FOUNDATION Construction Accounting Software

This is a good program for a small to medium sized company looking for an efficient accounting/project management program.

Pros

Purchase price
Ease of accounting use
Ease of entering project management info
Product support after initial setup was very good and quick to respond.

Cons

Job cost reports were a bit of a challenge to manipulate.
Initial start up support was not as knowledgeable as we were on getting the program set up.

FOUNDATION for our business, is just that, our Foundation. It has become a valuable part of our everyday input and reporting that keeps us organized and compliant. We utilize many of the modules and learn more about the Software features every day. We appreciate the very helpful Customer Support and use it often for help. They answer efficiently and walk you through things, so it also teaches you to better use the software. We are very happy with FOUNDATION and only hope to incorporate it more into our daily and yearly tasks.

Pros

FOUNDATION is user friendly, but there are many advanced features that allow for great reporting and organization. We enjoy utilizing the many Modules for different aspects of our business and it keeps all of our information in one place that is easy to call up, report and organize. We are able to efficiently answer questions and share information and it has become invaluable to our business.

Cons

There are sometimes small features that we realize they could implement, for instance, when there is a long list, there would be a search bar available.

Pros

The beautiful thing about Foundation Software is its ability to be customized to fully fit your company needs.

Cons

Although Foundation has the ability to be a complete tailored fit accounting software, it does require a lot of hands on time to fully grasp all of its workings.

Pros

Low initial cost to own software, can customize to certain degree. While I have not used all of the available modules, the software seems like it can be customized to suit most applications.

Cons

Document storage cannot handle active files. Mobile 1 time entry/ reporting and time approval portal were terrible. Mobile 2 was delayed for way too long and that was problematic. Inventory management module is not great. In general, difficult to navigate, not intuitive and takes more time to use that is saved from use of. Not refined.

Great training, Andrew our trainer has went above and beyond. They help you through everything. They make sure you are comfortable throughout.

Pros

customization of the product to meet your businesses specific scenarios as each business has its unique way of setting things up.

Unless you are an accountant do not waste your time or money on this product as it just complicates everyday process' rather than helping them.

Pros

I have not found a pro yet. I am sure it is good for my accountant and my banker but not for an electrician

Cons

Not user friendly. Unless you are a banker, accountant, or computer engineer it only complicates things. The people were wonderful up until the final sale, then we were shuffled around to people that obviously had too much going on. They tell you they can fix or change anything but when you ask for that they just give incomplete excuses and tell you they will get back to you. Not worth the money or the headache.

Pros

I decided to go with changing to Foundation because of all the features and the reports built in to provide us the information we need easily. The price for what we have is reasonable and allows for remote functions- employees can live anywhere and work for us.

Cons

It is more complicated than the normal easy accounting software so training employees to use something that requires more information at the beginning is imperative !

I'm looking for another software program that meets our construction needs, not to just benefit our accountant. This program took us a long time to impute all our date and 3 years later we are not any better off. Certain reports are horrible, the PM module is useless!
After investing so much money, we are still VERY DISAPPOINTED!

Pros

IT'S GREAT FOR ACCOUNTANTS

Having everything in one place, like payroll and not having to use multiple programs to get work done.

Cons

Not user friendly at all! It took me two years to get them to put in a check register!
Not user friendly!

As I said, this is a great product created with the consumer and ALL its needs in mind. From invoices, to AIAs, reports, etc....it is all so easy. And should you need any type of support, Foundation is really quick to return your call and to find a solution. We couldn't be happier about this choice we made. We save so much in time using this over other programs we've tried.

Pros

It is EXACTLY what we need being in the Construction business. It is so easy to get all sorts of reports we need, to create documents (invoices, etc), and to get support when needed.

Pros

Feature-rich design
When we place a support call, we almost always have a call back that same day, even for non-critical issues. Critical issues are usually addressed within hours.

Cons

As a new customer, the software can be intimidating, but we've always been able to move forward with customer support.

We chose Foundation for it's array of features, depth of reports, its customization options, and its affordability. Much cheaper than buying software that you have to pay per user access fees for. There are quirks, but once you understand the system, it's generally easy to navigate and manage them. Extremely feature rich. Would definitely recommend.

Pros

Incredible amount of features, options, and reporting functionality. Can pretty much do anything you would ever want to do, accounting-wise. Project Management module pays for itself. Other customization options are very nice. Price is extremely attractive for amount of features in the software. Customer support is A+++++.

Cons

Very steep learning curve, to use advanced features. Genie is a pain and really cumbersome, probably my least favorite part of the software, even though it's sold as a great feature. Software isn't always forgiving about mistakes, but customer support makes up for it.

We have a very complicated payroll for the simple fact that we are a multi state, multi union company. This means many different rates of pay, taxation tables and unions, as well as our Administration and Shop payrolls. P4C thru Foundation has been able to handle this with ease and I really am happy with the service they have provided to us in the past 2 1/2 years. I hope to continue a much longer relationship with them. Whenever a support call is logged, usually one of the 2 reps. call back almost immediately and help work through any issue, no matter how long it takes. They are personable and professional and always helpful. Reliable system, easy time entry and reports generated are very easy to read.

Pros

I love the fact that P4C can handle all of our multi state and multi union (sometimes up to 55 different unions) Time entry is very easy, and includes attaching hours to jobs and tasks with ease. The system is very user friendly and the Support staff is phenomanal. Generates great union reports, job costing and also great HR reports as well, such as 401k reporting. We can process same day layoff checks which is a must for union payrolls. Also not charged by the number of employees in the system as with other payroll companies. I love that it is web based so i can work from anywhere. They are able to create payroll cycles, so each cycle can have a different address, and they deliver the checks to the exact locations. So i can enter all my time and be assured that jobs in other states have checks go directly to the location versus coming here.

Cons

I don't like that if i have multiple payroll cycles computed and i have to purge one, that it will purge ALL computed cycles, not just the one I had chosen.

Pros

Job costing reports have been very helpful; payroll processing has been great; support has been absolutely WONDERFUL!

Cons

ease of ability to find past transactions; having to find transaction numbers. If there was a way to be able to use some kind of "find" method that would be awesome.

I find it easy to use. It was easy and quick to learn. Reports are helpful - different than I am use to but cleaner.

Pros

I think the layout of the software is great. Its easy to follow and easy to find functions needed. Easy to learn!

Cons

Foundation doesnt have every report I am use to, but I was using the same software for 10 yrs, I just need to get use to the new reports.

There are better programs out there.

Pros

The program does it all besides estimating. Has a good system of checks and balances and everything is tracked so very hard for employees to cover their tracks. It does a lot well but everything has its hiccups.

Cons

There are several things I dislike about the product as it has so much potential to be 10x better yet they have no ambition to make it better. 95% up the updates released by foundation software are fixes to glitches or problems. Very rarely is there an actual new feature or upgrade to the program. There are several flaws with the program that would be easy to fix, which have been suggested but go unanswered. Such as the pages scroll very awkwardly, they jump at the end of the page onto the next page but not at the top of the page. Very difficult to review a report on the screen when it keeps going back and forth. Their support team must have a very high turnover as everytime I call I know more than the person who is suppose to be providing the support. To their credit they do go and get the right answer and get back to you but the typical resolution to a problem is 24 hours. For us 2 hours is a long time when your waiting on an important resolution such as payroll.

Great trainer - great response time to questions

Pros

Logical and menu driven. Easy to train my co-workers. The similar menus in each module make it simple to navigate.

Cons

Learning to make my own reports is a challenge. The report Genie is useful, but I need to take the time to learn to perfect my reports

Pros

They are constantly adding to the platform which already holds a ton of applicable features. Lets you set up a template for estimating that can be tweaked for individual jobs.

Cons

I've been using the software for a year now and it's still complicated to use. Change orders, as they often change or cancel, are difficult to change in the software.

One of my biggest complaints with our previous accounting software was that I still had to do so much manually on the side with Excel spreadsheets. This system automates all of the most time-consuming activities and also reduces errors because it eliminates the double and triple entries required across multiple systems and spreadsheets. The time savings and reduced errors

Pros

All-in-one flow through data tracking, integrated payroll, highly-detailed and automatic reporting, top customer support.

Cons

Some coding could be improved (but that is coming from our highly in-house technical coding expert). However, they do regularly update the software and take customer input into account when rolling out updates.

Pros

I most like the knowledgeable support staff and quick response times to our assistance calls. We also had a great trainer at the beginning of the cutover to Foundation and the transition between one software system to the other was fairly smooth.

Cons

Biggest pet-peeve is that A/P Full Invoice Report cannot be pulled by job. That is the one really hindering issue I have in the A/P module, which is where I usually work.

If you need a basic software this is as good as anything else out there. You will be pleased with migrating away from manual systems, but will probably be ready to migrate again in 5-7 years to a more robust package.

Pros

Handles AP/AR/Gl/PR/ and job costing adequately. This is definitely a step up from Quick Books. Good customer support when contacted.

Cons

Very little help collateral for clients. Usually, a software whether ERP, Office, or even photo/video editing has a robust users group with many YouTube videos online to provide a self-service kiosk of information and recommendations on how people use the software. Virtually everything online is aimed at marketing the product, not supporting existing users. The Help Desk people are great, but I would rather be able to research my own solutions from people that are actually in the industry using the software rather than programmers.