With the current COVID-19 situation, we know these are difficult times for both you and your employees. Keeping your business running efficiently and effectively at a distance has never been more important. Let’s talk about 5 ways you can actually improve your business during these unprecedented times.
Evaluate your needs
Now that you have some extra time on your hands it’s the perfect time to look at your current software and evaluate whether or not it’s meeting your needs. Here are a few questions to ask to get you started with this process:
What does your business need?
Start by thinking about what your business needs, including what you will need in 5 years and 10 years. Think about the features you use or could use every day and how it would affect your employees. What features would reduce the amount of time they are spending doing everyday tasks? Create a list of these features.
Are you getting the most out of your current software?
Do you already have everything you need? Are you using your current software to the most of its capabilities? Maybe it’s time to cash in on that support you’ve been paying for and schedule a full system audit. Your current provider should be able to tell you what you are doing well and what areas could use some improvements.
If your current system can do most of what you need there is no reason to invest in something new. Your time and money will be better spent learning how to use your current system to the most of its capabilities.
Should you look into new software?
If your current software isn’t meeting your needs and it’s not capable of meeting them, then it’s time to look for something new. There is no perfect solution that will do everything exactly the way that you want it to, but there are systems that will do the majority of it. You shouldn’t have to struggle day in and day out just to get by.
Increase your knowledge
While you have some extra time on your hands, you can you that time to do something productive. At C/F Data Systems, we take a personalized approach to training. Our training process starts months in advance of implementation and continues throughout your tenure with us. Our support staff conduct personalized classes for you and your team for every module of STRUCTURE Blue you purchase. These classes are exclusively tailored to your business and your needs.
We walk you through every step of the process to make sure you and your employees have a thorough understanding of your new construction accounting software system and have a working knowledge of the program.
Your software purchase also includes a comprehensive training curriculum that covers every question you could come up with. Whether you learn from seeing or from studying, we’ve got you covered!
We also give our customers access to a learning company where you can perform all of the daily, quarterly and yearly tasks with sample data, to build further confidence in your new skills. We want to make sure you have the skills you need to be successful in your new program well before you go live.
Every year we conduct continuing education classes in the form of Spring and/or Summer Academy that are refresher courses for your current employees. These webinars help your employees to stay current with their knowledge of our software and to provide tips and tricks to make their day to day jobs easier.
Get support
Not only do you get personalized live classes for learning your new software program you also get access to our incredible support team, located in our Weymouth, MA headquarters. Our service excellence comes from support staff who’s tenure averages more than 15 years! Our team knows all of our customers by name and genuinely cares about each and every one. From implementation and training to ongoing support, we will make sure you have everything you need to succeed.
Track your money
Allocating cost correctly can be tricky, but when done correctly it will show you where all of your money is going. It’s easy to say we used so much drywall and so much paint on a project. It’s a lot harder to assign fixed costs, like office staff and equipment depreciation, to a specific job. These costs need to be allocated to jobs though to protect your profit margin. Having the right software is important to allocate costs currently so that the customer pays for the appropriate costs and you protect your profits.
Go mobile
STRUCTURE Mobile is the perfect solution to keep you connected to your employees without getting too close. With our STRUCTURE Mobile apps, you can bring critical features of STRUCTURE Blue with you into the field.
Keep track of your crew
Mobile time tracking apps help you keep track of where your employees are in real time. You know where everyone is and what they are doing all the time. This allows you to make sure you have the right crew in the right place in real time. It also helps you to keep track of crew members who are missing from their jobs or late to work. Catch issues before early, before they become problems.
Keep track of costs
Having real time data on where your crew members are will help you keep track of what costs are associated with what job in real time. You can allocate costs quickly and correctly, giving you the ability to make decisions faster. Stay on top of where your money is going at all times.
Increase efficiency & accuracy
Mobile apps allow your crew to enter their time from the field, reducing the amount of time spent driving to the office to drop off paperwork and entering that time into the computer. Your efficiency and accuracy will skyrocket when crews can enter their time into an app and have it update automatically in the office at the same time. Your office staff can spend time doing something other than data entry!
See what we can do for you!
STRUCTURE Blue is the end-to-end construction accounting system that you are looking for. Our customer support is second to none and ready to support you and your company through every step of implementation and training. We’ll be here when you need us!
About C/F Data Systems
For over 40 years C/F Data Systems has been serving the construction industry with solutions that address contractor’s unique financial needs. STRUCTURE Blue provides solutions to manage all areas of construction operations including billing, inventory, payroll and project management.