STRUCTURE Construction Accounting Software C/F DataSystems, Your Construction/Financial Authority

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The construction industry is new to me, so the past few months have been a whirlwind of learning.  I never had any idea how much it takes for contractors to run their businesses.

While a lot is starting to make sense, I’m still baffled by one thing.

Every contractor I talk to is unhappy with their current software.

Every conversation I have with a controller or a president turns to the shortfalls of their current system.

With all the complexities surrounding the successful management of a construction business, why do so many people insist on using a system that doesn’t meet all of their needs?

While I’ve spent dozens of hours learning the abilities STRUCTURE, the construction accounting software we offer here at C/F Data Systems, I still get questions from prospects asking if we can handle certain aspects of their business, and I have to go ask someone who knows.

And every time, I’m told we can.  Every time.

If there is anything your current system can’t do, or if there is anything you wish your system did better, let us know.  Schedule a demo.  See how we can do it better.

Our demos are free, take about an hour, and can answer all of your questions.

If your system can’t, maybe ours can.  We have the tools to make your business run better, and the one thing everyone I talk to in the industry agrees on is that they want to be the best.

Let us help you be the best.

C/F DataSystems has been in business since 1979, longer than any other developer of contractor accounting software.  For 33 years, we've been fortunate to serve the construction industry.  What has made us successful is that our development has focused on our customers' actual needs.  Our accounting package, STRUCTURE, has grown with our customers and is a reflection of real user input.

But don't take our word for it.  Read what our customers have to say for yourself:

Today I gave some thought about the customer review and its importance on our buying decision.  There are some that have a notion that a good brand equals quality.  The first thing that comes to mind is a Toyota automobile. I’m on my 2^nd Toyota Camry and had the pleasure of doing a commercial a couple of years ago. For Christmas I asked my wife for a GPS. I made it a bit easy as I knew the model number and accessories that would make my life easier.  All because of a little research and customer reviews.  I decided on the Garmin Nuvi 50. I read so much on the product that I felt I knew it as a person.

The comical part was learning that Garmin is a Canadian company that calls a rotary a roundabout. Well I’m off the soapbox know and wonder if a contractor uses the same process to find out about accounting software packages.  If you do not use a similar process then you might be stuck with an investment that doesn’t yield positive results.  I am noticing a trend toward a variety of different websites that either recommend or suggest accounting systems for contractors. Well with so many one has to ask how one makes an informed decision. With the advent of the World Wide Web, YouTube, blogs and other sources people come by information instantly.  If we throw smart phones into the mix we are never away from the news.

I take the position that a review is heartfelt and honest. If your customer likes you they will tell the world.  You may have helped them with a problem that continues to make their life easier. You may have done something after hours when the customer thought all hope was lost. It may have been as simple as being there on the phone to listen and then assist.  The review is powerful amongst the other ways that information gets out.  So when you are looking at a potential new solution for your business, make sure to not only look at a demo, talk to references, but read the reviews. The old adage that nice things are being said does carry weight. People do talk and will take notice.

So if you are in information overload, confused by where to go or what to do on software; think that you need C/F Data Systems STRUCTURE.  Our product is top notch, our service is outstanding, and our customer reviews will leave you wanting more.  Don’t take my word for it see for yourself.

You’re in a competitive business.  So am I.  Just about anyone in business is competitive.

We’re all fighting to attract new customers, grow existing ones, and take on as much business as we can, lest our competitors get it first.

Part of what we do to gain an advantage is put our best foot forward.  Excellent customer service, timely response to all inquiries, fair bids, and quality work.

We all know image counts.  How you present your business is how you are perceived.

That’s why we spend money on clean uniforms, shiny trucks, professional websites, clean and well furnished conference rooms, and we sharpen our dress when we meet with customers.

The marketing gurus tell us social media is the new key to successful marketing.  If you want to attract new business, you need to be found on the internet.

And what I’m finding is that these new marketing tools, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, blogs, and the like, are allowing quick user input, without a quality check, and it’s making us look bad.

Social media tools are great.  They help us reach a new audience that a simple website wouldn’t.  They help us with a low-cost way to get our companies out there.  They help us let the world know, in real time, what we offer and what’s new.  And they help search engines find us, so we can reach those searching for us.

But what absolutely baffles me is the lack of attention to detail I find every day when I see people using social media.  You wouldn’t show up to a business meeting in sweat pants, but that’s exactly what you do when you post poorly on social media sites when representing your business.

I’ve seen LinkedIn profiles where a candidate stresses the importance of “attention to detail”, but when you read the profile, they’ve got a dozen punctuation, spelling, and grammatical mistakes.  I’ve seen Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn postings by businesses that are barely readable because the English is so bad.

You wouldn’t release a marketing brochure or your official website without first proof-reading it.  The same should be true when you post on your business’ social media sites.

So, when you have some great news about your business, and you want to share it with the world, follow these simple steps:

First, before you hit “post”, read it.  Does it make sense?

Second, spell check.  Your computer can do this easily.  Paste it in word, and hit F7 to see if it’s all spelled correctly.

Third, check your spelling and grammar.

Lastly, do what I do.  If you have an idea, type it out, then minimize the page and go work on something else.  When you re-open it, read what you wrote.  Sometimes taking a step back can give you a different perspective.

English may not be your strong suit.  You may be in a hurry.  Or you may just be so excited about the news you have, that you just want it out here.

Slow down, take your time, and do it right.

When people read your posts, they are taking it as the company’s word, and if it’s written poorly, it reflects badly on the company.  A social media micro-blast is quick and easy, but it still needs to be done well.

It’s like pulling up to a black-tie dinner in a rust heap…it just looks bad.

So put your best foot forward, and make social media reflect the attention you put into all the other details you’ve worked so hard to put into your company.

On my drive to work today I gave some thought into being a construction business owner. While I’ve had the pleasure of running a business in another industry I’m always amazed at how some people handle their business based on size, needs, and desire.  You have to put in hard work to be successful. This is driven into our heads at an early age.  I’d like to put a different spin on it now.  If you were trying to grow or enhance your business would you be willing to sacrifice or take risk?

I look at sacrifice as that element one might go past or not entertain. While risk is something that deep down in your gut tells you it’s going to be good when no one else listens. We each have little voices that tell us right and wrong.  But do we listen?  I believe the answer is no that we don’t listen.  For the first couple of months we are starting to see signs that the economy is turning around. Yet, people are staying conventional and with the same. No one seems ready to plan for one to three years; it’s more like one to three months.  To further stimulate your business you’ve sacrificed by keeping it running despite the economic climate around you.  Now it’s time to take risks and put your company on a path toward what you truly desire.

I don’t profess to have all the answers, but one thing is for certain, running a sound business requires an accounting software package to help you streamline your process, give you historical perspective, and give you the answers you need today and beyond.  Ladies and gentleman you need STRUCTURE.

As a professional contractor, you know you can’t buy cheap tools and hope to rely on them to get the job done.

If you want to do a quality job, you need to invest in quality tools.

This is a lesson I just learned the hard way.

As the person responsible for updating our sales website, I make sure we have good tools to work with, and I try to do a quality job.

But when we decided to add some forms to our website to collect contact info from potential customers, I knew it was going to be a cumbersome job.  So I cheated a little.  Rather than take on the job of hand-coding these forms in HTML, or paying for good software to create the forms, I did a little online research, and found a free form building tool.

I didn’t entirely take a shortcut blindly; I researched the tool to see how other users felt about the product, and I found good results.

But, you get what you pay for. 

After creating the forms and loading them onto our site, we had nearly a year of trouble-free bliss.

But then I received an e-mail from the company hosting the forms.  Some phishing scammers in Africa were using the same free tool, and they were using the forms to collect banking info from potential victims.  So the U.S. Secret Service decided to intervene, and seized the website that hosted the forms, making the forms on my site useless and inoperative. 

The company offered a free tool, and some users abused it, and now they are paying a price, through no fault of their own.  But it caused me the pain of having to re-create 18 forms on our website.

Lesson learned: Don’t use cheap tools if you want the job done right.

Take this lesson to heart.  You may have some inexpensive software to run your business, but is it doing the job right?  Is it doing a quality job?  Is it going to stand up to the test of time?

If you’re not sure, or you think there may be a better solution, take a free demo of our STRUCTURE package.  We’ve been doing this for 33 years.  We’re the right tool for the job.

If you’re in the contracting industry, or you service the construction industry, than you know you run a very specialized business.

To run your business, you need very specialized software to manage your operations.

If you employ more than 20 people, it’s not an option to pop into Best Buy and pick up a copy of Quick Books.  You need to employ a software company that hopefully has everything you need to run your unique business and tie it all together.  You need that company to offers world-class setup, training, and support.  And you need that company to continue to grow dynamically, just as your contracting business does.

Though the main focus of any business management software is accounting, you need the software to connect all the dots.  You need to do job costing.  You need to be able to quote.  If you’re a service contractor, you need to issue work orders.  You may need to track your inventory or your fixed assets.  And I’m sure project management would be a plus.

Since your financials are all tied together by the software, in addition to G/L, payables, and receivables, you may want to be able to do payroll and issue your own checks.

To go a step further, you may need special forms for AIA billing, and you may need to set up all sorts of special rates, costs, and benefits for union workers and jobs.

As an executive or financial officer, you may simply want a dashboard set up so you can review key performance indicators and metrics.

The software you use to manage your contracting business must be robust and all-encompassing, but it must also be easy to use, easy to learn, and offer great support.

With so much activity gearing up in the construction industry for contractors, now may be the time to beef up your office to handle the coming load.

Here at C/F DataSystems, LLC., we offer free online demos of our accounting software package, and we offer job cost, project management, payroll, work orders, and many other modules that you may want to tie in to your system.  Our account managers can help find the system that is right for you, and our support staff and development team are on-site to help you get started and go live in a very short time.

We’ve been in business for 33 years, and we’ve maintained our focus on serving the needs of contractors.  We’ve seen what others have to offer, but no one has the experience or dynamics that we do.

A great compliment we always hear is that our customers feel like our office becomes an extension of theirs when they sign on to STRUCTURE.

Our online demo is less than 90 minutes, it’s free, and it will answer all your questions about how we can make your business better.  Sign up now!

As the stock market continues to flirt with the highest numbers we’ve seen since before the recession, it’s good to pick up the newspaper each day and see flutters of hope for full construction industry recovery.

In the Boston Globe, I just saw a story that New Balance is going to begin construction on a new world headquarters on a 14-acre site complete with a sports complex, boutique hotel, 3 office buildings, restaurant and retail space in Brighton, Ma.

Each new win means more business for contractors, and more employees back to work.

Are you ready to handle the new business coming your way?  Contact us and find out how we can help you add some STRUCTURE.

I was reading a recent press release from The Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc. outlining construction employment figures for 2011, and there were a few quotes that caught my eye:

“For all of 2011, the construction industry added 46,000 jobs - representing the best industry performance since January 2007.”

Hmm, I remember January 2007.  I was recruited by a company that was begging people to come work for them. The economy was so good they couldn’t find workers.  As soon as I took the job, they offered me a hiring bonus for anyone I could recruit from my old company.

It’s also the same month I bought my house, at the peak of the housing bubble, and I bought with confidence because the economy and the job market were doing so well.

"Today's employment numbers exceeded consensus expectations of 155,000 jobs created in December. This was the best overall employment performance for the U.S. economy since 1999, when the nation added 294,000 jobs.”

That is an amazing figure right there.  In 1999, I knew people who quit their jobs to flip houses professionally, local contractors I knew were buying Ferrari’s (no exaggeration, one even bought one from Nicholas Cage), and a high schooler bought my motorcycle out of the Want Ads using some cash he made from E-Trade.

If the numbers are starting to reflect those of better times, hopefully that means better times are ahead.

I know of many projects that are edging closer and closer to being shovel-ready.  Fewer and fewer people are asking me for job leads or to write references.  I’m seeing less For Sale signs around town.

Let’s all hope that 2012 is the year things turned around, and we can forget about the hardships the recession and everything that lead up to it caused.  Let’s hope this year we can flip a few houses and buy a few Ferrari’s.

"While major economic headwinds remain, including elevated levels of distressed properties and disciplined lending, the worst appears to be behind the U.S. construction industry.”

Hoorah!