Blog

We know that over the past few years it has become more and more difficult for staff to feel connected to both each other and their suppliers.

Over the past few years we have seen massive fluctuations in prices, demands that far exceeded supply and numerous questions raised over future survival of the industry in a post-Brexit, post-Covid world.

In 2023 with rising material costs and tax rates, it’s easier than ever to accumulate hidden costs and for your contracts to run over budget. Read on to discover four ways that construction companies can better track and manage their spending, meaning you’ll never go over budget without knowing again.

It’s likely that if you work in the construction industry, you have had to wait for paper-based documents to be submitted, located, or replaced on more than one occasion. In 2023 you shouldn’t have to be held back by the limitations of hardcopy paperwork or the lack of speed and security that comes with this archaic way of working.  

It’s a simple fact that the businesses which regularly perform better are those that have a better understanding of their position. Being able to see a project in full helps inform decisions made throughout its lifecycle. However, errors in documentation or calculations can have a ripple effect that ultimately impacts your profits or means you lose favour with your supply chain.

In the construction industry your profitability is directly related to your costs and how you manage them. Read on to learn about our three biggest “cost concerns” and how with our construction-specific accounting software, Evolution Mx, you can regain control and maximise profitability.

The average cost of cyber security breaches for medium-sized UK businesses in 2022 was £8,040. Most of these cyber-attacks come from “malware”; a type of software specifically designed to stop your business from operating. If your server comes under attack, are you properly protected from the threat?

Being able to properly process invoices is a vital part of running any business, and in the construction industry the number of monthly invoices that need processing can be very high. Having to manually process these invoices can be a time-consuming and costly solution, especially when having to individually match invoices to a contract.

1st April 2023 marked 50 years since the introduction of the “simple” VAT and the first rise in Corporation Tax in 50 years. With half a century of VAT and half of business still confused about their obligations, this post will look at how you can simplify your tax management in 2023. 

A construction timesheet is a method of recording and tracking the amount of time a worker spends on a job. This allows construction businesses to easily track how many hours its employees have worked for and ensures they are being paid the correct amount. 

Subcontractor management is an important process in the construction industry. Subcontractors are hired for the majority of construction projects as they can provide the skills you need to get the job done, without having to directly employ anyone.   Manually managing subcontractors can often be complex and time-consuming, especially when you’re working on multiple different projects at once. Something that can help you more effectively manage your subcontractors is digitising your processes.  The easiest way to digitise your subcontractor management process is by using a construction-specific management software. By using an integrated management system, you can improve most aspects of the subcontractor management process such as verification, regulations, payments, and invoicing. Evolution Mx from Integrity Software is a fully integrated, accounting and management software specifically designed for the construction industry. As subcontractor management is such an important process in the construction industry, Evolution Mx, has a number of features designed to improve your subcontractor management process. Subcontractor Verification The first step of the subcontractor management process is deciding which subcontractors to hire. You have to consider the specific skill set you need, as well as their experience and price. Once you have chosen the right subcontractor for the job, it is important to ensure they are fully licensed and insured. By using the subcontractor management module, included in Evolution Mx, you can easily verify subcontractors thanks to a direct link to HMRC. Once a subcontractor is verified, you can then manage any relevant documentation related to them, including insurance expiry dates and training documentation.   Authorisation of Payments Another important process when it comes to subcontractor management is payment. Digitising your payment process can ensure your subcontractors are paid accurately and on time.  Evolution Mx allows subcontractor payment applications to be placed into a workflow that requires authorisation before allowing payment. This means that payments can be approved by a nominated person, such as the Quantity Surveyor or Contract Manager. This workflow can improve the efficiency, accuracy and speed of your subcontractor payments. You can also send an advanced notification of payment to your subcontractors, ensuring positive communication with them as they are always kept in the loop. Full CIS Compliance When it comes to paying your subcontractors, it is important to consider legislative requirements such as CIS in the UK or the RCT scheme in Ireland. Using Evolution Mx can help you ensure you stay compliant with these schemes as it allows you to submit CIS returns directly to HMRC each month. This allows you to speed up the process of CIS returns and ensures your business is staying compliant. Evolution Mx can also provide payment certificates and statements to subcontractors so they can stay informed on the payments as well.

With over 90% of construction companies still relying on outdated methods for many of their business processes, is it time for the construction industry to utilise technology and move towards digitisation?

In the construction industry, spreadsheets are a popular tool used for managing projects, estimating and more – but just how useful are they?

We are pleased to announce that our parent company, JDM Technology Group is growing again through the acquisition of Fountain Hills, Arizona based Deneb Software.

When it comes to construction contract management there are a lot of variables to keep on top of. These include – but are not limited to - planning schedules, allocating resources, staying within budget and meeting deadlines.  This can make managing even just 1 contract extremely complex, so when managing multiple contracts at the same time it can become quite a challenge.

When it comes to running a profitable construction business, having a positive cash flow is essential. This post will discuss the fundamentals of cash flow before highlighting how you can ensure your construction business is maintaining a positive cash flow.

Invoice processing is the way a company manages receiving and paying incoming invoices. Due to the nature of the construction industry the number of monthly invoices that need processing can be very high.

A Goods Received Note (GRN) is a two-way document that is a record of goods received from a supplier and shows proof that the ordered goods have been received. They are mainly used by the buyer, to compare the amount of goods ordered with what was received.  GRNs can help a business get a better overview of their input and output as well as helping them check they’ve received all the products they have ordered.  If any items are missing, the customer can contact the supplier, using the GRN as proof, allowing the issues to be resolved quickly and efficiently. GRNs are vital for construction company, as they are used for stock updates and o authorise payment of goods received. 

As a contractor in the construction industry, it is important to be aware of the Construction Industry Scheme if you use subcontractors, as you are required to use it and comply with the rules. In this post, we discuss 4 thing contractors need to understand about CIS and how construction-specific accounting software can help you improve your CIS accounting process.

With postage costs on the rise again, it might be time to consider switching to email payslips – to save your company on both time and money.

Payroll is one of the most important aspects within the construction industry and as such it needs to be managed effectively. In construction, payroll can be a complex process especially with the size of construction projects, tax regulations and having a large workforce working on different projects.

With the UK reporting 1.6 million cases of work-related ill health annually, it is important to ensure you are continually improving your company’s health and safety processes.  In the construction industry it is particularly important to monitor the safety, wellbeing, and happiness of your workforce, given the challenge the industry presents.  In addition to this, health and safety is also about ensuring you are compliant with regulations, to avoid legal fees and insurance issues which could cause problems for your organisation as a whole. If you are considering re-evaluating your health and safety process, then digitisation may the next best step and you can do this with the help of our construction-specific accounting and management software, Evolution Mx. Our Mobile Forms module allows construction companies to digitise all their on-site paperwork and forms, meaning they can be filled out using smartphones and tablets. This information is then stored within the Evolution Mx system.  This can be used for Risk Assessments, Incident Report Forms and any other health and safety form your company may use, as it’s all customizable. Benefits of using Mobile Forms include: •    Workers can report incidents immediately from any location •    Incident reports can be attributed to particular contracts •    Digital trail for audits and to ensure compliance •    No more lost paperwork as everything is saved into one system •    Easier reporting and identification of high-risk areas Another feature of our Mobile Forms module is that you can set up an approval workflow. This means that once a form is submitted - like an Incident Report - this can then be sent for approval to a manager before being uploaded into the system or attributed to a particular job/contract.  Digitising health and safety not only demonstrates to your employees that you value their wellbeing and encourages your workforce to engage in safety culture, but in the long run this can lead to a reduction in accidents, along with boosting efficiency and most importantly complying with health and safety legislation.   With so many fatalities occurring in the construction industry every year, it’s vital you ensure you’re abiding by all health and safety regulations to look after your on-site teams and minimise the risk of injuries and you can do this with the help of our software. For more information watch our Mobile Forms webinar here: https://youtu.be/fsaY4XOIp_0  If you would like a 1-to-1 demonstration you can book a free no-obligation session here, where we’d be happy to show you how Mobile Forms can help update your construction business’ health and safety processes. 

Dashboards are a valuable business tool, offering an ‘at-a-glance’ view of your construction business’ performance. Not only do they ensure that you and your team have access to real-time information, but they have multiple other benefits as well. Read on to find out the top 5 reasons why you should be using dashboards in your construction business. 1.    Monitor performance in real-time Dashboards allow you to easily measure and monitor your businesses performance in real-time.  Being able to monitor performance in real-time is useful for a number of different reasons. Firstly, this helps you to discover weak spots in your business. If your business dashboards alert you to a sudden drop in performance – like an overspend on a job for example - you have the opportunity to address the problem quickly. By having all your data available instantly through a dashboard, this means you no longer have to export data to do your reporting, meaning no more using data that is instantly out-of-date.  2.    Timesaving Having a well-designed dashboard can be a great time-saver. Having all the information you need on one screen; you no longer need to spend time searching for data from multiple sources and generating reports every time.  3.    Better decision making By having quicker and easier access to this real-time data allows you to make key business decisions quicker. By having all the information you need in one place, you can focus on specific metrics that are the most important to your business, allowing you to have a clearer understanding of the big picture and your business’ performance. This again, can help with making those key business decisions, quickly and efficiently. 4.    Can be used company-wide Dashboards can be a great way for any member of your team to access the real-time information that they need. By having customisable dashboard functionality, each person can have a specifically designed dashboard, whether they are on the Senior Management Team, working in accounts or even a stakeholder that just wants to see a top-level overview of the company’s performance. This again makes it so much easier to share this information with your team and cuts out the need for report generating. 5.    Drill down features The drill down feature of dashboards allows you to effectively find more in-depth information and records relevant to a particular dashboard tile. For example, an invoicing dashboard may show you how many invoices need to be processed and by drilling-down you will then be able to see the individual invoices.  This can be really helpful for finding key information quickly and can be especially useful when it does come time to generate more in-depth reports. Conclusion  There are many benefits to using dashboards for you construction business, but fundamentally they give you access to real-time information that you can use to make better business decisions, ultimately improving efficiency, competitiveness, and profitability. Our construction-specific accounting software, Evolution Mx makes use of innovative dashboard technology, allowing you to create custom dashboards from data already stored in our fully integrated system. If you would like to find out more about how our Dashboards work, then book your complimentary demo today.

What is Construction Software? Construction projects today are becoming increasingly more complex to manage, and this is where construction software comes in. Construction software is management software designed specifically for the niche requirements of the construction industry, to help plan and control your projects from start to finish. The need for modern construction software has continued to grow, particularly due to the construction industry’s move towards digital transformation as well as the need for more remote working. Using the right construction software can help businesses improve both productivity and profitability. Benefits of Construction Software Construction software has the potential to increase sales and efficiency, whilst decreasing costs and keeping teams better connected with managed workflows.