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

C/F DataSystems, LLC has released their quarterly newsletter.  Click on the photo to read it:

When describing STRUCTURE construction accounting software to potential customers, we often focus on the accounting aspects.  Just about every customer uses the accounts payable, accounts receivable, general ledger, and job cost features, and most use the payroll feature.

But, when I ask customers who have been using STRUCTURE for some time what really sets STRUCTURE apart, I often hear that it’s the Work Orders component that really sets it apart from other software packages.

You see, STRUCTURE really makes creating work orders easy, fast, and profitable.  The system offers instant access to client history and credit history, and your service rep and equipment at the site.  It allows you to dispatch service at the site, while allowing you to keep an eye on your resources and profitability.

You can set up zone analysis for routing and scheduling, and you can log times of call and dispatch.  You can also set up screens to enter the problem, and, ultimately, the resolution.

It gives you all the automated features you need to keep your trucks on the road and your paperwork out the door.

What are some features that set STRUCTURE Work Orders apart from other accounting packages?

How about the ability to generate quotes for your customers, and then convert them into orders?  Or the ability to check open orders reporting by status, priority, date/time, customer, order number, job, truck, service rep, or zone?  You also have the ability to automatically recall work orders for billing, and handle COD’s, as well as automatic pricing for labor and material that is updatable from services such as Trade Service or Harrison.

You can also cross-post to accounts receivable, job cost, payroll, and general ledger as required. It automatically tracks material inventory by truck, and automatically bills scheduled service contracts.  It offers preventative maintenance scheduling capability with automatic PM work orders, and has the ability to generate cost and profit analysis by job and service technician.

Is your current accounting system able to handle all of that, seamlessly?

Information is only good if you are able to extract it and use it the way you need to.

Our Work Orders module allows you to run inquiries and pull reports such as Dispatch Board, Work Orders, Open Orders, Service History, Inventory Location, Service Contract, Contract Expiration, Invoice, WO Scheduling, Recurring Billing, Make/Model Problem Analysis, Service Rep Profitability, Invoice History, Service Contract Labels, Preventative Maintenance, and Call Analysis.

However you are generating work orders now, stop for a minute, and think about how nice it would be if an easier way exisited.

To view a demo of STRUCTURE Contractor Accounting Software:

To view our latest YouTube video:

Where were you on September 11^th, 2001?

I remember where I was.  I was home from work, nursing an injury, and sleeping late.  I woke up to a phone call from a friend who told me to turn on the television.  A plane had just crashed into one of the towers.

I got up from bed, went to my living room, and turned on my new big screen and saw the footage.  At the time, no one knew what was going on yet.

I thought it was some freak accident, a plane coming in too low trying to land, and so did many of the reporters.

I sat, with most of America, watching the first tragedy, as a second plane struck the second tower.

I remember my stomach knotted up with the realization that this was deliberate.

As the day unfolded on the screen before me, the towers collapsed, and a third plane struck the Pentagon.

Having grown up during the Cold War, I was shaking, imagining Russia was attacking, and these were the pre-emptive strikes.  My biggest fear was we were under attack, and this was just the beginning.

It seemed like something out of a Tom Clancy novel, and amazingly, the reporters called Tom Clancy in to give his commentary as we watched the scene unfold through the day.

Luckily, all air traffic was grounded or diverted, so there were no more strikes, save for the flight that went down in a Pennsylvania field.

That day, for the first time, I learned who the Taliban was, who Al-Quaeda was, and who Osama Bin Laden was.  And, for the first time in my life, I realized America was vulnerable.

I remember the rage that filled Americans to get whoever did this to us, and the frustration that it was not a nation that attacked us that we could swiftly punish, but a group of terrorists.

In the days that followed, on the television and on the internet, we were flooded with images of the destruction and loss of life that occurred on that day, and we all vowed never to forget.

Here we are ten years later, and though the towers are not rebuilt, New York City is back to business as usual.  The Pentagon is fixed.  And Osama Bin Laden was brought to justice.

The events were a tragedy, and the terrorists were able to inflict a sense of fear in America, but ten years later we’ve proven that we can persevere.  Though we will never forget that unfortunate day, we will neither be crushed by it.  America will continue to rebuild and become stronger, and we will never let the terrorists win.

I look forward to this weekend, honoring the victims and heroes who were affected by the bombings, and will stand proud knowing that America will always stand strong.

Irene came and went, and luckily here in Southeastern Massachusetts, the hurricane was little more than a wind storm.  I know other parts of New England, and places like North Carolina, wish they could say the same, but we barely saw any drizzle and wind gusts barely topped 50 mph.

Though we didn’t feel the full brunt of the hurricane, and we didn’t experience flooding or hurricane-like destruction, we did lose quite a few trees and limbs.  And, of course, most were without electricity for some time, and there are many that are still hoping to have electricity restored.

In fact, there are several towns that won’t have power restored until at least Sunday, 8 days after the hurricane.

Estimates show 330,000 Massachusetts residents lost power for more than 24 hours, while 30,000 are still without power as I write this.

Of course, a lot of people are upset by this.  And the big question you keep hearing is:  What if this “wind event” actually was a hurricane?

The answer is our infrastructure.  Like our roads, bridges, and water systems, parts of our electrical grid are so outdated, that they are in worse shape than some third-world countries.  So bad, in fact, that a 50 mph wind storm can wipe out the power supplies of entire towns for over a week.

This storm and its effects are starting to bring to light the question of why we aren’t improving our infrastructure.

My neighborhood, which is only 25 years old, has a modern underground utility system, as do any of the more modern developments.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t help us when the breach is in the grid that supplies our neighborhood.

The construction industry is sitting in sort of a holding pattern for now while the economy starts to recover.  But once the economy recovers, we will still be held in place if we don’t take some serious measures to improve our electrical, roadway, and water infrastructures.

Every town wants to grow, every town wants to attract new business, but if we don’t have adequate resources in place to support this growth, than we are dead in the water.

Usually, I would try to tie this story into an analogy of how contractors should likewise concentrate on improving their own infrastructure to more effectively operate their own business, but I’m just so awestruck at how bad things are in the wake of a minor storm.

In previous articles, I’ve talked about infrastructure improvements, and I’ve attended meetings with our state government, so I know they are aware of our problems.

The big question now is: What are we going to do about it?

Sadly, I don’t have the answer, but I know whatever the solution is, it will definitely help our construction industry.  With so many workers still unemployed, and with so many contractors just getting by, wouldn’t it make sense to use this opportunity to put the industry back to work by improving our infrastructure now?

I bought a Jeep Wrangler recently.  I always wanted one, but always talked myself out of it.  It’s not a glamorous or expensive vehicle, but they’re tough, fun, convertible, and can go just about anywhere.

As soon as I bought it, I learned about the “Jeep wave”, where all Jeep owners wave to each other.  I had some questions about how certain things operated, and when I Googled for the answers, I found all kinds of forums dedicated to Jeeps, and the people on these forums are willing to help you with just about anything, and welcome you to their “club” and offer unlimited support.

Speaking of clubs, I found there are all sorts of actual Jeep clubs, and there a quite a few locally, regionally, and nationally.

When I park in a big parking lot, I’m surprised to find other Jeeps park next to me, and often the owners wait around for me to come out so they can “talk Jeep” with a fellow Jeeper.

It’s amazing that what I considered just a simple vehicle purchase could be such a life changing decision.

For a lot of contractors, this is like switching to STRUCTURE construction accounting software.

Sure, there are many choices when shopping for accounting software.  The simplest being a good accountant with Quickbooks or Excel.  There are other “out of the box” versions, and even some more advanced systems.

But when a customer chooses STRUCTURE, they are joining an exclusive club.

When viewing a demo of the software, our team takes the potential customer on a detailed tour through the entire system.  They answer any and all questions, and give examples of how each function of the system operates, and what the system can do.  They also discuss how the system can be optimized for special circumstances, or how it can adapt to do what a user needs it to do, or emulate special tasks the user currently runs.

The technical and support teams take over to help the user prepare migration to the new system, and install it.

Once the system is installed, the tech and support groups help the user load their info, and then the training programs begin.

Though we do provide thorough training manuals with the package, these are typically for reference, as the training provided covers every aspect of setup, migration, load, and use.

Once the user “goes live”, the support team is an e-mail or phone call away from support, who are available to help or answer questions all day long.  They can even go into your system to see what you are doing or what you need help with, and can even perform the tasks for you remotely in a web conference.

Aside from live support and user manuals, there is a support website that covers every aspect of the system, and a help function loaded into the software itself.  Patches and upgrades are available on the website.

There are also newsletters, how-to guides, user group meetings, and advanced training sessions available, all offering support to the STRUCTURE user.  Meetings and training are available online via web conferencing built into the software, on-site at the customer’s location, or right here in our classroom.

It’s no wonder that our customers give us high grades for help and support, because our customers truly are “part of the club”.

Though you may not be able to put big tires and a lift kit on the STRUCTURE package, when you do make the switch, you’ll find the resources are unlimited, a team that is willing to help, and just when you thought you had pushed the package to the limits, we’ll show you how you can optimize it to do more. 

Our team can make your business more efficient, more robust, simpler to operate, and give you every detail you could ever imagine at your fingertips.

We even find that when our users have opportunity to interact with each other, they will usually stick around and “talk STRUCTURE” with each other, comparing ways they’ve used the software to improve their business.

STRUCTURE is more than an accounting software for contractors; it’s a ticket to join the Club.

We often talk about the important role of customer service and providing support to our customers.  In fact, it’s one of the main selling tools of our STRUCTURE package.  And we always hear plenty of feedback from our customers and users about just how important our support team is.

But equally important to supporting users is the development of the software.

I remember once I was in a conference room with a couple of old colleagues before the start of a big business meeting in which we were in charge of the presentation.  We had our presentation on the projector, and we couldn’t get something quite right.  A colleague was trying to get everything lined up, and as an expert user of the presentation software we were using, he was getting frustrated.  I made a suggestion, and he glared at me and said, “That’s just a workaround.  I want to do it right.”  He continued to fumble, and we ultimately made our presentation with the misaligned components.  I was put back by the comment, and even more amazed that he wasn’t willing use my “workaround” to fix the presentation.

Here at C/F, I was talking to some developers, and they wanted to try a new system to test the software where they would have someone not familiar with the software (a newbie like me), but familiar with the concepts, test it using the instruction manuals, and record how I used the software.

That way, they could see what workarounds were used, how I expected the software to work, and this would help them to reconfigure the software to function how a user imagines it should be used versus how the developers intend it to be used.

Since I had previously been told workarounds were bad, surprisingly I was now told by the software developers that workarounds are some of the best tools to improve and develop software.  Too often, a developer creates programs to run how they see fit, and then the users are trained how to use the program a certain way.

If you want to be an industry leader with a user-friendly software package, you need a lot of input, and a team very much open to change.

We’ve been developing STRUCTURE contractor/construction accounting software for 32 years.  We’ve made the obvious changes, like going from a hardware-based system to a software-based systems when our customers started using PC’s in the early 1980’s, and then switching from a UNIX to a Windows-based operating system, and then making changes to stay compatible with each new version of Windows.

We’ve enhanced our software to work with various printers over the years, and expanded to make it compatible with Word, Excel, Abobe PDF, and Outlook E-Mail.

We work to make it faster, take up less memory space, and be more efficient gathering, reading, and storing data.

But the really important part, the part that separates us a leader in the construction industry, is that we constantly work to enhance the appearance and user-friendliness of the package.

To make STRUCTURE more user-friendly, we rely on our users. 

Our support group logs all of the calls and e-mails they receive, and these are studied by the development team, who in turn look for trends, whether they be problems, bugs, or instances where users need help completing a certain task.

If multiple users are calling to seek help completing a certain task, than we need to make it easier.  If multiple users have the same problem, than we need to fix it.  If our customers are asking to do something the software isn’t designed to do, than we need to change it.  And we do.

Every 18 months or so, we release a new version of STRUCTURE.  During those 18 months, our programmers and developers are hard at work addressing every aspect of usability, appearance, and efficiency of our software package.

We hold user-group meetings and super-user-group meetings with customers who have used STRUCTURE for years, are considered extremely heavy users, or have pushed STRUCTURE to its limits and beyond, and we seek their input. 

Because we service a variety of contractors, whose businesses run in a variety of different ways, we seek input from each type of industry.  When we consider making a change, we run it by our super-users to see what they think.

And we look for workarounds.  Because if our customers are finding different ways to get what they need than what we intended, than perhaps we should make that workaround a core to our system.

When a customer calls our support line, they don’t get transferred to an overseas call center.

Likewise, when we need to develop, enhance, or change our software, we don’t subcontract the work out to an overseas programming company.

Our support team works a few steps away from our development team and our programmers.  When we discuss how to improve our software, it is a round table discussion.  It’s been this way for 32 years and counting, and it will continue to be this way.

Change isn’t always easy, but if you aren’t willing to accept change as a natural order of doing business, than you will fail.  We know this, and because of this, we rely heavily on our team to adopt  change to keep us competitive, efficient, and user-friendly.  And we know our customers wouldn’t expect any less.

If you are not already a STRUCTURE user, take a few minutes to view a demonstration.

Before joining the team at C/F DataSystems, I had worked for many years in manufacturing.   I remember being interviewed, and asked if I would be able to adapt my experience to the construction industry.

At the time, I drew some quick parallels between manufacturing and construction to justify how I could adapt.  Surprisingly, after taking the job, I was amazed at how similar the two industries actually operate.

Both manufacturing and construction track labor, material, equipment, and overhead costs.  Both have budgets, quotes, purchase orders, work orders, inventory, and payroll.  Both have general ledgers, receivables, and payables.  Of course, both industries build things, ultimately, but the parallels are even deeper, like comparing the use of sub-contractors to a factory using temp laborers.

Of course, in manufacturing, it was a given that we used a robust software package that tied all the departments together to keep track of every operation, tie it together, and allow accurate reporting for every aspect of the business. This is very much not unlike our STRUCTURE construction accounting software.

That being said, in the highly competitive world of manufacturing, where you need to improve productivity, sales margins, control costs, and shorten your time to market while improving quality, it’s not uncommon to switch your accounting system to something bigger, better, faster, and more efficient on a regular basis.

I remember my company’s last switch.  The system we were moving to cost well over a million dollars for 70 users.  And I remember the headaches, and the intensive labor we were using to make the transition.  We had to spend months doing data clean-ups, reformatting our data, changing our data, and the company we were working with acted strictly as consultants, and would not help with the transition.

For example, our part numbers all had to be less than ten digits.  We had been using a smart part numbering system, where each section of the number helped identify what it was.  As we had grown as a company, our options and sizes and materials had grown, and thus, so had the part numbers. 

To change them, we had to not only change the numbers in the systems for 14,000 different parts, but come up with a new plan on how to number them, and then in turn update 14,000 manufacturing drawings to reflect the new part number.  This also meant changing our website, our catalog, and notifying all of our customers about the part number change.  This would require the efforts of over 20 workers, over a period of several months.

Our initial reaction was to ask our new software developer to change the field so we could keep the old part numbers.  Of course, they refused, saying it would affect several areas of the new software.

This is only one example.  We had to do the same thing for our raw material part numbers, our part descriptions, how we formatted addresses and telephone numbers, and even how we abbreviated countries.

To make the transition to the new software, we had to form teams, and those teams worked around the clock for nine months to make our processes, our company, our parts, and our customers conform to the new software package.  The developers who were selling us the software just sat back and waited patiently while we jumped through hoops to clean our data enough so it was usable.

The amazing thing about working here at C/F DataSystems with our STRUCTURE software is how willing we are to help our customers adapt.  Our support team works with the customers to make sure the software works for them, and not the other way around.  The team will help companies take their current data, and adapt it to fit the package.  I’ve seen them tweak the software to accommodate the needs of customers.  And the customers seem very pleased.

What amazes me more is the software is only a fraction of the million dollars my last company spent.  A very small fraction.

When contractors switch over to STRUCTURE, there Is a whole team of developers and support personnel who work hand-in-hand with the customer to load, train, set up, and use the package.

I’m beside myself when I see how quickly our customers are able to “go live” once they decide to take the plunge.

If your current contractor accounting package isn’t doing what you want it to do, or you’re looking for more from it, but you hesitate because of fear regarding what will be involved to make the transition, fear not.  Contact us for a demo, and let us show you what we can do, and show you how easy it will be.  You won’t regret it.

Our leaders came together to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, and did so without raising or changing tax structures.

For those who would be paying the increased taxes, there is a sigh of relief.

For contractors, who are constantly facing tax changes that affect jobs, billings, purchases, reporting, and payroll, there is a huge sigh of relief.

Taxes are a fact of life, and a cost to doing business.  And, of course, so are tax changes.

How often do taxes change, and what do you do to keep up with them?

I know in Massachusetts, our sales tax rate was 5% for as long as I can remember.  Then it jumped to 6.25%.  Then there was a ballot bill to lower it to 3%, but it didn’t pass. Many lobby to lower it back to the original 5%.

Our state income tax rate has jumped all over the place in the past few years, and there’s an optional rate, and there was a ballot bill to eliminate it all together, which didn’t pass.

The federal income tax rates can jump around, too.

For our friends in Connecticut, there were some recent confusing changes to their payroll and sales and use taxes.

Fortunately, our local counties and towns don’t have payroll or sales taxes, but this is not true for many in other parts of the country.

It can be a huge challenge to keep up with all the changes to federal, state, county, and town taxes.  And the burden to comply lies with the business.  It can take up a lot of time, and create a lot of headaches.

Fortunately, for customers who use our contractor accounting software, we keep track of the tax changes, and we implement them into our software.  When a new change occurs, we send a patch to our customers, and take the headache and burden off their shoulders.

Does your construction accounting system do that for you?  If not, take a look at ours.  It’s one of the many benefits of using STRUCTURE.

We keep hearing about green technology, and green jobs, and a green economy, and we wonder how it will affect us.

I’m an optimist, but a skeptical one.  So I keep reading and researching to see what all the fuss is about.

Wind mills generating electricity, solar fields soaking up the sun, cars whooshing by without an exhaust pipe.  White roofs on buildings, using wastewater to generate heat, using the heat from an air conditioner to heat a pool.  It all sounds good in theory, but can it work?  Will it help the construction industry?

To be honest, it’s been a slow go to prove the technology on a mass scale, and I was very hard to convince that a large scale was feasible, but I’m starting to see it take hold.

Like anything, people wait until technology is proven before jumping in.  I still know people who are making payments on their first-generation $7,000 plasma televisions, long after the set died, because they were the minority that had to “have it now”.  For those of us that waited, we bought an LED for a tenth the price of the original plasma, once the technology was proven, the expense dropped, and the kinks were worked out.

So there are a smattering of windmills between Boston and Cape Cod, and people seem generally OK with it.  Schools and municipal buildings are starting to install solar panels on their roofs, and they are starting to see a benefit from the investment.  Chevy released the Volt, and Nissan the Leaf, and I’m starting to see them occasionally on the highway, keeping right up with the Priuses.

Now people are starting to accept that these technologies could work on a larger scale.  The wind farm in Nantucket Sound is clearing the last hurdles.  I overheard town officials say the town is looking into solar fields on some of its land.  And more and more private entities are looking to put up windmills.

In my humble opinion, I think this is great for the construction industry, and for contractors.

Just to erect one or two windmills, you need to clear the site, clear an access road, put up fencing and outbuildings, then erect and construct the windmill itself.   Same with a solar field.  Architects, civil engineers, planners, the whole spectrum is needed for the project.  And then you need a maintenance crew.

And if a wind farm is built, all the more contractors will be needed.

The beauty is more contractors get a piece of the pie.  Not many new fossil fuel plants, and no nuclear plants, get built these days.  So there isn’t much work for contractors in power generation.  But instead of one giant plant that gets maintained by the utility’s own staff, these new green generation plants are smaller, most are private, and they are very diverse, which puts a lot of private contractors to work.

Most communities are worried about what happens if a windmill or solar farm developer runs out of money.  So, in order to get approval, the developers are putting money in escrow for the disassembly of the towers and fields should they go out of business.  This means contractors potentially earn money to put them up, and take them down.

The current crop of electric cars are hybrids, or if they are purely electric, they are charged at home and have a range of 40 miles.  But if these cars become the norm, a new infrastructure of fast charging stations will need to be built in order for owners to make extended trips and make the cars practical.  Same can be said if hydrogen fuel cell-powered cars ever see production.

No matter where you stand on environmental issues or fossil fuel issues, it would be great to have a diversified power structure that incorporates green energy and green technology.  And if these projects continue on larger and larger scales, it will be a boon to the manufacturing and construction industries.

If you’re familiar with our STRUCTURE Contractor Accounting Software, than you know we are able to service a wide variety of contractors, including flooring, electrical, steel, highway, drywall, masonry, sheet metal, mechanical, plumbing, painting, and even general contractors and specialty contractors.  You can see the links on our site offer specific tools unique to each type of business, since each business type operates a little differently.

I’m hoping that very soon we have a version of the software geared to clean energy contractors.  And I’m hoping, no matter what type of business you’re in, that this green energy boom hits your business in a positive way.