Oops! Payroll is Posted to the Wrong Accounting Period….

Pay dates on or shortly after the beginning of a month can present a challenge.  Too often, I get calls from clients that posted an entire payroll dated on the first of a month back to the previous month, usually because they fail to check the rather small accounting period button on the 5-2-6 Post Payroll to GL screen before pushing the Post Payroll button.  Despite regular admonishment to always post payroll to the period in which the checks are dated, mistakes happen.  How do we fix them?

If the payroll was posted in detail (rather than in Summary) and the number of payroll records is not too great, I usually recommend a “copy, void, paste” process:

• First, print out a payroll check register for the misposted payroll.  
• Then, for each misposted 5-2-2 payroll record:
• Click on the copy button to save the header and timecard data to a program copy buffer
• Go to the calculations tab, highlight all the rows of the calculations grid, right click and select copy to save the calculations lines to the Windows clipboard (as the save button does not capture the calculations grid)
• Click on the scissors button to void the misposted payroll record and say yes to void the related job cost and ledger transaction records
• When the empty record is displayed after the voiding, click on the paste button to paste record header and timecard lines to a new record
• Click on the calculations tab and with the cursor in the top left cell of that grid, right click and select Paste to copy the calculations from the Windows clipboard, and enter “Y” in the Override column for each line so that nothing changes from the original record
• Save this new record and locate the next record to correct.
• When each payroll record has been corrected, trial compute the copied and pasted records, compare the records to the original payroll check register, and if everything agrees, final compute the payroll records and carefully post these new records to the general ledger in the correct accounting period.

It’s been suggested that I’m a cruel person to suggest such a tedious task, but there is the sneaking suspicion that such painful work to correct a problem may help that person pay better attention the next time.

If the payroll has too many records to make this a reasonable exercise, we can help you with queries and MS Excel to summarize the general ledger and job cost entries of the misposted payroll to use in a journal entry to reverse the entire payroll from the wrong accounting period and reenter it in the correct accounting period. Just give us a call at 480-471-5305 for assistance.

How to Replace a Check Written in a Prior Period

I have recently received several inquiries about how to replace a lost payroll or vendor check written in a prior period without affecting the previously reported financial statements or tax reports.  If all you need to do is replace a previously written check with a new check to the same payee and for the same amount, follow these simple steps:

• In menu 1-1 Checks/Bank Charges, record a reversal of the original check by entering the original bank account, the original check number followed by the word “Void”, the current date, a description like “Void & replace lost check”, the payee name and address (or just enter the vendor number), and in the grid enter a clearing account and the net check amount as a NEGATIVE amount in the Debit Amount column. Save this entry to the current accounting period.
• Then, also in menu 1-1, record the replacement check by entering the bank account you are drawing the replacement check on, “0000” in the check number field, the current date, a description like “Replace original check number…”, the payee name and address (or the vendor number if it was used in the reversal above), and in the grid enter the same clearing account and the original net check amount as a POSITIVE amount in the Debit Amount column. Save this entry to the current accounting period also.
• Then, also in menu 1-1, click on the print button, enter the cash account for the replacement check, and print the replacement check on your check stock following the usual 1-1 check printing process.
• When next reconciling your bank account, clear the voided check and the original check, as they will offset. 

By using offsetting entries in the same accounting period, you don’t affect your accounting and tax reports.  Using the vendor number in both the reversing and replacement entries ensures that the 1099 balances are not misstated as well.

If you want additional guidance on this process, or more complex situations, give us a call at 480-471-5305.

Equipment Management (a nearly forgotten module)

How often does an owner or manager ask his accountant (or him- or her-self) “how much does that truck or piece of equipment cost us?” How often is the response to this question “we don’t know!?" Is your investment in heavy equipment, shop equipment, or vehicles a significant cost of your operation? Is the cost of owning and operating this equipment being consistently and accurately charged to jobs based on a measure of use, like miles, tons, hours, days, weeks or months? Are you recovering enough equipment ownership and operating costs in your job costing and estimating assumptions?

The Equipment Management module is designed specifically to collect and organize the cost of owning and operating equipment, and then recover that cost by charging out to jobs the estimated cost of owning and operating that equipment using estimated cost recovery rates per measure of use (i.e. per mile, per hour, per day, etc.) With the module, a thoughtful and creative implementation, and diligent bookkeeping, users no longer have to hear the answer “we don’t know!”

If you want to learn more about using the Equipment Module, give us a call at 480-471-5305.

Current Version Information

On February 18, 2016, Sage released Sage 100 Contractor Version 19.7.52.  This update includes all payroll tax table revisions known to date, and more importantly, fixes a problem created in version 19.7.43 with the Reconcile Credit Card Statement function.  I strongly encourage users to consider installing this update.

Current Version Information

Sage released the first 2016 Payroll Tax Table update on December 17, 2015. Version 19.7.28 contains all federal and state payroll tax table data available as of that date that are effective in 2016. It also contains a few enhancements and fixes related to payroll processing.

On January 21, 2016, Sage released the January 2016 payroll tax update, Version 19.7.43.  It contains revised payroll tax tables for states that were late in publishing their 2016 tax tables, including Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and the District of Columbia. It also includes a few more enhancements and fixes related to payroll processing.  However, Sage has since advised that this update has caused a problem with the Reconcile Credit Card Statement process.  If you have payroll in the affected states, you should consider installing Version 19.7.43 so that your payroll tax withholding is correct, knowing that you may have challenges with your credit card reconciliations.  Otherwise, defer installing this latest version until Sage publishes a revision or later update.

How Do You Know What You Don’t Know?

One of my favorite clients sent me an email this morning that asked for my assistance with the following:

“One of my goals is to find out from you what is in [Sage 100 Contractor] that we can use for more effective results for this next year.  I don’t know what I don’t know.  I am familiar with what I use all the time but I believe there is more available that I am not aware of.  We will experience great growth this year.  We will be hiring additional staff but I want to make sure we are effective and efficient with the tools we have in hand to maximize our results.”

This client has used the program for decades and might be described as a “power user,” but she has a nagging suspicion that there may be more functionality in the program than what they are currently using.  This is a pervasive problem with many of the users that I come across.  This is often understandable since initial implementations are often geared toward getting a new user up and running with the basic accounting capabilities they had with their previous accounting package. Too little time and attention is devoted to identifying and learning new functions that can benefit their organization.

How did I respond to my client’s request for assistance? My reply included the following:

“There are a couple of ways to assess the "not knowing what you don't know" problem.  I could spend a day nosing around your office, observing and asking questions to try to identify areas that can be improved.  Or you and your staff (accounting and project management) can make lists of things that annoy them, things that they spend valuable time doing in Excel or Word, things they wish they had, things they suspect the program should do but they just don't know how to do, etc. The lists can be compiled and sorted and a [training] plan can be developed.”

Many clients have purchased modules of the program and then left those modules unused for years! I often see Estimating, Document Control, Equipment Management, Scheduling, Change Orders (!), Insurance Certificates (!), Credit Card Management, ACH/Direct Deposit Payroll and Vendor Payments, and similar modules forgotten and unused, or perhaps just underused.  Wise clients will take a little time to scan through the program menus just to remind themselves in general sense of what the program can do, and then call us to ask if it might be of use to them.

Clients are always calling with requests for a report that shows certain information that they need to run their business.  Often the report already exists in the program and we can point them in the right direction and give them pointers on how to use report selection criteria to hone in on their specific need. If a report doesn’t already exist, we can usually create a custom report to meet their need.

If you wonder what you don’t know, take the time to jot down notes about those things that annoy you about how you use the program, what tasks or reports you spend too much time preparing with Excel or Word, what things you wish the program could do for you, or what data you want from the system that you currently aren’t receiving.  Then give us a call and talk it over with us.  It may cost you some consulting fees, but the end result is usually well worth the investment.

Current Version Information

Sage released the 2016 Payroll Tax Table update on December 17, 2015. Version 19.7.28 contains all federal and state payroll tax table data available as of that date that will be effective in 2016. It also contains a few enhancements and fixes related to payroll processing.  Install this update after all payroll to be paid in 2015 has been final computed, and before any 2016 payroll is processed.

Archive Locally to Minimize Problems

While users can usually archive data across their network, running the program on their local workstation on the data folder located on the server, this involves pushing and pulling massive amounts of data over your local network, in thousands of operations and processes.  This tends to require much more time to process since pushing and pulling that data over the network is inherently slow. Sometimes networks fail to make a connection reliably, and this can cause the archiving process to fail.

There are two ways to get around these potential problems:

• Perform the archiving process from the server’s desktop, rather than a workstation. This eliminates entirely the network’s effect on the process, or
• Copy the company data folder to your workstation’s C:\MB7 folder.  Perform the archiving process on the copy of the company residing on your C: drive, and then copy the two resulting data folders – the cleaned up current company data folder and the new archive folder—back to the server.

Users working in a cloud configuration typically are not presented with network speed or reliability issues and can ignore this tip.

For assistance with archiving data, give us a call at 480-471-5305 or send an email to walt@mathiesonconsulting.com.

Backup before Archiving!

The archiving process, whether for payroll closing or archiving the general ledger, is a destructive process.  Every discussion of archiving starts with an admonition to back up (twice for safety) your data .

Most users have invested in significant backup systems and processes that they rely on to prevent catastrophic loss of critical data.  Too many of these same users do not regularly test the backup process to ensure that their backups are effective and able to be restored easily and quickly.

Too often we find that users are relying on these overnight backups as their only backups when archiving their data.  If they have a problem with their archiving process—and problems do occur—they must restore from backup and start the archiving process over again. And since they have relied on their outside networking consultant to administer the backup process, they must wait for the networking consultant to restore the data from the overnight backup, losing valuable time in the process.  And this is NOT the time to find out that your overnight backups haven’t been working properly!

The easiest, and most expedient, way to make a quick and restorable backup is to use Windows Explorer to copy the current company data folder and paste it onto your workstation’s desktop or some other location in your network.  To ensure that no one has any files open that may not copy properly, just log into the company with Sage 100 Contractor with Exclusive Access, and then log out to make your “copy and paste” backup.  If the archiving process has any problems, you can easily recover by deleting the file folders affected by the failure and restoring the data folder from the “copy and paste” backup data folder.

Backups when archiving are important to cloud users also.  Check with your cloud hosting provider to ensure that you can make a quick and easy “copy and paste” backup as well.

Give us a call at 480-471-5305 or email walt@mathiesonconsulting.com if you have any questions or need help.

Closing Out the Year

With the introduction of multiyear general ledger functionality in version 19 of Sage 100 Contractor, year-end closings have become much more relaxed.  No longer do we have to worry about closing the general ledger before we can record any transactions relating to the new fiscal year, and no longer do we have to understand how Period 0 postings work.

However, let’s not get too relaxed….  The Payroll Year must still be closed and a 2015 Payroll Archive must still be created! Fortunately, this is not a terribly difficult or time consuming process, but you have to time it correctly.

In December

• Ensure that you have the latest version of the program, currently version 19.6.54, installed.
• Ensure that your employee names, addresses and social security numbers are up-to-date.
• Determine with your tax advisor or benefits administrator whether you will be required to file forms 1094-C and 1095-C to comply with the Affordable Care Act.  If so, ensure that the monthly data is present and up to date on the ACA Tab of the 5-2-1 Employees records.  Doing this before the Close Payroll Year process will help you avoid making entries twice.
• Run 5-3-7 Payroll Audit regularly and ensure that any audit errors are corrected.
• Be aware that you may receive information from payers of Third Party Sick Pay that can affect your payroll tax reporting.  Ensure that any notices received have been properly reflected in your payroll records.
• Determine with your tax advisor that all amounts that should be reported on W-2 forms have been included, including taxable vehicle allowances and certain taxable benefits for owners.  Also review which payroll calculation amounts may have to be reflected on the W-2 forms.

After the Last 2015 Payroll is Processed and Before Any 2016 Payroll Records are Entered

• Run 5-3-7 Payroll Audit and ensure that there are no audit errors.
• Make a complete backup of the current company’s data folder.
• Decide ahead of the closing how you will name the 2015 Payroll Archive folder.
• Decide ahead of the closing whether you want to remove employee records for workers that have left the company.
• Log into the current company as Supervisor with Exclusive Access.
• Run 5-3-8 Close Payroll Year and follow the prompts and instructions carefully. It’s really rather simple!

Remember – prepare your 4^th quarter payroll returns and your W-2 and W-3 forms from your 2015 Payroll Archive company.

Contact us at 480-471-5305 or walt@mathiesonconsulting.com for additional information or assistance with closing your payroll year.

Current Version Information

The latest version of Sage 100 Contractor is version 19.6.54, the release of which was announced on October 1, 2015. In addition to getting the most up to date tax tables, there are changes to the program to accommodate compliance with the Affordable Care Act.

Fall Maintenance

Look at the calendar! The end of the calendar year is fast approaching. There are a few things that Sage 100 Contractor users should start working on so that the end of the calendar year goes smoothly.

Affordable Care Act Compliance
Make sure you know what your responsibilities are for reporting and compliance with the Affordable Care Act. Check with your tax accountant and your benefits provider to get the best information about your responsibilities. Current versions of Sage 100 Contractor will generate the data and forms required.

Form W-2 Wage Statements
Make sure that your employee data is up to date. Verify employee addresses and social security numbers. Make sure your payroll account bank reconciliations are current and complete (and thus all payrolls are recorded), and investigate why payroll checks are still outstanding long past the time you would expect. Run the Payroll Audit (menu 5-3-7) and ensure that all errors are corrected. Discuss with your tax accountant what payroll calculations should be shown in which boxes on the W-2s.

I am a huge fan of the built-in Aatrix E-File feature, especially for W-2s. Aatrix will print and mail all employee copies of W-2s and will submit electronically the data to the Federal and State governments. All you need to print is the employer copy for your records and that can be printed to plain paper. With Aatrix E-File, you don’t have to order preprinted forms and special envelopes. The cost of the Aatrix E-File W-2s is so reasonable when you consider the cost of acquiring the forms, applying postage, and the manual labor of stuffing special envelopes, I strongly endorse E-Filing.

If you do not wish to use the Aatrix E-File feature, you should order now the forms and envelopes required from Sage Checks and Forms. DO NOT plan on getting your forms from Staples or other office supply stores as the paper (4-up perforated paper) and envelopes are not typical.

Form 1099 Statements to Recipients
Make sure that your vendor data is up to date. Obtain W-9s from all vendors so that you can verify addresses, federal identification numbers and legal status, such as corporations, individuals, limited liability companies, partnerships, etc. With this information, you can then ensure that each vendor has the correct 1099 Type assigned. Use report 4-1-1-61 Vendor 1099 Report to see the 1099 Type of each vendor and whether or not you have a federal identification number for those vendors to whom you may be required to provide a 1099.

The built-in Aatrix E-File feature also works for 1099s! As you might guess, I’m a big fan of this feature as well. The comments above about W-2 E-Filing also apply to 1099 E-Filing.

If you do not wish to use the Aatrix E-File feature, you should order now the forms and envelopes required from Sage Checks and Forms. DO NOT plan on getting your forms from Staples or other office supply stores as the paper (4-up perforated paper) and envelopes are not typical.

If you have any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to send us a note or give us a call.

Current Version Information

The latest recommended version of Sage 100 Contractor is version 19.6.54, the release of which was announced on October 1, 2015. Give Mathieson Consulting a call if you have a current support contract and want assistance with the update.

Don’t Forget to Audit Payroll!

All too often, I find that clients forget to run 5-3-7 Payroll Audit before preparing to pay their payroll tax liability or preparing payroll tax returns.  Payroll Audit is a handy utility that compares amounts actually withheld and accrued for FICA and Medicare Taxes with what should have been withheld.  It also identifies payroll records that have not been completely processed or processed with conflicting payroll quarters compared to payroll check dates. If you use the Repair option, the system will reconstruct the control totals on the employee records – this will correct any misposted or partially posted payroll records before it actually audits the payroll records. The Repair option takes longer than just running the Payroll Audit (this makes sense because it performs both the reconstruction of control totals and the auditing of payroll), but the extra time is usually worth it.  Always run the Payroll Audit with Repair and resolve any issues indicated, before computing the amount of payroll taxes to deposit or preparing payroll tax returns.

Since we’re talking about preparing payroll tax data, remember to always run your payroll tax reports by check date, not by period ending date.  The tax authorities want all of their payroll data reported by check date.

If you find that payroll audit errors exist, contact Sage Tech Support or call Mathieson Consulting at 480-471-5305 for assistance.

Current Version Information

The latest “recommended” version of Sage 100 Contractor is version 19.6.41, the release of which was announced on May 28, 2015.  Since then, there have been two “Optional” updates that contain payroll tax table updates for North Dakota, Connecticut, Ohio and Idaho, plus a couple of minor report fixes. You may want to consider the optional updates as well.

What’s Your Type?

Last month I wrote about creating a user-defined Purchase Order Type to help track and control materials returned to suppliers for credit.  Now, I’d like to review ideas for Types in the many areas where users can create their own:

• 3-5 Jobs – Types can be created to categorize the work (e.g. painting vs drywall for an interior finishes subcontractor) or billing method (e.g. time and materials billing vs progress billing) of jobs. Less desirable uses of Job Types might be to use types to identify the salesperson, project manager or department as fields already exist for these purposes.
• 3-6 Receivable Clients – Types can be created to categorize the clients for an organization. Options may be numerous, and input from management is often sought so that we can respond to data requests by client type. Options may include commercial vs. residential, multifamily property manager vs commercial general contractor, homeowner vs investor – anything management may find useful.
• 4-4 Vendors – Types can be created to categorize the vendors for an organization. Vendor Types can be simple (e.g. suppliers, subcontractors, overhead vendors) or more detailed (lumber yard, plumbing supplier, excavation subcontractor, plumbing subcontractor, insurance, banking, employees, etc.). Consider how detailed vendor types can help an estimator, purchasing agent or project manager find “all the plumbers we have used in the past” when seeking quotes.
• 6-4-1 Change Orders – Since change orders have several roles in Sage 100 Contractor, use Types to help separate them into their various roles – prime contract changes, internal budget adjustment changes, subcontract change order only, etc. Then use the Type as a report selection criterion when running a change order list report so that you only get the types of change orders you want in the list.
• 6-6-1 Purchase Orders – In addition to a type for materials returned, types can be used to separate job materials purchases, overhead purchases and stock or inventory purchases.  If purchase orders are also used for subcontracts (rather than the 6-7-1 Subcontract module) a separate type for those may also be in order.  Types can be used as report selection criteria to ensure that job materials purchases print to a specific materials purchase order report form, and subcontract purchase orders print to a separate, subcontract-specific report form.
• 6-7-1 Subcontracts – Types can be used in the subcontract module to relate specific specialized report forms to types of subcontracts. For instance, you may want to use different report forms for subcontracts that only provide subcontract labor, subcontracts that provide labor, installation materials and customer selected fixtures, or subcontracts that are for professional services like architectural and engineering services.  In each case, the report form may have different terms and conditions that are important to the user.
• 6-11 Document Control – Types can be defined for several documents to relate them to specialized reports and report forms:
• 6-11-1 Requests for Proposals
• 6-11-2 Requests for Information
• 6-11-3 Transmittals
• 6-11-4 Submittals
• 6-11-8 Correspondence
• Each document has the option of creating user defined types that may be useful to your specific business.  For instance, you might have separate request for proposal forms for materials purchase quotes and subcontract quotes.  Requests for information might be categorized as those to an architect or engineer, versus those to the owner or owner representative. Correspondence might be categorized as to format – memorandum vs formal letter.  The possibilities are many.
• 8-3 Equipment – Users of the equipment management module can create their own list of equipment types to categorize their equipment for reporting purposes.

Sage 100 Contractor is designed to be adaptable to most clients’ unique needs.  Take advantage of these options to make it work for you.  Contact Mathieson Consulting, LLC (480-471-5305) for more information or assistance.

A Little Bit of Imagination!

Recently, a client asked what they could do to solve a longstanding problem for their business.  They are an equipment sales and service organization, and have a high volume of materials purchases and returns.  Management was concerned that they either were not returning defective and or warrantied materials, or the suppliers were not giving them credit for their returns.

At first glance, there is no module or menu item labeled “Materials Returns” in Sage 100 Contractor, so the easy answer was “sorry, there’s nothing to help you in the program”. But let’s look a little closer at the problem. In reviewing the request with the client, we found that they needed to be able to keep records of what items were returned to their vendor, how much of a refund or credit they expected to receive as a result of the return, and whether or not they had actually received the credit from the vendor. With just a touch of imagination, you might see that this problem is an exact opposite of how purchase orders work. Purchase orders communicate to a vendor what you want to purchase, how much you expect to pay for it, and whether or not you have entered an AP invoice as a result of the purchase.  A purchase order record with negative quantities (a positive quantity is an item purchased and to be paid for, a negative quantity is an item returned for a credit) does just what an materials return record should.

To make this work effectively, we made a few changes in the system To keep the materials returns records separate from the materials purchases, we defined a purchase order type for returns, repurposed a user-defined field for the vendor’s RMA or returned material authorization number, and repurposed the purchase order grid line user-defined field for the reason the item was returned.  We created a specific report and report form, which we called a Materials Return Transmittal to effectively document the return to the vendor, specify what was expected of the vendor, and the amount that was expected to be received as a credit from the vendor.  When the credit memo is received from the vendor, the entry in accounts payable invoices should reference the order number so that the open record could be marked as closed. A Materials Returns List report was also created that shows the current status of materials returns.

This is just a brief synopsis of what can be done with a little imagination.  If you want more information about how to implement a materials returns tracking system, give us a call or send us an email!

Archiving Company Fiscal Year Data

When Sage 100 Contractor Version 19 was released, there was great joy because the multi-year general ledger functionality drastically reduced the perceived pressure of having to archive the ending fiscal year before entering any data for the new fiscal year.  Version 19 changed all of that by permitting several fiscal years to co-exist in the same database.  The old fiscal year can be archived at your leisure, after all entries and adjustments have been made for that year.  Because it can be done at one’s leisure, I find that archiving is sometimes forgotten and we start to see three or more fiscal years residing in the same database. While the system works fine with several fiscal years still resident in the database, you can expect to see processing times start to slow down and people will get annoyed with job lists that include jobs done two years earlier.  The solution is to archive your oldest fiscal year soon after all of its data entry is complete and in agreement with your published financial statements and tax returns for that prior fiscal year.

Usually around this time of year, we see that financial statements and tax returns for the prior fiscal year have been completed.  Make sure that your outside accountant has provided any adjusting entries that they want posted to your books.  Post them to the correct prior fiscal year.  After the adjusting entries are recorded, run a Trial Balance (report 2-1-0-21) for Period 12 of the prior fiscal year and compare it to your published financial statements for that year (or send it to your outside accountants and ask them to confirm that this trial balance agrees with their work papers).  When your adjusted trial balance is deemed in agreement, that prior fiscal year can be archived.

Archiving must be done by the Supervisor user, with Exclusive Access.  Larger and busier companies find that archiving is best done very late in the day or on weekends when Exclusive Access doesn’t prevent other users from doing their own work in the system.  Decide whether you wish to, during the archiving process, remove:  (1) jobs with a status of Closed or Refused, (2) paid or void payable invoices not related to a job, (3) service receivables records with a status of Paid, Completed, or Void dated prior to a specific date of your choosing and (4) closed purchase orders dated prior to a specific date of your choosing that are not related to a job.  Purging can add significant time to the archiving process so you may elect to perform the purging of this data from the current company at a later, more convenient time.

Other preparation should include running a general ledger audit in menu 1-6, searching for and resolving Ledger Transactions (menu 1-3) with a transaction number of 0000, usually the result of not completing the printing of GL Checks (menu 1-1), and deciding what you want to name the archive company data folder.  It could be something like [Company Name] 123114 GL.  Just make sure that it’s descriptive and unique.  Have available a paper copy of your Trial Balance (report 2-1-0-21) for Period 12 of the year you will be archiving for reference purposes. Finally, create two backup copies of the current company data folders before starting the actual archiving process.

Now the easy part – as Supervisor with Exclusive Access, go to menu 1-6, select Archive Fiscal Year 20xx.  That selection button will display the oldest fiscal year available in your current company.  Follow all the instructions therein, reading and understanding each of the prompts.

If you have any questions or concerns or if you want help with the archiving process, give Mathieson Consulting, LLC a call!

Current Version Information!

The latest version of Sage 100 Contractor is version 19.6.41, the release of which was announced on May 28, 2015.

Don’t Forget Scheduling!

Smart contractors realize that projects that take too long to complete often experience cost slippage, where actual costs exceed the original planned cost.  Cost slippage on fixed price jobs falls straight to the bottom line.  Cost slippage and delays on time and materials billing jobs may not show up directly in financial performance, but can cause customer dissatisfaction which will erode reputation and have a negative effect on the bottom line over time.

A scheduling program can help orchestrate the intricate plan of an efficient project by identifying:

• The work or tasks required to complete a project, and estimating how many days it should take to perform the tasks 
• The resources needed to complete those tasks, whether employees, equipment or subcontractors
• The ordering of materials, especially those that must be special ordered and may have long lead time
• The arranging for inspections required by building codes
• The timing of billings, especially those dependent upon specified milestones in the project’s completion

A schedule should take into account the order in which tasks must be performed, which tasks must be completed before the next can be started, and which tasks can be performed simultaneously. In some organizations, the availability of resources such as specific employees, subcontractors or equipment may be limited and if they are assigned to another project, the schedule for this project may be affected as well, so resource planning and conflict identification can be important.  Contractors that are consistent and effective schedulers find that their subcontractors and employees appreciate knowing when they are expected to perform tasks and how long they have to perform them.  By periodically updating schedules, contractors can identify changes to the original schedule resulting from taking more or less time than planned for completed tasks and project new task starting times for subsequent tasks.  Effective project managers can then promptly notify resources assigned to these subsequent tasks of these changes and help them adjust their own schedules.

I often find that managers of my clients are surprised to find that Sage 100 Contractor has had an effective scheduling module built in to the core system for many years!  They are looking to acquire a scheduling program when they have had one in their office for as long as they’ve had Sage100 Contractor and its predecessors.

Scheduling can be quite complex, between building task lists, estimating task durations, identifying and defining task predecessors, estimating lead and lag times and putting it all together into a coherent schedule.  Scheduling is one of the many processes that usually isn’t perfect “out of the box” and benefits greatly from ongoing refinements gleaned from job autopsies.

Contact us for assistance and more information about the scheduling module.