Premier Cloud Construction Software
REQUEST DEMO

Tag: project management

Categories
Industry Insight

Premier and Gillam Group Team Up and Take on York University

new photo

On Friday, November 20th 2015, the Premier team visited the Lassonde School of Engineering at York University to conduct an onsite, specialized training session with the Project Managers and Coordinators of the Gillam Group – forging an even stronger relationship with yet another valuable client. This new 16,000 sq. ft. building is an inspiring masterpiece – lending itself to a new way of teaching well into the next century and will house various engineering disciplines, programs and types of instruction to the students of York University. This new facility, embraces a new innovative style of learning by providing forms and spaces that are flexible, creative, collaborative and bold.

 

The Gillam design team constructed this iconic building aspiring to attract research partners, recruit and retain staff and students from across the province, the country and around the world. The Gillam Group is a well-known construction management company, located in Toronto, Ontario.  They are established by a collection of industry professionals who share a common goal of improving the way construction projects are delivered.

 

Premier offers an ideal solution for General Contracting businesses, providing the ability to access information anytime, anywhere. Premier is built on a modern software architecture that is entirely flexible and truly simple to use. Some of the features that Premier offers include sides of Accounting, Job Cost, Progress Billing, Subcontract Management, Financials and Customer Portals just to name a few. The Premier team and the Project Managers of Gillam trained closely together with the use of Premier’s fully integrated, cloud-based construction accounting software, helping Gillam continue to take their business and future projects to new heights.

Categories
Industry Insight Resources Trends & Technology

Premier Announces Integration with Microsoft Project

premier_green

Jonas Premier, a leading integrated cloud construction software solution, announces integration with Microsoft Project, a leader within the project management software industry. Phase 1 of this integration is set to be released in early December 2015.

Markham, Ontario, Canada (PRWEB) October 23, 2015 —

 

The goal of this integration is to enhance the accessibility of schedule information, allowing employees across the business to view project schedules from one central location. Any time a project schedule is updated, the revised schedule is automatically updated within Jonas Premier as well. This eases the burden of sharing schedules via email, which reduces the issues of viewing an outdated schedule and making decisions with inaccurate information.

 

Parham Mousavi, Director of Operations with Jonas Premier, is excited about the benefits this integration will provide, “With this integration between Jonas Premier and MS Project, existing Premier clients will not only be able to save time by having project schedules updated automatically, but they will also experience greater accessibility with all schedule information stored within the Jonas Premier system. All project schedules will be accurate and available in real-time, providing our clients with the confidence to make better decisions moving forward.”

 

The integration between Jonas Premier and Microsoft Project makes sharing project schedules easy, as everyone with access to the Premier system can view Gantt Charts, critical paths, schedules, and more, all in real-time. By automating this process, there is no requirement to import or export documents, which can be time consuming and cumbersome. Through a simple push of the button, project schedule information is made available to any Premier user, at any time and from anywhere through the integrated Jonas Premier cloud server.

 

Phase 2 of this integration, set to be released during Q1 of 2016, will further enhance this integration by providing Premier users with the ability to push estimated and actual costs to Microsoft Project, automatically creating the cash flow report in the process. As the project progresses, this integration will be able to automatically populate costs as well. This can be done instantaneously with a simple push of the button, saving a lot of time in the process.

 

About Premier

Premier is a fully integrated, cloud-based construction accounting software solution ideal for General Contracting businesses. Running in the cloud, it provides you with the ability to access and input key business information anytime, anywhere. It is built on modern software architecture, fully flexible and is simple to use. The complete offering for contractors includes: Accounting, Job Cost, Subcontract Management, Billing, Progress Billing, T&M Billing, Financials, Project Management, Bank Management, Purchase Order, Inventory, Time Entry, Integrated Document Storage, Field Mobile Apps, and Vendor and Customer Portals

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
Industry Insight Resources

Preparing for a Successful Software Implementation Process

shutterstock_233336212

When it comes to the construction industry, having a project plan in place to ensure each project runs smoothly is crucial to the success of that project. Well the same goes with Software. When implementing an integrated software package, the most common complaint is, “we need more training”. While training is the most commonly thought software implementation issue, there are four main concerns that must be addressed to ensure a successful implementation process. The concerns are leadership, communication, project management, and change management.

 

Issues Surrounding Leadership

Leaders need to set realistic goals and expectations upfront, before the implementation process begins to take place. This is the best way to garner positive results, as all parties involved will have a clear understanding of what is required for a successful implementation. Also, planning for what resources will be needed during the implementation process is essential to the success of the plan. Your employees are busy with their daily tasks as it is, therefore if the process is too difficult or unclear, the implementation is more likely to suffer than anything else.

 

Communication

Ensuring everyone is aware and understands the full scope of the implementation plan eliminates the element of surprise and allows employees to prepare for what lies ahead. By systematically communicating and releasing information about the software implementation process, your employees will be more aware and have a clearer understanding of the implementation progress. In addition, it is important to communicate why the change is being made and how it will positively affect the employees.

 

Project Management

The project manager keeps track of all aspects of the job and is relied upon to make sure that job goes according to plan. The same ideology should be applied to implementing a new software. While there is a team handling the implementation process, there should be an implementation ‘project manager’ to keep the process on track. This individual can ensure that the right employees are handling the appropriate tasks and that each person is understanding how the new software works.

 

Change Management

With any growing business, change becomes inevitable. With change however, it sometimes creates aversion amongst those who are resistant to moving away from their old ways. For example, some employees may be more comfortable using spreadsheets that they already know well, as opposed to learning a new software. Change is not an easy process it needs to be understood and managed in a way that people can cope effectively with it. Consult your employees about the implementation, have each one lead a certain part of the training process and report back to the project manager. Knowing the strengths and limitations of your business and your people is vital to a successful implementation process.

 

It is easy to point to training as the main reason why implementation projects struggle, but if all of the underlying concerns mentioned above are taken into consideration, the process will be a successful one.