Understanding the ins and outs of tax compliance can be tricky for even the savviest business. Knowing where you need to collect tax, collecting the correct amount, and properly documenting exempt sales are all key stages in the compliance process. If done manually, some steps often get overlooked or handled incorrectly – which can lead to serious penalties and fees.
Join us for the upcoming half-hour webinar where we’ll discuss the five steps you can take to avoid an audit.
Our session will cover:
Why is real-time data so important in today’s construction industry?
In today’s fast-paced construction industry, a modern financial management system will almost always mean cloud-based financials. It’s tempting to put off change, to stay with the systems that your teams are comfortable with using. However, that approach may come with some risk. As systems become outdated, they require investment – time, money and skill – to maintain. Internal teams may not be connected and working with real-time information, management is unable to make decisions with accurate data.
To stay competitive, construction and real estate companies’ technology strategies are evolving. The real-time data trend has been studied by industry leaders, which is telling for the future. Forward-thinking businesses are architecting a modern technology strategy that includes cloud accounting financials. A recent Deloitte study discusses both these technology strategies and other construction industry trends to keep on your radar.
Here are my top three signs it’s time to move to cloud-based financials:
It’s hard to overstate the importance of real-time data access that you’ll find in cloud-based financials. One single source of truth gives people in the office and field the ability to view job costing, tools and equipment allocations and overall project status updates. Quick and easy reporting makes it much less likely that you’d miss warning signs that a project is losing money or going to take longer than projected.
Contractors who adopt a cloud-based platform that meets all their needs report that they immediately see improvements in workflows and communication. These forward-thinking business leaders have recognized the risk of delaying change and the advantages that a cloud financial system brings to their business.
Aktion Associates has teams of experts who understand the construction industry’s unique demands. We are ready to review your business needs and determine which cloud platform will fit you best. One popular and powerful choice among our customers is Sage Intacct Construction. Because Sage Intacct was born in the cloud, the accessibility and scalability are unrivaled in the construction industry.
Contact us today to begin your journey towards cloud-based financials, real-time data and position your company for growth.
Tracking the productivity of construction labor takes effort, but when it’s done right, the payoff for contractors is significant. Below you’ll learn more about how contractors gather and act on performance data to reap meaningful gains in profitability.
For many contractors, labor is the biggest cost. That is why so many construction owners devote the time and resources to measure the productivity of every type of labor that goes into a job.
How to Measure Labor Costs:
This will enable you to calculate team performance on each task. Having this data will help you in real time (on each current project), and in the future when you bid for and take on new jobs.
The Importance of Job Costing Visibility
On each project, job costing provides visibility into how labor productivity measures up to the estimated budget, and helps you identify areas that need attention. Here’s another real-time bonus to productivity tracking: when an unforeseen event occurs, such as a pandemic or disruptive weather, you have the data you need to make your case for a change order.
Once you have a storehouse of reliable productivity data, that data becomes an asset for every future project you bid on. Your data will inform every facet of your business. It will give you a benchmark for estimating, budgeting, and scheduling, as well as for performance-based bonus programs. Each step in the process relies on the prior one: estimating informs your budgeting, scheduling, and then labor on the job. Your data can make your bids more competitive – and insulate your profits.
In Summary
An investment in the right construction technology is step one in mastering how to track your labor productivity. If you have just recently started looking at your software options, Sage Intacct Construction software is a flexible financial management solution that adapts to your workflows and reporting requirements. This next-gen cloud platform gives you real-time visibility with built-in and adaptable dashboards, reports, graphs, and charts. Multidimensional reporting and dashboards provide faster and deeper insights into accounts, helping to save hours per month.
You can learn more about how to avoid unexpected cash flow issues by governing your spending against a budget here. Interested in learning more about using data to maximize your profitability, job after job? Take the first step by talking with Aktion Associates to find the best technology solution for your unique needs.
Welcome to Aktion! With the acquisition of United Solutions by Aktion Associates, we all want to assure you as previous USI customers that all of your Sage software sales and support needs will continue to be met. Aktion has been a Sage partner for over 30 years and has over 45 application consultants and engineers.
Please join us for a live webinar to introduce Aktion as your Sage partner and to discuss the additional resources and opportunities available to you with this acquisition. We also look forward to introducing some of the current Aktion leadership team to you.
More about us: Aktion Associates is a national ERP software reseller and IT infrastructure provider focused on the Architectural Engineering & Construction, Distribution and Manufacturing industries. Since 1979, more than 6,500 customers have chosen Aktion as their technology advisor. With a workforce of more than 200 professionals in application consulting, network and software engineering, these teams utilize proprietary lean implementation processes to help customers realize the value of their IT investment.
Sage Field Operations (SFO) integrates with Sage job cost accounting and project management solutions. Learn how SFO helps you streamline field reporting, more tightly control labor costs, and more efficiently schedule and monitor resources. Instant data synchronization keeps field and office personnel on the same page regarding project status and direction. Click here for a brochure: SFO for Sage 300 CRE.
Sage Field Operations can help you:
Sage Field Operations (SFO) integrates with Sage job cost accounting and project management solutions. Learn how SFO helps you streamline field reporting, more tightly control labor costs, and more efficiently schedule and monitor resources. Instant data synchronization keeps field and office personnel on the same page regarding project status and direction. Click here for a brochure: SFO for Sage 100 Contractor.
Sage Field Operations can help you:
A simple yet powerful Project Cost Management platform, WorkMax helps businesses reach their full potential. Attend a webinar to learn how WorkMax modules allow you to track your mobile resources and manage project costs accurately.
Today, most general contractors subcontract out up to 80-100% of their work. In a competitive bid, or design/build project, the race is to find qualified sub-trades that can cover the scope of work on projects. It’s not just dollar comparisons, but also “scope checking” the sub’s “quantities” of systems so you can qualify the validity of their “price.”
Here are some common examples of this:
How do you prepare your estimate, and “scope check” your subcontractors (subs)?
At Aktion Associates, we created a Divisions 1-48 specifications driven estimating database for Sage Estimating. Our estimating database has 4,653 Spec Sections as cost items, waiting for you to enter the price from “scoped checked” subs on bid day. Beyond Spec Section items, we also created 260 Scope Check items to check quantities, which are expandable.
Here is Aktion’s quick and easy process using our Division 1-48 Spec Section Database.
Grow your business with Aktion’s proven Specifications Estimating Database, paired with the most widely used estimating platform in the United States, Sage Estimating. This combination becomes the major difference between you and your competition. Best of all, Sage Estimating integrates with all Sage Construction Accounting products. With Aktion Associates, you get real fast, and real easy solutions that produce winning results.
The journey to migrate to Sage Intacct Construction does not have to be a daunting endeavor with Aktion at your side.
Join us for this webinar to learn what the migration journey from Sage 300 Construction & Real Estate to Sage Intacct looks like. You will get an idea of your migration timeline and learn how to prepare for a smooth transition. We will discuss the process of preparing your data, reconciliation, and then the actual migration into Sage Intacct.
Business Intelligence (BI) software provides a fact-based, real-time, singular version of the truth, empowering construction companies to build and maintain a competitive edge. Project managers who use BI have immediate access to critical information about their projects such as labor, scheduling, suppliers and detailed financials. BI software aggregates information from multiple data sources, transforming it into actionable insights that project managers can use to steer their projects towards success.
Time is critical to the success of construction projects, and delays usually translate into dollars. Project managers can use BI software to quickly analyze data and develop reports that lead to more strategic decisions. In the past, the analysis and reporting was likely managed by an IT department that was likely focused on more IT-centric needs of the business. The IT department can be a bottleneck and cause delays to the field, leaving project managers to make decisions on gut-feel or intuition rather than true intelligence. Intuitive BI puts the onus of data analysis and reporting into the hands of those in the field who need the data the most, and want to make quick decisions based on fact. Project managers use BI to decide how to prioritize project workflows, allocate labor, schedule equipment and supply deliveries, and manage costs and risks. The ability to use data and manage reporting for their areas of responsibility has tremendous impact on whether current and future projects are successful
Labor can be one of the biggest variables for construction projects. The better it can be managed and anticipated, the better chance project managers have of controlling their costs and turning a profit. The jobsite is traditionally a wide array of activity with contractors and subcontractors, and materials and equipment coming and going. Data is coming from all parts of the operations, and by aggregating and analyzing the information, project managers can quickly identify areas where labor can be reduced and or allocated to increase efficiencies, improve productivity and or drive completion. Project managers can also monitor the effectiveness of labor, whether it’s his or her own staff or contractors and subcontractors. Keeping and comparing labor with project timelines, supply and waste and other aspects of the jobsite can help project managers identify sources of labor that they will want to use on future projects.
BI can help project managers to identify problem areas and opportunities and make decisions that will refine their projects’ efficiencies. For example, nothing slows a project down faster than if the crews run out of supplies or if shipments are delayed. Project managers can use the data analytics to better understand when and how much materials need to be ordered and when to ask suppliers to deliver them. Ordering too much product can impact project budgets, while also creating challenges for how and where to store any excess. With better visibility into project data and workflows, a project manager can make better decisions on what suppliers to work with to keep things moving forward. Knowing supply ordering and delivering patterns, along with the best times, prices, and quantities to buy, also allows project managers to negotiate the best pricing tiers to increase profit margins and capitalize on every opportunity.
Executives can use BI to make decisions based on statistical facts. These facts can guide choices about future growth by evaluating a long-term view of the market and competition. Executives can use the data to help decide where to focus growth, how to streamline processes, identify productivity levels among staff and suppliers, monitor cash flow and project profitability, among other ways. While managers can use the actionable insights to determine the most effective strategies to improve individual projects, BI allows Executives to see the bigger picture, funneling all of the facts from across the portfolio of projects to make crucial operational decisions.
Business Intelligence offers a real-time picture of a project’s financial risk, cost variance, cash position, change orders, AR retainage, AP aging and profitability of the job. Top-notch BI allows project managers to drill all the way down to individual transactions to get instant answers to money-saving opportunities and cost concerns. By examining incoming and outgoing finances of the present and past, construction companies can make decisions based on future financial status. Breaking down costs by job give project managers the information that is relative to them. Customizing the BI dashboard allows project managers to track key performance indicators (KPIs) that enable effective financial oversight and management.
Aktion Analytics business intelligence for construction professionals makes it easier for project managers to access the information they need to better understand their project’s past and present performance in order to make the right decisions to increase the chances of success in the future. Companies will be better positioned to make successful strategic decisions when they analyze data and monitor critical business operations from a single source of truth.
To learn more about the value of business intelligence for your construction business, download this white paper.