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Specialist construction accounting software: before and after

As your construction business thrives and grows in complexity, you may quickly find that generic accounting software becomes more of a burden than a boon. Integrity Software offer several software packages specifically for construction companies in the UK and Ireland. A quick look at some our client stories shows that many switched to Evolution and Evolution M after becoming frustrated with the limitations of generic accounting software. Take a look at how your key businesses could change with construction accounting software.

Cost structure

Before construction accounting software: The cheapest accounting software you could find has major flaws – it’s missing key functions that are slowing down business processes. Your solution? Spending extra each month on several bolt-ons offered by the software provider. Now you have access to the functions you need, but their integration is clunky and you’re unhappy with the new price you’re forced to pay simply to have software that works for your sector.

After: Your new system was built from scratch with builders and construction companies in mind, so all the features you’re after are present in one complete package – even the basic version of the software achieves everything your small business requires of it. Overall, the cost is lower than what you paid for the numerous bolt-ons and base accounting package you used previously.

Job costing

Before: Your basic accounting software may not cost much, but it struggles with even the simplest features you use in the construction industry: namely job costing. It’s a hassle to add each cost manually, over and over again, and the interface simply wasn’t designed to drill down to individual costs with ease. The process is so tedious that you may even skip or estimate certain figures – leaving you with incorrect numbers that may cause problems further down the line.

After: One of the main features of your new software is job costing. It’s far easier to tie costs to individual items, contracts and resources, and all these costs are tracked against budgets. Therefore, it’s a breeze to identify problem areas in each of your contracts and put things right before your bottom line is damaged irreparably.  

Retentions and applications

Before: Most businesses don’t need to worry about retentions and applications, so it’s no surprise that your generic software package doesn’t let you track them easily. Instead, you decide to set up another document with retention information, but with no integration with your accounting software it’s tedious to maintain.

After: Any construction accounting software package worth its salt will let you manage retentions and applications from within the software itself. You will even receive notifications when retentions are due to be paid.

Support

Before: Your accounting software provider has hundreds of thousands of customers so you’d expect their support packages to be of decent quality. However, as you’re only using a basic version of the software your options are limited – you may only have access to email support or face fifteen minutes on hold before you can get through to someone in their call centre. Once you’ve made contact, they may not fully understand your problem if it’s specific to the construction industry.

After: You have a problem with your software, so you call up support. Thankfully they’re used to fielding calls from construction companies – they quickly understand the problem you have and explain how to solve it.

Want to learn other ways in which the switch to construction accounting software can benefit your business? See what else our clients have to say.