Paper ledgers. Spreadsheets. An entire team of bookkeepers. There is no one way to track revenue – but there is one right way. Construction software like Buildertrend is your best bet when it comes to understanding and mastering your cash flow.
Smart construction accounting is the key to keeping your company from going into the red. But that’s easier said than done. Between overseeing multiple projects, client expectations and managing your team, even the most financially savvy contractors can struggle to balance their books.
Not anymore.
Technology’s emergence in the industry has paved the way for more automated solutions to achieve your budgeting goals. For example, Buildertrend’s Pro Package offers an entire suite of financial tools to help business owners keep an eye on every penny. While our Core features provide a solid foundation, it’s these more advanced tools that truly make a difference when it comes to improving profits and productivity.
So how is tracking revenue in Buildertrend done? We talked with Mike Ebeling, one of our onsite consultants, to learn how tech can handle your construction accounting.
Where should customers begin if they want to track revenue earned in Buildertrend?
Buildertrend will allow you to easily create and send invoices to customers based on a multitude of invoicing process. These invoices are automatically tracked in the system against the contract price and true costs of the job to allow you to run reports like gross profit. From this, you can clearly see how much you’re making for each job or a particular job segment.
Beyond Owner Invoices, what Pro features are most beneficial for financial tracking?
Estimates, Bills and Purchase Orders. All these features work together with financial tracking. We can look at the original estimated costs of a job, the actual costs and receivables to run a variety of financial reports.
How can construction companies know whether a job is profitable or not?
Focus on job costing. If you track job costs appropriately and issue change orders for any change in the scope of work, it will become virtually impossible to lose money on a job. Change Orders is another great tool available to Pro users of our construction software.
What tips do you have to improve job costing?
Keep it simple when establishing a list of cost codes. Think about what costs you really need to see on a budget. These should be “buckets” or “groups” of the different types of costs on any given job. If you see you are overspending within any one of these general areas, it will be easy enough to drill down to the specific material, subcontractor or labor cost that is putting you over budget.
How do our project management tools (Scheduling, Daily Logs, etc.) help make sure projects stay on deadline and on budget?
These tools will give clear visibility of where jobs are falling behind or where improvements can be made. If you see that you are overspending costs, it’s crucial to have records of issues or schedule changes that could have impacted these costs or caused you to miss a deadline.
Why is using construction software to track costs a smarter business decision compared to spreadsheets or other methods?
In addition to being able to build a contract or budget in Buildertrend, we provide simple tools that allow you to accurately track labor as well as subcontractor and supplier invoices for a job.
These tools provide a place to keep track of invoices and run separate reports on material or labor costs. These entries will automatically update the Budget as opposed to manual entry, which leaves room for a larger margin for error. If you are manually entering numbers into a spreadsheet, you are losing time with double handling whereas software can help you eliminate these steps and be more precise.
How can our Onsite Consulting team help improve a customer’s process to track revenue?
We can help implement the best workflow to start creating contracts, establishing a base budget and tracking true costs of a job. These tools are simple enough to use, but we can help by getting the best possible workflow in place that is built around your company’s human resources and existing processes.
Want to sharpen your construction accounting processes? Our onsite consultants can help.
Our tech and Onsite Consulting teams remove the complication from construction accounting.
The Buildertrend consulting team takes businesses to the next level by developing an action plan that meets your specific pain points and goals. Our consultants visit your offices for two days to train the entire team on your turf. They can laser in on your financial processes and show you how to get more value from our features.
Ready to work with our onsite consultants? Reach out and get started today.
Upgrading from Core to Pro gives you a leg up, too. You’ll have more financial features at your disposable to accurately track revenue throughout the lifecycle of all your projects. Contact your account executive to make the switch.
Running a successful business is a numbers game. You’ll win every time after going Pro and getting the best guidance from our team.
