Is Your Accounting Software System Scaling to Meet Current Needs?

Is your current accounting software solution growing in parallel with your company? Perhaps it has the capabilities to expand as you grow, but you are not utilizing it to its full potential. Sometimes companies start out conservatively, and implement systems that work for the company at that specific snapshot in time. Yet as they grow, they may forget to expand their systems to include and automate particular components (or add modules) which will help them be more competitive – and generate bigger bottom lines.

This happens a lot with users of entry software like QuickBooks and MS excel spreadsheets. They seem sufficient at the start, but as projects grow more complex and disparate business systems need to be integrated, there tends to be better solutions.

Does Your Accounting Software Fit Your Needs?

• Can your team generate the right reports easily?
• Is your data integrated into one solution?
• Do you spend too much time trying to find the data?
• Does your software support your company’s internal policies?

For accounting software to fully support your business needs, it should reduce time spent searching for relevant data and more time analyzing the data. In addition to this, you need to easily produce reports with critical information used for making fluid business decisions. On top of all of this, the software needs to be customizable to suit your internal accounting procedures and policies.

Ultimately, Accounting Software should Streamline Operations

Tracking time cards, invoicing, receipts, payments and check printing are the daily operations that provide a quick overview of the complete payables and receivables processes. An industry-specific solution such as Sage 100 Contractor, or Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate, can help tie these activities with contractual information such as subcontracts, purchase orders, and project item procurements.

While accounting software is a key to a successful business, the information and data used must be current and accurate. By having an integrated solution, data can be input from the office or the field and your team members can have instant access to critical project information allowing them to analyze data, manage the budget, distribute reports, input time cards, and more.

If you are still using entry level software, it may be time to consider a better solution. And if you use a highly capable business management and accounting software it may be time to have an expert review your processes and needs to verify you are using your current solution to its fullest capacity. In either case, it is likely to improve your profitability.

We at Ledgerwood Associates are happy to help you with your accounting software solutions, implementation, system optimization review, and software training to help you grow your business.

Boy, when it comes to report designing software – people are passionate! And sometimes not in a positive way. There are some pretty funny forums, blogs, Facebook pages (**potty/sophomoric humor warning**) and even a Pinterest page dedicated specifically for “hating” on these programs, one of which is Crystal Reports. That being said, the official SAP Crystal Reports FB page has 10,855 ‘Likes’ and 7,266 Crystal Report Twitter followers– so there’s plenty of “love” for it as well!

Let’s face it, people want the quickest way to critical information, and Crystal Report designing takes some programming prowess. Depending on your skill level, this may slow you down or may require IT resources. But for data-driven decision making – nothing beats Crystal Reports as a business tool!

Sage 300 CRE (Timberline) Report Designer – Users Love it

For more basic functionality, Sage 300 CRE’s Report Designer is far more user-friendly. Easy to plan, design and create a basic report, this program makes reporting far more achievable for a casual (read: non-IT) user. With a little training, users can create formulas, leverage functions to perform to business rules, and manage custom reports.

No Fear!

At the end of the day, it’s all about how your business needs to (re)view and act on vital data. If you need reports on the fly – give Report Designer a whirl. If you need complex data with charts, graphs, and special formulas – Crystal Reports is for you.

Ledgerwood Associates, Inc. is now offering two online “Take the Fear Out of…Report” training series. The Report Designer is a series of three 2-hour classes, and Crystal Reports is series of five 2-hour classes. Led by Certified Sage Consultant, Kyle Zeigler, this is a low-cost, interactive way to become proficient in either software. Materials and recorded sessions will be available for 30 days after the sessions end.

Sign up for one of these (or both,) and ‘like,’ ‘pin,’ or ‘tweet’ your expertise to the world. You may have time to, now!

I love these “new age” names we come up with, “Big Data” (as opposed to small data?); or “Unified Data Warehouse.” Isn’t technology terminology great?

Dealing with big data is nothing new for the construction industry…it has been around since the dawn of the digital age. What has become the constraint is that it is “too big to understand” – in its native format. It has become so enormous in volume our normal analytical tools fail to deliver data in a manner in which critical decisions can be made (or delivered in a timely manner).  Another constraint in today’s digital age is we need to combine data from many different sources to fully understand what is going on and what to do about it.

We often work with very large enterprise construction firms that have numerous institutionalized data systems over the years that are islands of mission critical data – and because of cost invested, user resistance to change, or excessive disruption to migrate, no one is giving them up!  Industrial Mining, Oil & Gas, large commercial multi-location organizations all struggle with multiple data systems and huge volumes of “big data.”

So how does a company bring all that data together without killing the company?

The concept of “Big Data” drives the need to have an analytical engine that can deliver information to each role in the organization in a meaningful way and in a timely manner. The other mission critical function for companies with locked-in data systems is to bring these enormous “islands” of information into a “Unified Data Warehouse” where it can be combined to deliver even more meaningful and valuable information from different sources.

Several software firms are attempting various approaches to the Unified Warehouse concept and the data mining capability.

Hard Dollar’s LASSO Project Intelligence is an example of a construction industry Unified Data Warehouse where data is imported or connectors are built that integrate data from various sources such as the ERP system’s job cost, Scheduling Software data, Estimating data, Production data, and other sources. The power of LASSO’s tools is that it easily lets an end user build, analyze, and forecast various scenarios – without a custom developer writing code. It might combine a aseline budget, the schedule with its resources and equipment, the costing to date, the production and other data all derived from existing data sources within the company (and sometimes from their vendors and clients as well). This new
combined source of data is then presented through easily defined graphic formats and data grids.

Welcome to the “Big Data new age!”

Building information modeling started as a production of 3D design models to help catch architectural system variances and clashes. Since then, it has become an effective tool in project management and ever more prominent in job cost estimating.

Traditionally, estimators begin their process by doing manual take-offs or digitizing architectural construction drawings. Or possibly, they may be importing CAD plans into an estimating software package. The thing about these processes is that they all have higher risk of error by way of unknowingly incurring an omission or duplication. This has the potential to logarithmically propagate cost errors throughout the estimating process.

Using a BIM solution can significantly reduce (though not completely deny) human error. As the project experiences changes, as they always do, the model can be updated. If properly configured, the BIM should update the takeoffs, schedule, and costing data for the project as the changes occur.

After the BIM is established, pricing information is the next critical set of data which needs to be considered. Estimators can extract the quantities provided by the building information modeling solution and output the information via linking it to a product such as Sage 300 CRE. From here, an estimator may generate estimates based on historical data.

Some of the most critical tasks in estimating are having accurate and current takeoff information, and applying that to accurate pricing and scheduling data. BIM solutions can help to make the quantification tasks easier and more accurate. The integration of this data into an estimating solution can mean that estimators are more accurate and can spend their time and knowledge doing higher value activities.

A GREAT SUCCESS for CPFS – LAI collected 46 Cell Phones for Soldiers! Each phone valued at $5 translates into 2.5 hours of calling time for our military personnel. That means we collectively donated 115 hours to our troops!  Ledgerwood Associates matched each phone donation with a half an hour of FREE consulting time!

Keynote speaker, Joe Granneman, had the audience in a state of highly entertained shock as he shared stories of security gaps in super-powers like Google and Facebook, and how easy it is to crack 7-character passwords in under four seconds (make sure yours is at least 8 characters, and no “dictionary” words)! That information alone may have saved thousands of dollars in potential fraud!!

Our friends Diane Haines and Todd Juhnke from Sage Construction & Real Estate put on an amusing skit (complete with a fake marriage) on the frustrations of timecards between the field and office, and how Sage Construction Anywhere will allow you to watch more football! How many software solutions can claim that?!

After lunch by the pool, attendees split up into two afternoon sessions with a choice of four different tracks. SMEs from Sage, TimberScan, Trapp Online, Piracle, True Wireless, Hard Dollar, and Ledgerwood Associates spent quality time demonstrating integration strategies, hardware, and mobile solutions. CFMA was there too, to answer questions and talk about their great organization (LAI is a member)!

Everyone regrouped for Ed Ledgerwood’s closing remarks, and mingled for the last time during Happy Hour on the patio! Check out pictures of Technology Day on our FB Tech Day album.

Ah, the annual software upgrade!

Here are some tips to prepare for an upgrade:

Read, read, read! Each new release comes with a .pdf file of Release Notes. These notes not only explain what changes you’ll see in the use of the software, but also provide essential notes on installation and a link to the latest update of the User’s Guide for step-by-step instructions.

Verify your system requirements. It’s a sad thing when customers spend hours attempting to upgrade their software, only to discover that the newer version wouldn’t run efficiently on their old system or wouldn’t run at all on their new system. Be aware: Sage 300 CRE is not yet supported on Microsoft Server 2012 or Windows 8 on workstations.

Make a plan. After thoroughly reading the Release Notes and the latest User’s Guide, create a checklist of the steps to be taken and the critical aspects of the upgrade process. For instance, if you use Estimating, at what point will you uninstall and reinstall the Estimating program? Do you use other Sage 300 applications that require special treatment during the upgrade, such as with Purchasing and Inventory?

The best tip of all! For the smoothest, most worry-free upgrade, contact Ledgerwood Associates, your Sage 300 CRE business partner, and schedule a consultant at least a week in advance to handle the upgrade for you. Then if an unexpected issue arises during the upgrade, you’ll have the best preparation tactic already in place!

-Guest post by Kyle Zeigler, LAI Certified Consultant

Yes, this is our last plug for the annual Technology Day event this week -  April 4th, and we are very excited to see everyone! Have you registered yet? If not…

Go Register for Tech Day Here

…so you can join us at the beautiful Double Tree Resort in Scottsdale Arizona. Bring your smartphone, tablets and other devices and plug-in to the future of construction technology.

Keynote speaker Joseph Granneman, CIO of Rockford Orthopedic, will kick things off with a presentation focused on information security and compliance.

Representing Sage, our co-hosts, Todd Juhnke, Regional Sales Manager-Construction and Real-Estate Division, and Diane Haines, Sr. Director, Product Management, Construction & Real Estate will be presenting the powerful cloud based construction technology solution – Sage Construction Anywhere.

There will then be afternoon sessions with multiple tracks for learning about specific topics. Head over to the registration page to learn more about all of the Tech Day Tracks.

And make sure you bring your old cell phones too! Ledgerwood Associates will be collecting them for Cell Phones For Soldiers, a non-profit dedicated to helping our troops stay in contact with their families here at home.

Don’t miss out on all of the fun and information this year. We look forward to seeing and talking to you all!

Over the last nine years, this organization has helped to provide 181 million minutes of talk time to our soldiers. They mail about 12,000 calling cards each week, and have recycled nearly 11 million cell phones! What’s more remarkable, is CPFS was founded by Robbie & Brittany Bergquist when they were only 12 & 13 years old, and is still operated almost entirely by the Bergquist family from Massachusetts. At this years annual Technology Day event, Ledgerwood Associates, Inc. will be an official collection center for Cell Phones for Soldiers. Sponsor a heart-felt call yourself by donating a gently used cell phone at the Technology Day event, and LAI will deliver to it Cell Phones for Soldiers.

If for some reason you can’t make it to Tech Day, you can still donate online.

Fortunately in the construction industry, there is an ever-growing trend of technology solutions which enable greater integration while adding mobility to the solution. Project information can be continuously (two-way) synced between field and office, all while senior staff and owners sit at a conference table accessing and discussing data.

Integration becomes even more critical for remote projects. Having technological integration and current data across virtual collaborating teams ensures more smoothly running projects, creating greater profitability.

Interconnectivity is not as easy as it sounds, though! Functionality differs, depending on the design intent of each software component. For example, you may have BIM project data which needs to be tied to costing software, which then needs to populate data in an accounting solution – now, you can see why seamless integration of the technologies is indispensable. Clearly, cross-platform connectivity along with flow-through data control are essential when choosing your construction management and financial software.

Construction firms continue to search for ways to beat out the competition by increasing efficiency, building better bids, and lowering overhead to get the next project. If you have questions about construction management software or accounting and estimating solutions to technology integration, then you should attend Ledgerwood Associates 1st Annual Technology Day event, co-sponsored by Sage. Join everyone on April 4th, 2013 and pick the brains of presenters such as Piracle, Timberscan, TimberCloud, Hard Dollar, and more, while they cover a range of the Future of Technology in Construction.

It’s no surprise that when the Engineering News Record polled its readers last year, Apple’s iPad and iPhone were among the top 10 technology and software products contractors are interested in using most. We talked about that in our blog last March -Contractors Pick Apple iPad, iPhone and iCloud.

With so many contractors interested in using iPads and iPhones, here are five great ways to use mobile technology to expand the capabilities of your construction office in a truck.

1.   Record Time and Attendance

“Time,” the IOS or Android App in Sage Construction Anywhere, enables employees and supervisors to:

• Replace paper timesheets with a smartphone or tablet
• Rapidly enter and submit employee time worked on their iPad or iPhone
• Link time-worked to project cost codes
• Review and approve employee hours worked

2.   Read Project Documents

“Project Files” in Sage Construction Anywhere makes it easy to access the details you need to make sure the work is done right the first time!

• Access and share project documents on your iPad
• Pull up contracts and files immediately
• Retrieve the most recent version of documents or drawings

3.   Check Subcontractor Compliance

Use “Project Reports” in Sage Construction Anywhere, or TimberCloud hosting to access compliance data through your iPad.  Take action while the sub is standing right in front of you!

Compliance features in Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate help you to take a more proactive approach towards lien waivers, permits, punch list completion, and insurance.

4.   Check Important Details on Photos and Plans

The New iPad’s Retina Display is 2048 x 1536 pixels, more than your HDTV at home! Apple’s iPad 3, Why do I Want One in Construction?

Field-friendly features on the new iPad:

• Photos and plans look much sharper
• Important details are harder to miss
• Zooming in reveals more
• Digital plans can be changed at the site (with iPad blueprint apps)

5.   Analyze with Excel (Yes, Excel on your iPad)

With TimberCloud hosting, all of the features of your construction software, and anything else you do on your Windows desktop, are available on your iPad. And, since Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate lets you easily export an inquiry to Excel, you can easily click and copy your inquiry results, including headings, directly to Excel for analysis—on your iPad.

This list is not exhaustive. Innovators and early adopters always find ways to benefit from new technology that were not originally contemplated. 5 Reasons to be the First on the Block

What are some of the ways you use your iPad at the construction site? We’d like to know.