
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.
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.
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.
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.
See the benefits connected cloud software gives 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.
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.
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.
These specialty trade contractors are primarily engaged in paper hanging and painting. Examples of work performed include house painting, traffic lane painting, and wallpapering.
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.
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.
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.
These contractors install roofing, siding, and complete sheet metal work. Other work includes siding, downspout, and gutter installation, as well as ductwork.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Does the product improve the productivity of both the workers at the job site and at the office?
Does the product have the required functions and features to perform your daily business managements and accounting functions?
Is the technology used the best option for customizability, usability, and maintainability?
Do the features and functions of the product provide enough value to justify the cost for the usability of the product?
Does the product facilitate network and financial security to minimize risks?
FEATURE | BENEFIT |
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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. |
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. |
FEATURE | BENEFIT |
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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. |
FEATURE | BENEFIT |
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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. |
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. |
Construction ERP
Connect field, office and remote workers in real-time with coud and mobile construction and accounting software.
Silos exist between accounting and field operations
Information doesn't flow smoothly across the organization and the entire business suffers
Inability to determine which projects are profitable
Lack of visibility on labor costs - one of the most expensive variable components on a project
Numerous external systems that do not connect and create manual data entry and potential errors
Older technology that limits transparency, access and process improvement
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Flexible progress billing by quantity like linear or square footage reduces project owner risk while allowing customers to meet their unique business needs
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.
Distributed, on-the-move construction teams manage project operations, change orders, and financials from a single, centralized solution accessible anywhere, on any device.
Centralize information with intuitive dashboards and personalized, real-time inquiries to connect everyone from managers and supervisors to subcontractors and customers.
Monitor construction projects with real-time, role-based dashboards. Unlimited user licensing and role-based security enable collaboration across the organization and with external users.
5 Undeniable Benefits of Cloud Construction Managment Software