RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTION —

SINGLE & MULTI-UNIT

Residential construction varies widely in size and scope. The clients could be individual landowners, land developers, specialty home builders, mixed-use/commercial developers, or local authorities such as public housing providers. Projects range in size from building a detached single-family home to a community of single-family homes to building a high-rise complex that houses hundreds of residents and commercial businesses. All projects must comply with local government building regulations. State and federally funded housing projects require certified payroll and surety bonds as well as strict OSHA compliance documentation.

RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTION ERP

COMMERCIAL/INSTITUTIONAL

CONSTRUCTION

Commercial construction runs a gamut of project types: office buildings, restaurants, shopping malls, sports facilities, hotels/resorts, and other retail businesses. The construction of privately owned university structures such as libraries and dormitories as well as hospitals also falls under this umbrella. These projects are typically medium to large in size and are almost always owned by non-government entities. Exceptions to this rule include buildings and offices for government agencies, such as courthouses. Contractors may need to file a mechanics lien to ensure payment on private projects or put up a bond for public ones. Lien waivers, insurance, and certificates of compliance are all tracked closely.

COMMERCIAL CONSTRUCTION ERP

INDUSTRIAL

CONSTRUCTION

Some examples of industrial construction structures include refineries, oil and gas platforms, warehouses, processing plants, breweries and distilleries, steel mills, and factories. Also included in this construction classification you will find wind, hydroelectric, nuclear, and traditional power stations. These projects are commonly owned by privately held, for-profit corporations, although you can occasionally find government investments in this sector, particularly in the area of power generation. Most of these projects are specialized, and careful planning and design are required. Contractors need highly-skilled, technical field personnel such as mechanical, electrical, and structural engineers on the job site. The ability to review drawing logs and submittals in the field is crucial for these projects. These job sites also have more safety risks involved, and therefore OSHA compliance and reporting are vital.

INDUSTRIAL CONSTRUCTION ERP

CIVIL/HEAVY

CONSTRUCTION

The most common examples of civil/heavy construction are infrastructure works. Bridges, airports, tunnels, railways, canals, highways, transit systems, dams, pipelines, and wastewater treatment plants are all excellent examples of this type of work. These projects are typically publicly owned, with the most common exceptions being small, privately owned airports, transit systems, and roads. Some general contractors specialize in civil construction, while others will employ a civil engineer full-time for the duration of a project to be on the job site regularly. As with industrial construction, the ability to access and share drawing logs, daily field reports, submittals, and project issues in real-time is crucial. When projects are government-owned, certified payroll, certificates of insurance, surety bonds, and the ability to easily adhere to strict compliance management protocols and documentation are a must.

CIVIL CONSTRUCTION ERP

Contractor - specific ERP system

General
CONTRACTORS

General contractors build in all four major types of construction, including everything from single-family homebuilders to firms that erect large commercial, industrial, and civil structures. They may self-perform all aspects of a job or hire a subcontractor to perform specific work. They may also act as construction manager. The needs of this group are very diverse due to the extensive scope of projects and areas of specialization.

Subcontractor Management
Drop-Shipping
Daily Field Reports
Change Order Management
Compliance Management
Contract Management
Certified Payroll
Automated AP and Approval workflows

HEAVY/CIVIL
CONSTRUCTION
CONTRACTORS

These types of contractors specialize in infrastructure projects that usually have very large scopes and budgets. Heavy construction equipment and temporary structures are often needed on their projects. Civil engineers and safety officers are often required to be at the job site daily. Most projects are publicly funded and have strict compliance and bond requirements.

Daily Field Reports
Safety Notices
Compliance Management
Submittals
Drawing & Photo Logs
Certified Payroll
Project Issue Management
Equipment Management
Material Management

SPECIALTY
CONTRACTORS

There are specialty contractors working in many areas such as curtain walls, building front installation, glass installation, ironwork, and glazing work. Specialty contractors often act as subcontractors within larger projects.

Material Management
Contract Management
Field Service Management

PAINTING AN
PAPER HANGING
CONTRACTORS

These specialty trade contractors are primarily engaged in paper hanging and painting. Examples of work performed include house painting, traffic lane painting, and wallpapering.

Inventory Management
Field Service Management
CRM Opportunity Management

CONCRETE
CONTRACTORS

These contractors often work as subcontractors, bringing their own forming equipment and engineering. These contractors primarily engage in work such as cast in-place concrete foundations, paving of private parking lots, and curb and culvert construction.

Equipment Management
Contract Management
Submittals

CARPENTRY
AND FLOOR
CONTRACTORS

These contractors and subcontractors perform work such as built-in cabinetry, framing, joinery, and trim and finish. Job sizes range from single-family homes to large commercial projects.

Contract Management
Field Service Management
Construction Payroll

MASONRY, STONEWORK,
AND TILE
CONTRACTORS

These contractors are primarily engaged in masonry work, stone setting, and other stonework such as bricklaying, retainage walls, and marble work. Work ranges widely in scope.

Material Management
Field Service Management
CRM Opportunity Management

ROOFING, SIDING,
AND SHEET METAL
CONTRACTORS

These contractors install roofing, siding, and complete sheet metal work. Other work includes siding, downspout, and gutter installation, as well as ductwork.

Compliance Management
Field Service Management
CRM Opportunity Management

PLUMBING, HEATING, AND
AC CONTRACTORS

These are specialized contractors that mainly perform plumbing, heating, air-conditioning, working primarily as the primary contractor. Other work includes piping, gas line installation, and drainage system installation.

Equipment Management
Field Service Management
CRM Opportunity Management

ELECTRICAL
CONTRACTORS

These are specialty trade contractors that execute a wide range of work, including whole-house wiring, telecommunications, alarm, and sound equipment installation, cable splicing, and on-site electrical repair.

Compliance Management
Inventory Management
Field Service Management

EXCAVATION AND
DEMOLITION CONTRACTORS

Commonly working as subcontractors and using large equipment, these trades complete functions such as grading in preparation to build, digging foundations, building wrecking, and concrete breaking.

Equipment Management
Contract Management
Compliance Management

LAND DEVELOPERS

Land developers oversee the procurement of property and the subsequent planning and development for the specific use of the land. They hire construction management or general contracting firms to build according to plans.

Contract Management
Compliance Management
Subcontractor Management

ARCHITECTURAL FIRMS

Architectural Firms provide building designs to land developers and owners for new structures. They may also act as a Design/Build firm for projects. In that case, have ERP needs like a Construction Manager or General Contractor.

Contract Management
Drawing & Photo Logs
Submittals

ENGINEERING FIRMS

Civil, electrical, industrial, mechanical, and structural engineering firms act as consultants on job sites to ensure that plans are followed precisely to comply with codes and regulations and ensure safety on highly dangerous jobs.

Compliance Management
Drawing & Photo Logs
Submittals

construction ERP complete checklist

PRODUCTIVITY

FEATURE	BENEFIT
Intuitive	Very user friendly interface.
True universal availability	Use the system at any time, from any device, anywhere there is wi-fi, whether it’s the office or job site. Easily communicate and collaborate with subcontractors, suppliers, and customers.
Multilingual	Work in the language of your choice and easily print customer-facing documents (such as change orders) in the language of your customer.
Multicurrency	Operate in any currency and convert as needed.
Workflow	Automate business processes, approvals, and notifications.
Wiki’s	Share information and company documents among any combination of teams, departments, and external users.
Single database	Establish a single source of truth. Eliminate the need to maintain integrations between multiple applications.
Comprehensive Reporting	Reports that eliminate guesswork. Make faster, better decisions with fewer mistakes.
Document Management	Make critical documents available to all key personnel.

Functionality

FEATURE	BENEFIT
Multi-entity	Support multi-company, multi-warehouse, and international companies, including financial consolidations, intercompany eliminations, and reconciliations.
Financial management	Support standard accounting functions, including General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Cash Management, Tax management, and more.
Quote-to-cash	Create quotes, convert to sales order, check inventory availability, perform credit check, manufacturer (if applicable), pick, ship, invoice, and collect payment.
Sales Order Management	Split orders across multiple warehouses, allocate inventory,verify credit limits, issue replenishment orders, accept returns, and manage complex pricing/discount policies.
Purchase Order Management	Automate complex procure-to-pay processes involving multiple products and suppliers. Create requisitions and approvals, obtain bids, convert to purchase orders, receive inventory, input invoices, match and pay.
Inventory Management	Manage inventory, plan and manage movement of goods. through distribution network, and control customer and transfer orders. Use multiple locations with lot and serial number tracking. Expired items are automatically removed from available inventory.

Technology

FEATURE	BENEFIT
True cloud	All functionality is accessible through the internet using a standard browser without the need for any software installation on the user's device. No additional software licensing required.
Responsive design	View and interact with every page of the application on any device with a minimum of resizing, panning, or scrolling.
User interface	Modern look and feel. Customize screens and dashboards. Easy access to tasks with minimal clicks and intuitive workflow.
Customizable and flexible	Ability to modify and customize business logic to meet your company's unique requirements.
Customization using industry standard tools	Perform customizations using industry standard tools and programming languages without requiring the use of proprietary languages or compilers.
Full relational database	All system data stored in a relational SQL database. Query data for reporting, Bl, financial statements, audits, and more.
Database export	Access and export relational versions of all data for reporting, backup, and transfer.
Upgrade on your schedule	Ability to plan upgrades at dates and times that are convenient to you and your company - not the ERP vendor.
Capable of moving to the cloud when you are ready	Not everyone wants to operate in the cloud. The product should support both on premise and cloud deployments, and let you switch deployment models if and when you are ready.

Value

FEATURE	BENEFIT
Multiple deployment options	Deployment methods allow on premises in your facility, private cloud of your choice, or our public cloud using Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Flexible licensing options	Offers subscription or perpetual licensing (depreciable capital expense versus an ongoing operating expense).
Low total cost of ownership (TCO)	Reduce the total cost of ownership over the foreseeable lifetime of the product (at a minimum 3-5 years), including licensing, support, hardware, upgrade, and hosting costs. Be sure to add the cost of additional products required to run the system (web server, eCommerce platform, database server, collaboration tools, CRM, etc.), which includes all required hardware, licensing, and support costs.
Scale as you grow	Ability to accommodate heavier volumes, more resources, and more users as your business grows. Pay only for what you use. Add more resources when you need them.
Preserve capital for other business initiatives	Cloud deployments reduce the need for initial cash outlay for hardware and software purchases. Cloud deployments also reduce the amount of internal IT staff required for hardware and software support and maintenance.
Charged by resources used, not by user	Vendor charges for the resources used, not by user count, making the benefits of ERP available to all employees, customers and suppliers. Charging by user penalizes growing businesses.

Risk

FEATURE	BENEFIT
Predictable monthly costs	Not vulnerable to spikes in IT costs. Standardizing on a platform allows you to predict your monthly cost for the system.
Deploy quickly	Eliminate time delay and risk of unplanned costs by deploying quickly with a cloud solution.
Leverage global technology leaders	Ability to utilize the resources of cloud hosting leaders (Amazon, Microsoft, and IBM) for their fast response and uptime.
Knowledge of your industry	Reduce risk by using a software vendor with the solutions and knowledge for your specific industry.
Customer references	Cites customer successes using their software in your industry.
Best-in-class security at no additional cost	Support platform, web, and computer security leveraging expertise at hosting providers.
Data in the cloud	Data on your servers are vulnerable to attack.
Backup and disaster recovery	Prepared for the worst-cloud deployment lowers costs for backup, failover, and disaster recovery.
Simpler integration with other web apps.	Utilize web capabilities to integrate with other web-based business applications.
Vendor handles updates and upgrades	Eliminate risk of missing an upgrade with a cloud solution.

Manage Your Entire Business on a Single, Future-Proof Cloud Platform

Daily Field Reports
RFIs
Change Orders
Project Issues
Drawing Logs
Photo Logs
Submittals
Compliance Management
Cost-Plus or Fixed Cost Contracts
Subcontract Management
Real-time Costs vs. Budget
Project Budget Forecasting
Project Cost Projections
Project Issues
CRM Portal and Case Integration
Task Definition
Unbilled Transaction Reversal
Create Billing Rules
Manage Project Quotes
Labor Cost Rates
Project Templates

General Ledger
Accounts Receivable
Accounts Payable
Retainage
WIP Reporting
AIA Billing & Reporting
Multicurrency Management
Tax Management
Cash Management
Revenue Recognition
Deferred Revenue
Recurring Revenue
Intercompany Accounting
Electronic Bank Feeds
Advanced Expense Management
Fixed Asset Depreciation
CFMA Benchmarking
Payroll and Time Management
Union Reporting
Certified Payroll
Mobile Time and Expense

Sales Opportunities
Integrated Marketing
Service and Support
Customer Self-Service Portal
Lead and List Management
Accounts and Contacts
Email Integration
Real-Time ERP↔CRM Data Flows

Financial Reports
Job Cost Accounting
Profitability Reporting
Forecasting
Multi-language
Acumatica Report Designer
Generic Inquiries
Microsoft Power BI Integration
Configurable Dashboards
Multi-Level Security
Cloud or On-Premises Deployment
Native Document Management
Visual Workflows
Business Events
Online Help and Wikis
Development Tools
Integration Utilities
AI / ML

Calendar & Appointments
Technician/Staff Scheduling
Flexible Billing
Route Optimization
Mobile App with GPS
Equipment Management
Warranty Management
Components with Serial Tracking
Contract Management

Convert to Purchase Order
Predefined Request Lists
Hide Inventory Lists
Collect and Request Classes
Create Customer Quotes
Set Vendor Lead Times
Online Vendor Bidding
Configurable Workflows

Bill of Material and Routing
Production Management
Advanced Planning & Scheduling
Engineering Change Control
Manufacturing Estimates
Manufacturing Data Collection

Replenishment Settings
Matrix Items
Physical Inventory
Customer and Vendor Items
Packaging and UOM
Shipments
Inventory Valuation
Lot/Serial Traceability
Non-Stock Items

Barcode Label Printing
Barcode Scanning Pick, Pack and Ship
Inventory Movement
Warehouse Transfers
Physical Inventory
Inventory Look-Up

Partial Fulfillment
Consolidated Fulfillment
Item Tracking
Automatic Payment Vouchers
Drop Shipments
Landed Cost
Vendor Selection
Vendor Performance
Multiple Addresses
Audit Trail
Blanket Orders
Custom Workflows

Real-time, Bi-directional
Sync Orders, Item Info, and Photos
Discounts and Promos
Point of Sale Application

Equipment Management
Salesforce Integration
Sales & Use tax calculations
Performance Management
Advanced Reporting & Analytics
Collections Management
Shipping Integrations
Electronic Data Interchange

Key features of Acumatica ERP for your construction needs

Financial Management

Acumatica’s Financial Management is designed to work for smaller contractors as well as scale up for more complex needs. Some of the features include standard financial processes and reports as well as multi-company, multi-currency. There is also fixed assets, recurring and deferred revenue, and cash management.

Job Cost Accounting

Real-time project costing includes up-to-date labor, material, equipment, and other costs. Simple AP workflows provide easier billing and allows for the proactive identification of potential problems, which helps to improve future project estimates.

Project Management

Easily track and manage all aspects of a project, such as changes, issues, job costs, and project documentation. Real-time field updates provide instant information sharing between your workforce, back-office team, and management.

Payroll

Construction payroll can be complicated, but Acumatica’s ERP adapts to any organizational structure, supporting multiple unions, complex wages, benefits packages, certified wages, and commission structures.

Commitments

Automating project commitments and change order processes help to control cost overruns. Create and track purchase orders, subcontractor status, budget comparisons, line-item committed costs, and payments.

Compliance

Acumatica’s ERP enables users to effectively manage insurance certificates, lien waivers/releases, and status updates. Automated alerts can be configured to alert appropriate staff of pending expirations.

Customer Relationship Management

Easily see real-time data on all customer activities, including quotes, orders, invoices, payments, support cases, and service calls. Acumatica CRM also includes a self-service customer portal that lets customers access the information they need.

Mobile App

Get anytime, anywhere access. Quickly see critical reports on phones and tablets and give field teams and subcontractors tools to enter employee time and equipment details electronically. Access the complete system over any device and search for all project details from one global search box.

Advanced Material Management

Streamline the management of project materials, including receipts and issues for purchased materials. Create requisitions with approvals workflow and create purchase orders to ship materials directly to a project location, creating an efficient workflow for job site deliveries.

Change Management

Control cost overruns by automating project commitments and change order processes. For example, manage back charges or reduction in vendor commitments through the entry of a negative change order. Drop-ship workflows connected to change orders improve business workflows.

Progress Billing

Flexible progress billing by quantity like linear or square footage reduces project owner risk while allowing customers to meet their unique business needs

Project Cost and Revenue Tax Zones

Simplify the process of calculating taxes for a project – tax zones are specified directly in the project and automatically retrieved and calculated for all invoices, purchase orders, subcontracts, and expenses.