Sage Master Builder Version 14 and Subcontracts

Prior versions of Sage Master Builder have a Subcontract module to assist with the management of Subcontracts. Version 14 solves many of the concerns that users of prior versions have had about the module.

When processing a subcontractor’s invoice against an existing subcontract, users of earlier versions had to research approved change orders and prior invoices to ensure that the current invoice was correct and that the correct cost codes were being charged with the costs. This was often a frustrating problem, particularly with heavy users of the subcontract module.

Version 14 of Sage Master Builder takes giant strides to improve controls over subcontracts created with Version 14 and later versions. Unfortunately, subcontracts created with earlier versions do not get “converted” to the functionality of Version 14, do not have the same controls available, and will have to be handled using the processes developed for earlier versions of the program.

What’s so special about Version 14 and Subcontracts?

• When approved Subcontract Change Orders are created on the Budget and Sub Change Details tab in menu 6-4-1, the system will “post” the change order to the grid of the original Subcontract in menu 6-7-1. So, whenever one looks at a Subcontract Grid in 6-7-1, one can see both the details of the original Subcontract, and how that original Subcontract has been changed by approved Subcontract Change Orders.
• When a subcontractor’s invoice is entered in menu 4-2 against a Subcontract created with Version 14, the Accounts Payable Invoice grid is populated automatically with the lines that exist on the Subcontract grid. After adjusting the amounts in the grid to reflect the amount of the invoice being processed, the AP Invoice can be saved with Auto-Costing, and the job costs will be charged to the proper cost codes specified on the Subcontract grid. This also helps prevent processing invoices against Subcontract Change Orders that have not yet been approved, since they will not show up in the grid. The AP invoice amounts are then also “posted” to the corresponding lines of the Subcontract grid. Whenever one looks at a subcontract record and its grid, one can see immediately how much has been invoiced against each line item of the Subcontract.

We can arrange for an on-line demonstration of the new features if you want more insight into these enhancements. Just send an e-mail or call at your convenience.

Sage Master Builder Version 14 and the Paperless Office!

Most contractors have probably given thought to going paperless. When one factors in the cost of storing paper documents, the environmental impact of consuming large quantities of paper, and the general inconvenience of having to dig in a filing cabinet when one wants to research an issue, going paperless seems like a terrific idea. But until now, the idea also required a significant investment in separate software to capture and organize the information, and the link between the captured electronic document and the accounting record was tenuous at best.

Sage Master Builder Version 14 includes an exciting feature that users will surely have to consider – Attachments. If you can create or find a file or website, you can attach it to a record so that the file or website is available to anyone following in your footsteps in the program.

Consider the following scenarios that represent real opportunities for Master Builder users:

• An accounts payable bookkeeper has an inexpensive flat bed scanner (cost less than $100) attached to his computer and scans vendor invoices to a .pdf file saved to the desktop. During the entry of the vendor invoice with a Review status and the hot list box checked, the bookkeeper attached the .pdf image of the invoice to the record. Later, the project manager reviews the hot list for his project, sees the Review status invoice on the hot list, opens up the AP invoice record, opens the .pdf image of the record, records a comment indicating approval of the invoice and how it was job-costed, removes the hot list status and changes the status to Open. The paper copy of the invoice never gets lost or misplaced, the bookkeeper can keep track of invoices in need of approval, and there is no file cabinet required as the image is in the computer, attached to the proper record!
• An Estimator is assembling subcontracts for a project by preparing Requests for Proposals in menu 6-11-1. Pages of the plan specifications book are scanned to pdf, along with the applicable section of the drawings, for the scope of work requested. The RFP record is completed along with careful notes and instructions in the Notepad note. The RFP report is printed to a pdf for emailing to the potential subcontractors and the pdf is attached to the RFP record also. The RFP pdf, along the specifications and drawings are emailed directly from the RFP attachments button. When the proposal comes back from the potential subcontractor, the proposal is scanned and attached to the RFP record as well as noting that the RFP has been responded to. When the proposal is accepted and a subcontract record is created, the attachments can be attached to the subcontract record, along with a scan of the fully executed subcontract document. Since everything is attached to the subcontract record, a superintendent in the project field office can remote into the office computer and see all of the important and related documents while online. This couldn’t be done if all the documents were still on paper, filed in a filing cabinet!

These are just two of the hundreds of possible scenarios where Sage Master Builder Version 14 and its Attachments feature can be used to go paperless and drastically improve efficiency in the office.

Sage Master Builder Version 14 is Coming Soon!

When Sage announced that there would not be any significant enhancements added with the Version 13 release, I was disappointed. I understood that they needed the time usually devoted to new enhancements in order to translate the existing program from Visual Basic, to a more powerful and adaptable language, C# (C sharp), that would provide a better platform for moving Sage Master Builder forward. So the Master Builder world waited…and competitors got busy trying to suggest that this was a death-knell for Sage Master Builder, that Sage was ignoring Master Builder to promote the more expensive and more complex Timberline Office product.

Sage has announced that it will begin shipping Sage Master Builder Version 14 in August, 2009.

I can now say that the wait was worth it! I have been playing around with a pre-release version of Sage Master Builder Version 14, and I can’t wait to show it to my clients and prospects! Some of the enhancements found in Version 14 include:

• Attach Files and Links to Records – So powerful that I’ll devote an entire blog entry to this enhancement!
• Mouse Wheel Scrolling Enhanced – Users can now use their mouse wheel to scroll through grids, lookup windows and the Service Dispatch Board.
• More Under-billed Jobs Available for Display on the Executive Dashboard – A link to show all under-billed jobs (instead of the top five most under-billed) is now available on the Executive Dashboard.
• Support for 64-bit Operating Systems – SMB now supports the 64-bit versions of MS Windows XP Professional, Vista Business, and Server 2008 operating systems.
• Integration with MS Outlook – Outlook can now be launched with a file attachment from many points in the program.
• Improved Workflow for Changing Periods and Closing the Fiscal Year – The user interface has been improved for the old menu item 1-6 Audit/Close Books to reduce confusion and misunderstanding of the process.
• New Income Statement Format – Report 2-3-0-34 Income Statement by Period has been added which now shows each of the 12 periods of a year and a total for the year. This report must be printed on legal sized paper.
• Post Retention-only Progress Bills – One can now post a progress billing that merely reclassifies amounts from Retention to Currently Due, even though there is no current income being billed and still be able to create a “Next” Progress Billing record.
• New Columns Added to Open Invoices and Paid Invoices Lookup Windows in Vendor – This will help with looking up vendor invoices.
• Payroll Check Date vs Quarter Audit Error Handling – Users can now correct their own payroll audit errors arising from conflicts between payroll quarters and payroll check dates, because the payroll quarter field is now editable on saved payroll records.
• Certified Payroll Reports Now Can Mask Employee Social Security Numbers – A new global calculated field has been added that makes masking an employee’s social security number much easier.
• Reprint Direct Deposit Report – An option has been added which permits the reprinting of a direct deposit file report.
• Update Maximum Only for Payroll Calculations – An option has been added which permits users to “push” new calculation maximums out to appropriate employees without wiping out the rates elected by the individual employees, which is particularly useful for 401k contribution calculations.
• Daily Field Report Grid Notes to Payroll and Job Cost Records – Grid notes from the daily field report module now transfer to payroll records and resulting job cost records.
• Integration of Subcontract, Subcontract Change Orders and Accounts Payable Invoices – Another killer enhancement, so powerful that I will devote another separate entry on it.
• RFI and RFP Numbering by Job and Phase – The program can now be configured to assign numbers sequentially by Job and Phase, rather than continuously for all jobs.
• Job Income Statement Report – Report 6-1-4-71 Job Income Statement has been added to the standard reports. It reflects job costs by cost type, billings from both contracts and service receivables, gross profit and gross profit percentage by job and phase. It does not, however, recognize percentage of completion adjustments and thus may not be a true representation of profitability.
• Financial Review and Project Review – The modules found in menu 13-1 and 13-2 have long been broken and did not reflect correct information. Sage has corrected and enhanced these graphical representations of key financial and project information! This should be a real plus for those managers who find graphical information more useful that traditional tabular accounting data!

There is also a long list of fixes and enhancements to the online Help text.

I hope you will agree that many of these enhancements are exciting, and a number of them have been long overdue. Keep an eye on the mail in August for your copy of the new program!

I'm An Accountant, What Do I Know About Estimating?

A prospective client recently asked if I was qualified to train his staff on SMB Basic Estimating, and what was the best database to use. I responded:

You are correct - my background is in accounting, and I have never worked as an estimator in the real world. I have implemented SMB Basic Estimating for about a dozen companies. I do have a thorough understanding of SMB Basic Estimating, having been "certified" in Estimating, as well as Service Receivables, Project Management and Report Writing, for over 7 years. I teach estimators how to use the program, not how to estimate.

I do have strong feelings about Estimating with SMB:

• SMB is a terrific estimating tool for an experienced estimator.
• It does not replace an experienced estimator, but makes the estimator more productive, and the estimating process more transferable to other estimators in your company.
• SMB Estimating implementations will fail unless the company designates a responsible estimating employee empowered and enabled by management to spend the time and effort to ensure that the estimating implementation is done in a fashion consistent with existing estimating assumptions and practices. This is a working position, not supervisory.
• In my opinion, there are no useable prebuilt databases for SMB. I have little confidence that any prebuilt estimating database has the materials that your company buys, at the prices that are available to your company. The production rates for labor in a prebuilt database are similarly a mystery - do they really reflect the production capabilities of your company? Finally, prebuilt assemblies are not necessarily reflective of how your production staff will approach a project.
• I think that using the same database as all of your competitors (like RS Means) for anything other than a "rule of thumb" test of your own estimate, is likely to leave a contractor in the middle of the pack on bid opening day.
• I am a firm believer in a company taking full charge and responsibility for the most important task that they can do - estimating and bidding their work. If they cannot take the time to build an estimating parts database, assemblies and templates that reflect their typical materials, the prices they receive from their suppliers, the production rates that reflect their crews' talents and shortcomings, the assemblies that make sense to their estimators and project managers, and the templates for the types of projects for which they typically compete, then they should not attempt to use SMB Basic Estimating.

This is the point where some will say "this accountant is full of manure," but like I said, I have some strong feelings (and real affection) for SMB Basic Estimating.

Changes to Arizona Withholding

Arizona Income Tax Withholding Amounts are calculated as a percentage of the Federal Income Tax Withholding Amount. Federal Government has recently reduced the amounts to be withheld for Federal Income Tax. In an apparent effort to avoid a corresponding decrease in Arizona Income Tax Withholding Amounts, Recent legislation has increased the percentages to be used for calculating the Arizona Income Tax Withholding Amount.

Follow this link for a table of the new changes.

Sage Master Builder users will have to manually adjust the Rate column on each Arizona employee’s Arizona State Income Tax calculation. Effective May 1, 2009, replace the previous percentage rate with the new percentage from the above table. Another manual update will have to be done on January 1, 2010 as indicated above.

New SMB Update is Available

Sage recently released a new update which includes revised federal withholding tax tables that reflect changes as a result of the recent economic stimulus legislation. This update also includes a change in how workers compensation is calculated in Utah.

Current Tech Support subscribers should have received an email notification, probably dated 03/19/2009, with a subject of "Sage Master Builder Software Update 09-C". This email contains a link and instructions on how to download and install the update.

Send us a note if you have any questions or concerns.

UPDATE

The new update, which is contained in a file named SMB1340.exe, inadvertantly broke the Master Builder API, which is necessary for interfacing with some third party applications. As soon as Sage realized the problem, they corrected it by issuing a patch for the API, SMBAPI1340.exe. So, if the API is important for your company, don't forget to download and install the API patch, SMBAPI1340.exe, after installing the tax update, SMB1340.exe.

Frustrations!

One thing that really saddens us is when we find a Sage Master Builder user that is frustrated with his use of the program.

All too often, users continue to perform tasks in the way they (or the person they succeeded) were taught, without exploring whether there is a better way to accomplish their tasks. One of the great blessings (and curses) of Master Builder is that there are often several ways of using the system, some of which may be better suited to a particular user’s needs than others. There are many keyboard shortcuts often ignored that can help with a process. Templates are available in many different areas but frequently overlooked.

Many times, we hear from an owner or manager who wants to see certain information in a report, but no one has produced that report to meet his needs. We can often show him an existing report that meets his exact requirements, or gets close enough to satisfy the user’s need. There are over a thousand standard system reports that come with the program, as well as a very useful report writer that can solve many other needs. The Query Wizard can create on screen reports very quickly as well! We also use Crystal Reports to create complicated reports when we determine that the Master Builder report writer cannot solve a particular problem.

The stories of dissatisfaction with the way a user’s system was originally configured and implemented are the most frustrating of all. Too many times, users have tried to implement their own system without experienced implementation assistance. Some sales pitches in the past undersold the value of implementation assistance and encouraged new users to install, configure and implement the program themselves, relying only on the Internet-delivered classes and the on-line help screens. We have helped many such frustrated users reconfigure their systems or even re-implement their entire system, leaving the users much happier.

What is most frustrating to us is that many users just don’t know that they can begin to solve the problems that cause their dissatisfaction with a phone call!