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Turn Up Your ROI with Construction Software

by VENDIREX on 01/28/2015 - 04:59 pm |

Tag: Construction Software

Construction and ROINot many industries have as much to juggle at one time as construction companies. If you have ever watched “house flipping” shows on television, you’ve experienced a small taste of the teamwork and watchful management it takes to pull off even a renovation project. Whether you specialize in residential or commercial, or a mix of both, your potential for true success may very well hinge on whether you have an adequate Construction Software program!

 

If your business is still using Excel sheets, Quickbooks and a payroll clerk, you may think it’s all under control. However, the difference between these ‘manual processes’ and integrated Construction Software is basically night and day. In order to properly estimate whether a new job will make or lose money, you have to be able to accurately job cost current and past projects. Otherwise you might pass up an opportunity of a lifetime, or take on a job that ends up depleting your cash flow.

 

Like any expenditure, software can run the gamut between affordable and sky’s-the-limit; ranging from $500 to $100,000. Obviously, you will need to research which elements are important, and part of this process is making sure you lay out your current steps. Take a long, hard look at what you’re doing right and wrong, and research your software selection carefully. Is it user friendly, does it integrate job costing with estimates as well as accounting, and is it interactive so that your managers can access and utilize the information reporting in a functional manner?

 

Besides documentation of contracts and customer data, various software systems will tackle the big issues differently. They should fit the volume of work and complexity you need to smoothly run your construction firm. Here are a few elements which should absolutely be included:

 

Accounting

General aspects to consider are day-to-day updates of accounts payable and accounts receivable, as well as bank reconciliations. You should be able to code all incoming and outgoing monies to either administrative and operations expenses, capital expenditures or infusions, and revenue and direct costs of your projects.

 

Job Costing

Accurate and timely entries are vital to tracking your projects. Every cost you incur or pay for, and all revenue payments and receivables are entered into the accounting section of your software. However, each of those entries needs to be appropriated to the correct job in order to give you the information you need to make consistent decisions. The ability to make entries from the field may be crucial to your organization’s set up, so make sure the permissions and accessibility features are a good fit for the way you work.

 

Estimating

Bidding a job is what brings in the income, and you want them accepted. So, you’ve got to make certain the bid is realistic and will bring you a profit, that the labor and materials involved will be available when needed, and the location is taken into consideration (access, parking, elevators, and weather). Underbidding a project, to which you later have to add dozens of change orders, is not going to win you future business and can damage your reputation quickly in a competitive market.

 

Reporting

Staying updated on your projects requires constant reports, tracking whether vendors and materials have been paid, overages have been incurred, etc. Additional expenses or onsite findings may require a change order to be generated, and timelines not being met in construction financing can cost you a bundle in interest. When reports are available, use them. If they don’t give you what you need, most software will allow you to customize them to fit.


 



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