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Month: July 2015

Categories
Industry Insight

Why Contractors Should Stick To True Cloud Technology

cloud-computing
cloud software

A true cloud deployment brings contractors and their business a convenient, affordable and on-demand infrastructure. This is an advantageous alternative to having to configure, optimize and back-up software applications. A true cloud platform provides several distinct advantages including smaller expenditures for IT resources, hardware and maintenance.

 

The most powerful benefit of true cloud technology is the “ease of use”, which is often overlooked. A cloud’s true potential should be to provide more than a web-based version of an application – its true potential should have the ability to host all applications and make them as easily accessible to the end users as if they are sitting in the office.

 

Many software vendors operate on a subscription basis where they charge monthly, quarterly or annually for their services, so expenditure on software, hosting and supporting is more predictable. Conversely, traditional desktop software which might require specific equipment, may lead to increased costs investing in additional computers or servers. This in turn not only infringes on a company’s cash reserve, but also eats into their bottom line net income due to the increased depreciation costs of the additional required equipment.

 

True cloud technology allows for increased flexibility on all platforms including training and receiving ongoing support which can be delivered on demand with the only requirement being internet access. With traditional software, often users are required to invest in additional capital outlays for new hardware or software access which is usually via a standard internet browser or through a provider that uses in-house servers and/or gateways such as VPN and Citrix.

 

Another advantage to true cloud technology is the security that comes with it.  Storing sensitive information on a cloud software requires advanced encryption, highly resilient data centers complete with sophisticated backup systems.  This all comes equipped with your cloud software but extremely difficult for traditional software to replicate.

 

Jonas Premier – secured by Microsoft Azure, offers a true cloud format so that users can access the system anytime, anywhere on any device. Take advantage of a true cloud provider that offers a true cloud technology solution and stick with it.

Categories
Accounting Job Costing

What QuickBooks Can Do, Jonas Premier Does Better

Checklist

Sure, QuickBooks is great, but take a look at why the Jonas Premier Integrated Construction Software Solution is so much better. After all, they offer Customer Support in house.

JOB COSTING

QuickBooks:

  • Only has cost items, which means every cost item must be linked to a General Ledger account rather than group by Cost Type and then linked to a General Ledger account, thus creating more work during the set-up of a cost item.
  • Documents such as drawings, or contracts used in the course of Project Management work can be uploaded to QuickBooks but have to be attached to a specific customer or a specific estimate rather than storing all relevant documents to a particular job. Unlike Jonas Premier which allows for all Job related documents to be stored together with the Job information.
  • QuickBooks can provide basic job cost reports such as Profit or Loss by job, but lacks when it comes to complex job costing reporting such as Payment application reports which can be found in Jonas Premier.

Jonas Premier:

  • Allows for 5 levels of job costing, which provides a variety of useful options for the categorization of costs for both Accounting and Project Management Teams. This provides more versatile reporting options in both business segments allowing users to organize jobs by cost items, cost types, departments and even location.
  • Can be configured to set up job specific markups, whereas QuickBooks requires a new “item” for every markup that a user may want to apply which makes billing cumbersome.
  • Keeps the job costing and project management a separate functioning and reporting segment for Project Managers which allows them full use of the software without risking the integrity or confidentiality of the financial information also stored in Jonas Premier on the Accounting side of the product.

CREATING ESTIMATES

QuickBooks:

  • Creating estimates involves creating a new “item” for every cost item a user needs to track. Each “item” is then linked to an account on the Chart of Accounts.
  • These items need to be manually inputted during the creation of the estimate.
  • QuickBooks has the ability to import an item list from excel, however, the templates are not readily available to users, and must be created by the user. Unfortunately the creation of the template and subsequent import is not very seamless and therefore is not used as often.
  • The excel import that QuickBooks has available is only offered on their desktop version of the product, not on their cloud version, unlike Jonas Premier which has an excel upload that is easy to use and readily available on the cloud format.

Jonas Premier:

  • Premier offers two options in terms of creating an estimate. The first is to upload an estimate from Excel using a template provided by the Jonas Premier Support Team. This template is easy to use and allows for the application of various mathematical functions while remaining in an easy to read format that can be uploaded with a click of a few buttons.
  • The second option is to manually enter the costs while pulling the cost items from an existing drop down menu which would have been previously loaded into Premier using the aforementioned Excel upload template. While this option is similar to QuickBooks, the difference is the ease in which Jonas Premier allows users to upload their template of cost items.

WORKFLOW

QuickBooks:

  • QuickBooks offers a workflow in terms of applications available for use, Purchase Orders, Receive Inventory and Enter Bills. However where workflow in QuickBooks lacks is the ability to set approvals and also require sign offs in order to make a purchase or record an invoice.

Jonas Premier:

  • Jonas Premier allows for the System Administrators to set up a workflow requiring approvals at various checkpoints throughout the Accounts Payable process which helps to maintain the integrity of the data by reducing the amount of errors or unapproved transactions going through the accounting or job cost software.
Categories
Trends & Technology

Upcoming IT Trends for 2015

computer

Technology trends are becoming more strategic and are quickly developing. With continuous advancements in smart-phone technology, there is room for an increased emphasis on the needs of the mobile user within diverse environments. Instead of the focus on the device itself, smart-phones and wearable devices are becoming part of a broader computing context. User experience design is the new center of focus.

 

  • IoT – also known as the internet of things, is continuing to expand. Driven by user-oriented computing, the digital business is to be replicated within the industrial and operational context and its main focus will be the product and process within digital business.
  • 3D printing costs are decreasing and will continue over the course of the next couple of years. Due to the decrease, it is leading the market into another direction. This direction would be the rapid growth of these particular low-cost machines. Expansion within the industrial, bio medical and consumer applications are becoming the main highlights of technological trends.
  • Analytics are continuing to advance due to the internet of things and embedded devices. Structured and unstructured data within organizations will continue to generate. Every app will transform into an analytic app.
  • Another trend consists of context-rich systems that are alert and responsive to all surroundings. Context- aware security is an example of an early application trend that will emerge.
  • Mobile computing as well as cloud computing continue to lead to the growth of applications that can be delivered to any device. Cloud computing is the foundation of self-service computing for both external and internal facing applications. Jonas Premier offers an integrated construction software solution is that 100% true cloud. This includes the launch of the Jonas Premier Mobile app that is currently available for Android devices, along with an iOS version set to be released.
  • The digital business requires flexibility in order to develop methods for programming. It can range from infrastructure basics to applications. Software defined networking, data centers and security are maturing, and therefore the demand for computing to move away from static to dynamic models are continuing to rise.
  • The evolution of web-scale IT will result in companies forming their applications and infrastructure similar to Google or Facebook and even Amazon. As cloud-optimized and software-defined methods become mainstream, web-scale IT will evolve as commercial platforms embrace new models.