? Not always. The only way to know for sure is to examine how well the two departments are working together. And if you are still using Quickbooks and generic spreadsheets, the answer is a no-brainer.

Unfortunately, a lot of contractors using “slick” systems still aren’t getting the job done properly. Let’s assume the bid coming from your estimating department looks great. But when it gets passed to accounting, how do they handle all the detail? You have one job cost code for “interior framing”, but your bid contains 14 line items for lumber of different sizes, trusses, joists, and hangers. So what does your accounting department do? Someone probably goes through each line item, figures out its corresponding cost code, consolidates the data, and then manually enters it into the job costing module. The alternative – consolidating all the data on the estimating end before sending it to accounting – is hardly more attractive.

While this might be manageable for a handful of small jobs, increase the size and volume of your projects. Then start dealing with change orders. And what about tracking budgets throughout the project process? It becomes difficult and time consuming very quickly. All of this double-entry takes time, requires a lot of extra effort, and creates risks that your system was supposed to eliminate. Bid information easily gets allocated to the wrong cost code, a line item is overlooked, and the result is a final job cost that is not much more than a shot in the dark. So what’s the solution? Integrating your two systems, or going with one system that does both.

Seamless Integration: Everybody’s Doing It
“Integrated” certainly has become a buzzword in the construction software industry. Fact is, unless your estimating, job costing, and accounting systems are truly speaking the same language, your “integrated” system is nothing more than pipes of different sizes duct taped together. At some point it will start to leak. So let’s take a look at how truly integrated systems work to increase efficiency in your estimating and accounting departments.

Letting Employees Do What You Hired Them to Do
Construction executives typically have employee efficiency at the top of their minds. Efficient employees who are on top of their tasks are well on their way to creating profitable projects. If they are instead spending lots of time on double entry, cutting and pasting data, and miscommunicating with other departments, that’s money lost.

Let People Work the Way They Need To
Estimators tend to require more flexibility, while accounting staff members are more roles-based. Software that allows one department to estimate in apples and the other to track receivables in oranges would be best. An ideal system would also be able to make sense of the two different data types – essentially mapping which apples correspond to which oranges – without time consuming and often error-prone human intervention in the middle.

Fortunately, this is exactly the level of flexibility and intelligence that truly integrated systems provide. Estimators can still create detailed bids, generate purchase orders, and send data over to the job costing module. During this exchange of information, the software automatically figures out which CSI code corresponds to which job cost code. This can be accomplished by integrating two stand-alone estimating and accounting systems, or by a single system that manages both.

The Buyout module of Sage Timberline Office allows estimators to issue purchase orders directly from an estimate. The system automatically figures out which line item corresponds to which cost code, preventing employees from manually looking up cost codes and doing double entry.

Since the software does all the heavy lifting in the middle, nobody has to consolidate data or enter it twice. The information that the estimator enters is tracked all the way through system, eliminating back-and-forth behavior between departments. The result is employees spending more time on their jobs and less time picking up the pieces. This saves time, prevents headaches, and ultimately protects your bottom line.

Making Sure Your Data Counts
Knowing your bottom line is a top priority. So why do you look at reports with skepticism? Why do you have to assume at least a 5% to 10% level of uncertainty? Most likely because your accounting department doesn’t have access to “up-to-the-minute” data. In addition, what about data loss and accuracy between estimating, project management and accounting? When data comes in from the field, labor costs tend to get consolidated to conform to cost codes. It becomes increasingly difficult to sort through the hours spent on punch out, clean up, and other miscellaneous tasks.

The solution is a system that can handle different data sources and make sense of them without human intervention. An integrated system or two systems that “speak” the same language will provide this flexibility. With technology that receives data from multiple sources, brings it together coherently, and then displays it in onscreen inquiries or easily accessible reports, integrated systems protect your financial information throughout all phases of the process.

Sage Timberline Office’s bids present detailed cost estimates for materials, labor, and equipment. The integrated job costing module then compares estimated vs. actual costs for each line item, giving companies greater insight into which project aspects are over or under budget.

So integrating processes sounds great, but what can it do for your business? A lot. By taking in and sharing data between departments, you’re able to eliminate the guesswork. You no longer have to speculate on how to code a change order or what the budgeted costs should be for a particular project. It all boils down to better control and communication between departments. This “cradle to grave” integration results in greater transparency into your company’s operations, allowing you to address issues as they arise and base your decisions on solid facts.

Conclusion
So if integrated systems are so beneficial, then why are firms still doing double entry and guessing at their job costs? The primary reason is inertia. As most construction businesses grow, software integration usually is not at the forefront of the owners’ minds. Fortunately, it is never too late to step back and implement an integrated system. Once the software is in place, it essentially starts paying for itself by improving employee efficiency, presenting accurate reports on company performance, and allowing you to better manage your business and projects in real time. So if you are still looking at your reports with skepticism, get on the ball and integrate your software. Your employees and your bottom line will thank you. Find the right accounting and job costing software systems