Accounting software for construction businesses is probably the most important component of a contractor’s software suite.  While success regarding profitable projects comes from a solid project management solution, it’s the accounting software that ensures the dollars are coming in at a greater rate than they’re going out.  In future posts, we’ll be featuring more detailed applications and uses of our Accounting software module but for those considering a new accounting solution now, we wanted to share our thoughts on what to look for in a successful product. Here is a general overview of what to expect from a solid construction accounting solution.

Accounts Payable

From an Accounts Payable standpoint, your software solution should be able to take discounts, hold retainage and analyze cash requirements as well as perform functions such as invoice entry and check printing. But to keep it simple, a good accounts payable solution should help your business control all costs and streamline your financial workflow across every department that handles financial transactions.

In a nutshell, if you aren’t eliminating double entry on things like payment worksheets, improving payment process control with vender/sub compliance tracking and making your overall vendor communication more effective, you should be looking elsewhere.

A sample list of the functionality features you should focus on include:

• Effective vendor tracking
• Complete payment control
• Flexible invoice and approval workflows
• Efficient subcontract and multi-company tracking
• Robust reporting (this is critical)

Accounts Receivable

A strong accounts receivable solution should be flexible and integrated with your company’s general ledger and cash management solution and must automatically generate and record invoices so the status of both customer accounts and contracts are available at all times. 

Like Accounts Payable, your receivables software should reduce the burden of data entry and double entry and provide immediate account and contract information for effective financial analysis.

A list of features to look for includes:

• Organized customer management
• Simple invoice processing
• East to enter and track cash receipts
• Multi-company accounting and reporting
• Major reporting capabilities

The next step – Bigger, Better Reporting

Watching (and hearing loud and clear) the market’s need for better reporting that goes beyond the capabilities in most accounting software packages, Viewpoint began developing  a product that allowed customers to design, view and create their own presentation quality reports.  

Viewpoint responded to the requests of customers with the Financial Manager product – an integrated financial tool designed to create flexible, presentation-quality financial reports.

It was built to present users with easy-to-use tools for detailed budgeting, planning and forecasting that meet the needs of all construction financial managers. It works and seems to make anyone involved in finance smile. Bottom line is no matter which way you go with your accounting software investment, make sure you can report the data the way your executive team likes to view it. A good data report is nearly as essential to success as the data itself.

 Have more questions about construction accounting software or why we think custom reporting is so important? Give us a call or drop us a note anytime – we’re sort of geeks about things like this.

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