Timberline Forum

Thursday, the Valley of the Sun Construction Financial Management Association held its monthly luncheon. Street Transportation Director for the city of Phoenx, Wylie Beaurup was the guest speaker.

He spoke to a packed house for more than 30 minutes about the city’s use of Construction Manager at Risk with Price Competition used by the state to dole out federally funded projects.  Beaurup is responsible for executing nearly $6 billion, 5-year capital improvement program.

Beaurup explained in order to be able to take advantage of the millions of dollars assigned to Arizona by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, state legislators had to change the language which outlines Requests for Proposals in Arizona.  In 2000, the state began using Construction Manager at Risk guidelines which do not allow for a project to be awarded by price.  It must strictly be awarded through qualifications.  S0, recently the state came up with the Construction Manager at Risk with Price Competition in order to begin using federally-funded stimulus projects.

Someone wanted to know if BIM requirements are going to be considered anytime soon when it comes to qualifying General Contractors for projects.  Beaurup’s answer was not really. At this time BIM knowledge might be advantageous but there are many more qualifications to be considered.  So at this time lack of BIM will not be used to disqualify those bidding for projects.

Bearup expressed his satisfaction with the Construction Manager at Risk model stating it ensures the most qualified contractor is chosen, not the cheapest.  It creates better relationships among team members, the contractor is involved for the duration of the project and makes for true value engineering.

 When asked if there were soon to be any RFP’s for Stimulus jobs, Beaurup told the crowd not anytime in the near future.

Sage Timberline recently made some upgrades to  Estimaing.  The question is, are you using them to help you get the maximum juice out of your Estimating system?  If, after reading the following enhancements you find you are not using them please feel free to contact Daren.  He’s the guy in the know.  Without further adieu, here are the upgrades we want you to take advantag of!

1.  Upgrade individual estimating files on the fly.  Why spend hours upgrading all your estimates at once each time a new release comes out? That can take hours. So, now when you need to restore archived estimates from an earlier version of your software, you won’t need to upgrade all estimates and/or database files all at the same time. The system automatically identifies the files that need to be upgraded on a file-by-file basis so your estimating files get updated as you work. Now, that’s a time-saver.

2. Create new version of existing assemblies with ease.  Ready to save even more time? We’ve enhanced the “copy assembly” feature. In previous versions when copying an assembly from one location to another, the items would copy, but you would lose the assembly detail. Meaning, you wouldn’t have the variables (i.e. length, width, depth, etc). Now when you copy the assembly from one location to another, it shows up as an assembly and allows you to see the variables that were used to calculate the assembly.

3.  Streamline your RFQ and Buyout process.  In the past, you’ve always had a place to enter the subcontractor amount and name as well as material, but no place to record the material vendor name. With Version 9.6, you’ll be able to log and display both as well as pass this information to the Buyout module, so your entire RFQ, vendor assignment, and Buyout process runs more efficiently than ever.

4.  Select values from numeric columns that automatically display totals in the status bar.  The auto sum has been enhanced so you can view display totals at a glance.

Spring 2010 Enhancements:  Simplify your day…every day  

The more efficiently your business management system allows your team to locate and act upon key information, the faster and easier they can do their jobs. That’s why we’ve enhanced Sage Timberline Office to provide everyone on your team with a wide range of automation, workflow and process improvements to make it easier to get more done in less time, including:

1. Simplified reporting and data analysis with new tools that are familiar and easy to use.
2. A higher degree of work process automation so your team  has the freedom to focus on other tasks
3. Easier ways to share documents and manage internal approval processes making your entire team (and business) more efficient.

Simplified Installation
Why waste hours of your personal time upgrading workstations?

Laying the groundwork for future updates, the new Sage Installation Manager will make the task of installing and updating accounting workstations much more efficient. Getting your team up and running on the latest software advances for Sage Timberline Office will be quicker and easier than ever. That’s because the process is easily administered from a central location saving you unnecessary legwork and the need to manually install on individual workstations. The result is a dramatic reduction in the time you spend performing workstation installs and updates.

Document Management Rules-based Routing
Now you can ensure documents are reviewed by the right people in the right sequence every time with Document Management Rules-based Routing.

1.  Should all reviewers receive a document simultaneously or should documents be sent to reviewers sequentially?
2.  Would you like to designate an alternate recipient if the original reviewer is unavailable?
3.  Who should be notified when a process is completed?

These are just a few of the processes that Rules-based Routing can automate for you. And, the flexibility doesn’t end there! A number of other conditions are possible including:
1.  Which recipients can approve, reject, or forward documents.
2.  The types of documents recipients can approve (e.g. invoices, purchase orders, . . .).
3.  The dollar amounts (min and max) each recipient is allowed to approve.
4.  How many days are allowed for document routing.
5.  Due dates and alerts for documents.

Document Management Rules-Based Routing
Now you can ensure documents are reviewed by the right people in the right sequence every time with Document Management Rules-based Routing. Rules-based Routing also lets you automate the routing and approval processes that best suit your particular business needs. This means increased productivity and accountability. Avoid unnecessary delays, mistakes, and get paperwork approved faster. The best part is it’s all electronic.

Technology Updates
Keeping current with the latest technology, Sage Timberline Office now supports Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and includes an upgraded Pervasive 10 database. Our goal is to ensure your investment stays current and competitive as well as support the requirements most used by our customers.

More Comprehensive Tax Filing Capabilities & Improved Payroll Management
Now with over 250 additional US State and Federal government forms included, you’ll be able to complete tax filings, new hire reports, and more. Electronic forms are pre-filled using data from your Sage Timberline Office software.  You can then review, edit, or fill-in more completely if desired. And, to automate the process even further, we’ve partnered with Aatrix Software* offering you a number of additional services, including the option to eFile your forms. Of course, you’ll still have the option to print and mail the forms as you always have if you prefer. All new forms are printable as part of your regular service plan.  However, should you choose to take advantage of the eFiling capabilities, those services are offered for a modest fee through our partnership with Aatrix.

BIM–Estimating Quantity Takeoff Integration
With this release, estimators can now take full advantage of both 2D and 3D Building Information Models (BIM) when creating estimates. Thanks to our partnership and development work with Autodesk, estimators can enjoy powerful integration between Estimating and Autodesk’s Quantity Takeoff 2010 product. Using Autodesk’s Revit platform for BIM, object quantities and dimensions for items such as doors, windows, and walls can be stored within the Model and then extracted using AutoDesk’s Quantity Takeoff. Then, simply drag and drop items to map the Model objects and their dimensions to the estimating database for a one-time integration setup.

Advanced Assembly Databases
Databases are some of the most complete Estimating databases we’ve ever offered. Are you not yet taking advantage of Sage Timberline Office estimating? Or, are you interested in bidding different types of work outside of the normal types of projects you do? If so, these databases will significantly reduce the amount of time you spend getting your estimating system up and running or bidding new types of projects. The latest versions include a significant increase in the number of items with the ability to price labor in three different ways: turn-key, man-hour, or labor-only unit price. Plus, assembly items are now organized by trade with over 60 trade specific labor costs supported.

Excel-based Reporting—Office Connector Starter for Sage
Do you wish you had an easier way to analyze and report on data in a familiar format? Now you can leverage the benefits of Microsoft Excel to work with your Sage Timberline Office data using Office Connector Starter for Sage, included as part of your maintenance and service update.** Developed by Event 1 Software, Office Connector Starter for Sage is a reporting and analysis tool that allows you to use workbook templates created in Excel to key data housed within Sage Timberline Office. It provides you with a fast and easy way to look at your Sage Timberline Office data in a whole new light. Extract and perform analysis on a wide range of data through six workbook templates, including:

1. Sage Timberline Office Dashboard
View high-level summary totals from different Sage Timberline Office applications on one worksheet. This includes a financial summary, summary of jobs in-progress, summary of Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Property Management, and Billing. The Dashboard also allows you to identify a number of un-posted entries by application.

2. Sage Timberline Office Search
This helpful report lets you quickly find items in Sage Timberline Office based on arbitrary pieces of information you may have, such as a fragment of the description, number, date range, or amount. A separate worksheet also shows you the results returned from each application. Sage Timberline Office Spring 2010 Enhancements

3. Account Ledger with Detail
This report provides you with an excellent auditing tool. Identify a specific account, a set of accounts (using an account mask), or report all accounts. Select a desired date range and other criteria, such as whether to include entries associated with closing the fiscal year. And for each account, a summary of information that shows the beginning balance for the date range, net activity, and ending balance for the date range can also be included.

4. Cost To Complete
Simply specify which job, and this useful report lets you quickly produce a cost to complete worksheet that includes the estimate values, commitments, and actual cost to date. A data-entry column is included where you can record your expected cost to complete. And, calculated columns show you the resulting cost at completion and over/under values in real-time.

5. Job List with Maps & Weather
View a simple list of open jobs that can be quickly filtered or searched, which include two columns with hyperlinks. One takes you to Google Maps providing you with a map of the job location; the other takes you to Weather.com so you can easily see weather conditions at the job site.

6. Lease Expiration List
See every lease that’s about to expire within a timeframe that you identify. You can select all properties or a specific property, enter a cut-off date, and number of days until lease expiration. You can also quickly filter and sort the list using auto-filter and sorting features within Excel.  Customers on a current service plan receiving the Office Connector Starter for Sage will also be granted “a 5-day trial access period” to the full version of Office Connector. The full version includes an additional 20 standard reports/templates and the ability to create your own custom reports and templates using the Designer Tool should you decide to upgrade.

Also, as a special bonus, the trial version of Office Connector Starter for Sage also includes a FREE Anytime Learning session offered on Sage University. This short, online presentation describes the products functionality as well as a number of useful tips and tricks.

For more information or details on purchasing the full version of Office Connector, click here.
Download this  information in a printable PDF format.