ANNUAL PAPERLESS Survey Shows More Users …...News and Information for Users of Sage Timberline...

October 2012News and Information for Users of Sage Timberline Office Software

Survey Shows More Users Taking the

Paperless Plunge! ........................1

Paperless Office Tip – Print to File

in STO ...........................................3

Snowed Under an Avalanche of Paper –

How One Company is Digging Out

with Mobile Handheld

Technology ...................................4

TUG Online WebEx Training and

Open Forums ................................5

eFiling – More Than Just a Trend......... .6

Freedom from the Tyranny of Paper .....8

TUG Year-End Webinar Series ...............9

Don’t Go Paperless...

Just to Save Paper .....................10

Paperless Payroll and Free Field

Reports in the Cloud ...................11

Save the Date – 2013 TUG National

Users Conference .......................12

Document Management

Issues Solved .............................14

Real-Time Efficiency ...........................15

Survey Shows More UsersTaking the Paperless Plunge!

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by: Eire StewartJP DINAPOLI COMPANIES, Inc.

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Just how “paperless” are TUG’s members? Compared to last year’s TUG Paperless Poll, more of us are embracing paperless

technologies this year, with an overall growth of 28 percent in users that reported being at least 50-precent paperless in their office. In fact, this year, two percent have hit paperless nirvana, giving themselves a 100-percent mark when rating their paperless practices!

What went paperless first? More than 50 percent of you started the process with Accounts Payable followed by 25 percent who are circulating and archiving non-STO documents such as Bids, Qualification Documentation and Leases. Moving Project Management to a “paperless” process was a popular third, followed by General Ledger closings and Accounts Receivable. Users offered some terrific examples of electronic archiving, along with the benefits. “Paperless invoicing is the best! No more trading phone calls – they respond with e-mail questions and we get paid quicker,” offered one user. Another remarked, “Being able to look at the actual invoice, rather than going back to whoever coded and trying to ask questions is just so much easier.”

Most TUG members invested in a third-party solution to assist with the paperless process. My Assistant led the pack in this year’s survey, with a full 40 percent of the respondents taking advantage of its

integrated e-mail and tracking abilities. Other winners include automated invoice processing systems, such as Construction Imaging and MICR check printing, and EFT solutions like Create-a-Check. “I hope Sage brings EFT and ACH online soon,” quipped one user. “That would be a boat load of paper gone.” Automating outgoing invoices took hold this year as well, with 26 percent having implemented solutions as opposed to only 16

percent last year. Other third-party software included a variety of third-party timesheet and HR solutions, PDF printer software and using the fully featured Adobe Acrobat to manipulate PDF files.

When asked if users had adopted a “Document Management” system to organize their documents, the split was even with 49.5 percent answering affirmatively while 50.5 percent hadn’t yet made that leap.

ANNUAL PAPERLESSOFFICE ISSUE

October 2012 News and Information for Users of Sage Timberline Office Software

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the TUG PulsePublished by the

Timberline Users Group, Inc.and sent to all members.

Board of DirectorsTim Cooke, President

Scott Bishop, Vice President

Sharon Hessong, Treasurer

Jon Banse, Secretary

Matt Weaver, Past President

Donald Bannister

Janice Barnard

Alan Cusson

Barbara Morse

Michael Suhovecky

Marlene Williams

Lenni M. Witt

Publications CommitteeNatalie Allen

Jon Banse

Sharon Hessong

Tom Love

Liz Perez-Lavin

Val Steffen

Eire Stewart

Timberline Users Group3525 Piedmont Road

Building Five, Suite 300

Atlanta, GA 30305

e-mail: [email protected]

Phone: 404.760.8171

Fax: 404.240.0998Toll Free: 866.846.0999

[email protected]

Web Sitewww.TUGweb.com

Delivery of reports is always an issue, but automation can help here as well. Although 50 percent of our members still deliver the bulk of their reports in printed form, the other 50 percent are using features such as My Assistant, Sage Timberline Office’s “Send” feature or, the old fashion way, as e-mail attachments.

Going paperless can have tremendous positive impact. In rating the three biggest impacts that going paperless has, a full 70 percent cited quicker retrieval of information. “What used to be 10-minute search for a file is now a 30-second browse.” said one user. Forty-four percent found improved communication and accountability to be another advantage, while nearly the same number also found better archiving procedures to be a benefit. Reduced workflow and savings in storage costs and space were other popular impacts, each garnering a third of the votes.

Users have a long list of New Year’s resolutions for a paperless environment in 2013. Cites one user as her first goal, “Continue moving forward and showing value for the investment.” While another said, “I want to push our vendors to get on board. We need the invoices to be submitted electronically!” Other suggestions include:

• Stopprintingandthenscanning–get everyone on board to print directly to PDF.• Betterpoliciesandarchivingprocedures.• FullyexploreeverythingthatMyAssistant can do.• Installatimecardreportingsystem.• PaperlessJournalEntriessincesomany of them rely on electronic support.• InstallationofanFTPsiteforsharingof documents outside our network.• Lessmailingofthingsthatcouldbe e-mailed.• Expanddocumentmanagement beyond AP.

Observed one respondent, “The old guys hold on to paper. The new guys trust technology. We need to bridge the gap.” Doing so means getting buy-in from management. “I make sure that I brag about the savings we are realizing and the ease of contract retrieval,” said one savvy user. “It buys me cred when I want to implement the next step.” Will 2013 take you closer to a paperless office?

News and Information for Users of Sage Timberline Office Software

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October 2012

Paperless Office Tip – Print to File in Sage Timberline Office

A quick and easy way to reduce your paper output in half is by setting Sage Timberline Office to automatically “Print to file.” No one likes to file, right?

1. In any module or TS-Main, go to Tools-Customize. In the Sage Desktop go to Tasks-Sage Timberline Office-Common Tasks- Tools-Customize. The General tab will open up and the third item down is “Print to file.” Check the box and then click “OK” to exit out.

2. Now, when you close out of AP-Enter Invoices, JC-Enter Estimates or print a report from the Reports menu, you will be prompted to enter a file name. The system automatically starts in the Printouts folder within your Timberline folder. I set up a simple file structure to keep track of all the files. I created a folder for the current year (and would then start a new year in January). I then created a folder for each module. Within each module I created a folder for each task done in that module. When I saved a log, I gave it the current date and my initials (every user should do this, that way you can distinguish between each operator’s files). If I happened to have multiple logs for the same task in a day, I just added B, C or D as needed.

Example: 2007AP Enter Invoices 091707SKH.prn 091707SKHb.prn Change Invoices Print Checks Record Manual Checks Etc.

3. If you do not want to “Print to file” something (like a report), it’s easy to change the setting on the fly. Before hitting “Start,” click on “Printer Setup” and uncheck the box next to “Print to file.” Then, click “OK” and then click “Start” and your report will print out to the printer.

Final note: When entering the filename, you can also change the file type. I always change the file type to PDF because it’s easier to open later (don’t have to login to Timberline like you do to look at a PRN) and I can send them to other people if needed.

by: Sharon HessongReece Albert, Inc.


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Are You Getting the Full Value of Your TUG Membership?

Membership in TUG has countless benefits – from networking opportunities to resource centers designed to guide users to productive solutions. Some of these valuable benefits include:

• TUGWebAccess• MonthlyWebinarTrainingSessions• AnnualTUGNationalUsersConference• TUGTalkBulletinBoard• Reports&InquiriesLibrary• TemplatesLibrary• SageEnhancementRequests• VolunteerOpportunities• LocalChapters

Don’t miss out! Any questions regarding your membership, or any of these benefits, can be directed to the TUG office at: [email protected] or 866.846.0999.


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Timberline Sage 300 – Going Paperless and the Problem to SolveIf you think paper is free and technology is expensive, think again. Few are surprised anymore to learn that companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on supporting paper-based processes. The terms “going green,” “environmental citizenship” and “paperless” are synonymous with being a good steward for the world we all share, but what gets lost in the noise is that pushing mountains of paper around is hurting your business.

B&BContracting,aSurrey,BritishColumbia,heavyhighwaycontractorwith a skilled labor force and large equipment fleet, has maintained a leadership role in a very competitive civil construction market since 1948. One of their biggest challenges has been the mountain of forms required to be completed daily at the project sites to comply with safety and reporting regulations from Worksafe British Columbia (WCB).

JeffHorodyski,controlleratB&B,estimatesthat15to20formsarerequired to be filled out on any given site daily to comply with WCB. With 30 active crews, that’s 450 forms being filled out and processed on a daily basis. Multiplied over a year, that’s 75,000 to 100,000 forms to be processed, approved, and finally filed and stored away in storage boxes. There’s safety forms, pre-checks, hazard checks, toolbox checks (the list is a mile long!), vehicle checks, machine checks and so on.

“The regulatory agencies are putting a lot more burden on us as the employer,” Horodyski explains, “and the results of being fined for non-compliance with proper safety reporting would be more than simply inconvenient to the contractor.” In his words the fines are “severe.”

The problem is not just that the forms have to be filled out – “the foremen complain about this loudly every day” – it’s the number of times the forms have to be handled before they can finally be filed away. “The form is filled out and signed. A delivery person brings it back to the office, where it is sorted by one individual every morning, split up into piles, the accounting department touches them a couple of times, then construction management a couple more times, and then finally filed away,” Horodyski explains. You begin to get the picture.

Patrick Baker, president of Constructive Solutions, who consults and providesSageTimberlineOfficesystemstoB&B,addsthat“manyofthe construction companies we see are handling this purely by word

of mouth. These companies often don’t have formal systems in place, a lot is left to the control of the foreman and it really is not getting communicated back to the office.” Not a good situation to be in.

The Solution: Mobile Handheld Technology with Integration to Timberline and Sage 300The aforementioned WCB is already trying to help by providing a mobile app on Apple and Android that allows managers in the field to search and browse the OHS regulations, policies, guidelines and WCB standards on mobile devices. Many Sage partners provide additional products to provide different methods of data capture solutions on an array of devices and methods of entry.

Horodyski explains: “What started as a search simply to find a product to streamline our payroll and timekeeping processes and integrate to Timberline quickly turned into a much larger project paying infinitely higher dividends. It’s funny, as we started reviewing and considering AboutTime’s impact on our company as other issues came to our

Snowed Under an Avalanche of Paper – How One Company is Digging Out with Mobile Handheld Technology

by: J. Eric HammersmarkAboutTime Technologies, Sage Development Partner

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mind we found that other things were even more important than our payroll time. Taking lots of pictures on the site, attached to their field report, making proper traffic management plan notes all will benefit the company in far reaching ways.” They’ve been involved in legal cases over the years, sometimes dealing with an accident that has happened four years prior.

In addition to interfacing employee and equipment time records with Timberline, B&Bis incrediblyexcitedattheprospectsof the easy review, paperless storage, and practically unlimited search and reporting capabilities that AboutTime’s new FormsXPress module will bring. “Civil work has always meant that companies are behind in technology, very paper-based and slow toadopt technology.AtB&Bweare trying tobuckthat trend,” says Horodyski. “We’ve outfitted our foremen with smart phones, equipping them with time keeping technology and digital forms. We’re really trying to push our company and our field to new horizons.” They rolled out smart phones this spring and enabled mail and other tools for the foremen to use and have not looked back.

Their superintendents have been “thrilled” with the addition of smart phones. In the morning they can blast out 10 or 15 e-mails, giving the foremen directions for the day without having to call them and connect with them, sometimes even having to go on site to communicate. They can attach a drawing or a sketch as needed,

which is very useful. Even though reluctant at first, the old hands are coming along and adopting the technology.

B&B expects to go live with the new technology inOctober and plans to roll it out to all six of their divisions by spring of 2013.

With more than 900 clients and growing rapidly (over 100 that happen to be Sage Timberline Office users), AboutTime Technologies is gaining a reputation in construction technology as the best-

of-breed solution for paperless data capture and time reporting from the field. To see a demonstration

of AboutTime’s flagship product for employee and equipment time keeping or their new module, FormsXPress, contact AboutTime at 1.888.315.TIME (8463) or [email protected]. Alternatively, you can request a demo at www.AboutTimeTech.com.

NOVEMBER 2012Tuesday 11.6.12 1:00 p.m. ET PJ: PJ MEETING MINUTES

Thursday 11.8.12 2:00p.m.ET REALESTATECOMMITTEE&FORUM

Friday 11.9.12 1:00p.m.ET ESTIMATING:SPREADSHEETLAYOUTS&REPORTS

Friday 11.9.12 2:00 p.m. ET PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE MEETING

Tuesday 11.13.12 1:00p.m.ET PJ:PJDRAWINGLOGS&PJCUSTOMLOGS

Wednesday 11.14.12 2:00p.m.ET CONSTRUCTIONACCOUNTINGCOMMITTEE&FORUM

Tuesday 11.20.12 1:00 p.m. ET PJ: PJ FIELD REPORTS

Tuesday 11.27.12 1:00p.m.ET PJOPENFORUM:PJPROJECTMANAGEMENTTIPS&TRICKS

Wednesday 11.28.12 11:00a.m.ET ESTIMATINGCOMMITTEE&FORUM

To attend an online event, please e-mail attendee(s) name and e-mail address to [email protected]. You will receive an e-mail confirmation along with connection instructions once you are registered. These classes are free of charge and open to members only – one more benefit of belonging

to the Timberline Users Group! We are adding more sessions every day. Check the Online Event Calendar at TUGweb.com for an updated list. If you have any suggestions on sessions you would like to see, please e-mail [email protected].

TUG Online WebEx Training and Open Forums


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October 2012

Reducing your company’s carbon footprint is one reason for going paperless as it relates to processing your Payroll and Government forms. But, the real advantages are in the reduced risk and the

time and money savings to your business.

Did you know that the average cost for processing W-2s “in-house” can range between $3.85 and $4.35 per employee? Add to that the fines and penalties often times associated with a mistake – not to mention the extra work it takes to correct.

According to the 2010 IRS Data Book, over 25 percent of businesses experience a penalty for errors, late filings or other mistakes filing employee tax, averaging over $700 each year!

No matter what your company size, compliance to eFiling requirements, ever-changing forms and meeting new guidelines is difficult and opens you to significant fines and penalties.

Here’s the good news! With the year-end update for Sage Timberline Office (becoming Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate), guaranteed compliant state and government forms can be obtained electronically. The Federal Reporting and Quarterly Reporting submenu folders have been removed and forms are now access through the Task Menu.

The system will prompt you to download the most up-to-date form when you enter into the Aatrix Forms menu within Sage Timberline Office, thus eliminating the need for government form updates from Sage. For example, from the Payroll menu select: Tasks, State eFile and Reporting.

Next, the system does a compliance check to ensure the form you’ve selected is the most up-to-date. If not, the following message appears:

Once the update process is completed, simply launch the task again. For example, from the Payroll menu select: Tasks, State eFile and Reporting. Simply, select the State and the Report you’d like to generate.

For those of you who wish to continue to print and manually file your reports, there are no associated charges with this approach. However, you may choose to take advantage of the built-in integration and ability to eFile your payroll and government forms using the Aatrix* eFile Center.

If you’re interested in learning more about Aatrix eFile Services, visit one of the links below or contact your customer account manager at 800.858.7095.

• eFileUsingAatrixandSage300ConstructionRealEstate(access to a detailed website, including FAQs and pricing information) - https://partner.aatrix.com/index.php/sage300construction• StressingAboutKeepingUpwiththeEverChangingState and Federal Payroll Filing Requirements? (a 40-minute recorded presentation showing the eFiling process) – http://inter.viewcentral.com/events/cust/single_event. aspx?cid=best&pid=2&cbClass=6992

*Aatrix’s Electronic Forms Division has established itself as a leader in payroll tax forms, providing Electronic Payroll Reports and accounting integrated eFiling capabilities. In fact, as a result of partnering with more than 170 government agencies, Aatrix has been able to deliver built-in error checking capabilities that have resulted in less than 0.1 percent of Aatrix customers experiencing W-2 filing errors.

eFiling – More Than Just a Trend...an Essential Business Toolby: Vicki RobergeSage Software


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September 2012

The PremierPaperless Invoice Approval, Routing & Document Management System

Complete re-write using latest Microsoft development tools

Modern user interface

100% compatible with previous version of TimberScan

New user specific Dashboard thatprovides key A/P information andimmediate access to documentsresulting in both workflow and decision-making efficiencies

5 new trending reports that help toimprove productivity

Optional Capture module that readsinvoices and extracts data entryelements eliminating up to 90% of data entry

Advanced Image Management (AIM)module to handle ALL your documentmanagement (Available first quarter 2013)

Designed specifically for Sage 300 Construction & Real Estate formerly Sage Timberline Office

ANNOUNCING TimberScan version 3

914.244.4441 | core-assoc.comTimberScan® is a registered trademark of Core Associates, LLC


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October 2012

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While the consumption of paper has been on a steady decline in many aspects of our lives over the past several years, the goal of a paperless office remains an elusive dream, one that may not

be realized in our lifetimes. Indeed, an argument can be made that there will always be a role for paper in the office. Therefore, a more realistic goal is to take control of paper rather than having it control us.

Anyone who has been in an organization with a paper-based invoice entry and approval system is familiar with the problems and inefficiencies attendant with such a system. That is why in 2004 Core Associates created TimberScan to automate this process and overcome this tyranny of paper. Now that we have conquered the paperless approval process, we are expanding TimberScan to further reduce the need for paper by handling all document types with its Advance Image Management (AIM) module, available first quarter 2013. We are also planning to expand our program to support mobile and cloud technology. This month we are releasing TimberScan 3, which is a complete re-write of our software utilizing the latest Microsoft programming and development tools. TimberScan 3 is the culmination of more than two years work and we are very excited about the final product. We’ve added many innovations to give our clients more freedom from the tyranny of paper.

One exceptional innovation is our Dashboard. Traditionally, dashboards provide graphic links to data; click on an item and you get a report. We have taken the Dashboard to a whole new level by providing a graphic link to the document plus the data. With our system, the document is part of the equation and not an afterthought.

Our Dashboard is efficient and effective because it enables users to view data graphically and then easily find pertinent documents. It’s designed to be user-specific utilizing various widgets for data entry operators, approvers and managers. Here is how it works:

Data Entry WidgetOne of the challenges of data entry is being able to prioritize invoices by importance. With paper invoices you have to flip to each page to get to the required document. Our Data Entry Widget makes this task much easier.

It allows users to sort through all invoices and select the ones they want to process first, like flipping through albums in iTunes and creating a play list.

Widgets for Approvers and ManagersTypically, approvers have a folder of invoices that they flip through in order to select the ones they wish to approve. The Dashboard eliminates a lot of this flipping because it categorizes invoices by significance. For example, there are widgets that allow a folder of invoices to be viewed graphically by vendor, job, company, payment data, discount date and by the date the approver received the invoice. Managers can view all invoices in these categories or by specific approver or reviewers.

The various graphs have a hyperlink to the underlying images as well as data.

For example, selecting the red segment of the pie chart filters invoices that were assigned to the approver four or more weeks ago. By clicking on that segment, TimberScan displays thumbnails of all the invoices fitting that criterion. Hovering over a thumbnail image expands it for easy readability. The approver can approve individual invoices or all invoices with one keystroke. It’s easy to see how this tool increases productivity.

Freedom from the Tyranny of Paperby: Frank GrenciCore Associates


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Our Dashboard is a powerful and innovative productivity tool that helps our clients work smarter. Core Associates is focused on improving our existing software by continually innovating through new features, as well as new workflow automation products. Innovation is one of our core values with the aim of delivering higher value to our customers. There are many other examples of innovation in our latest release of TimberScan 3. To learn more, please visit our website and sign up for one of our weekly webinars at www.core-assoc.com.

Join TUG on December 6th for aDay-Long Webinar on Year End

Want to hone your year-end closing skills? Here’s a chance to learn from the experts what to archive and how. You can become confident about where specific information goes in the closing process, what fields are updated and why. Register today for this six-hour Webinar event, which will be offered in one-hour installments over the course of the day on Thursday, December 6, 2012.

Last year’s event, TUG’s second annual, was an astounding success! Over 170 TUG members registered for a total of 588 hours of free education. As if that weren’t enough, even more actually attended with co-workers sharing desktops to get in on the opportunity. PLEASE NOTE: Each one-hour module is limited to the first 100 users that register. Mix and match! Attend only the sessions that apply to you or have individual staff members attend those modules that they work with. Kick off the holiday season with TUG’s gift to you and register today.

Thursday, December 6, 2012*

11:00 a.m. – Accounts Payable – Lenni Witt12:00 p.m. – Accounts Receivable – Pam Daly1:00 p.m. – Job Cost/Project Management – Pam Daly2:00 p.m. – General Ledger/Cash Management – Lenni Witt3:00 p.m. – Property Management – Eire Stewart4:00 p.m. – Payroll – Kathy Lewis*All times are Eastern Time.

Webinars on each module will cover:

• Theessentialstepspriortoprocessinganyinformationfor the following year.• Preparingfilespriortoclose,includingbackingupand data checking procedures.• Printingyear-endreportsandanygovernmentforms,such as 1099s and W2s.• Thechangesthataremadeinthesystemwhentheyear- end process is run. This will include fields populated in the Master file records.• Archivingandhistoryprocessestokeepyourdatafiles at a manageable size while retaining the ability to retrieve information.

Take advantage of this unique opportunity to groom your year-end skills by attending one, two or TUG’s entire Year-End Webinar event.

To register, please e-mail attendee name, e-mail address and which session(s) to [email protected]. You will need to enroll for each module you want to attend. You will receive an e-mail confirmation along with connection instructions once you are registered. Questions? Please contact the TUG office at [email protected] or 404.760.8171.


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Without digital workflow processes to replace paper, going paperless is a reckless thing to do. And, if you go

paperless just to save paper, you’re nuts.

That sounds counter intuitive, even crazy. After all, who’d go paperless for any other reason than to save the trees and forests?

But going paperless can be a reckless decision, if that is your only goal. Let me explain: Paper is nothing more than a means of information conveyance and information storage. It’s been a very effective one, reaching back eons. So, any lasting change to our habit of using paper for conveying and storing information has to be done by replacing paper with a practice that’s more effective, more convenient and less costly to operate.

Have we found that new conveyance/storage method? We certainly have, and it’s the digitizing of information. Information can be digitized for communication, storage and retrieval with frightening ease, at costs nearing zero dollars per byte.

In the home building industry, where BuilderMT sells workflow software and implements Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate (formally Sage Timberline Office or STO), the culture has been heavily dependent on the use of paper until only recently. In fact, the home building industry was slow to adopt digital solutions, even as paperless processes were sweeping through industries like medicine, insurance and banking. Documents required for closing a home (HUD statements, mortgage binders, warranties, users manuals, etc.) were probably responsible for killing more trees than the country’s largest newspapers. And, that’s to say nothing of all the paperwork that was printed out when a house was under construction, e.g. invoices, work orders, purchase orders, change orders, warranty

booklet and delivery tickets, along with the marketing brochures that home builders depended on to show off their products.

Well, that’s all changing now. But, it’s not changing because someone wanted to save the forests, even though that is a beneficial consequence. The home building industry is going paperless because paper has been replaced by digital devices. Sure, the home builders who use BuilderMT, Sage 300 and our allied partners use iPads and we are very much part of the so-called “iPad iNvasion.” But, long before iPads started showing up, BuilderMT and Sage 300 were part of a digital revolution that has created a seamless digital user experience for the various trades that access data essential for the efficient construction of homes.

Take Logan Homes for example, which runs BuilderMT and Sage software, along with Sales Simplicity, a popular sales automation system. Today, Logan Homes builds in seven communities in the Carolinas, and it will start an average of 12 homes each month (150

starts in 2013, a $45,000,000 business!), putting the company squarely in the ranks of Top 200 home builders nationally. As an indicator of its efficient operations, Logan Homes consistently nets a 10- to 12-percent margin on these homes, making the company among the most successful and profitable builders in the country.

With a staff of just 15 people in operations, how does Logan Homes build 150 homes? Well, they don’t do it by printing out all of their work orders, purchase orders and invoices. In fact, Logan Homes has led the way in digitizing nearly every aspect of their operations, and that has unquestionably contributed to its record-setting 10- to 12-percent margins (which can run as low as three to five percent, or even lower, for less sophisticated builders).

For instance, in its options selection process, where Logan Homes allows prospects to customize their new homes, the company has a truly innovative, paperless process that

Don’t Go Paperless...Just to Save Paperby: Tom Gebes

BuilderMT

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Faxing in paper timecards and recording daily logs in a paper logbook are two major culprits of using manual paper

processes in the field.

What are Field Reports?hh2 Field Reports allows your field staff to record the events on the job (weather, subcontractors, material deliveries, etc.) right on their computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone. Instead of keeping a log book that has legibility issues, is prone to damage and has limited value in legal battles due to

the ease at which paper documents can be forged, hh2 Field Reports lets you have the daily log available to your field and office staff, is free from legibility problems, and each entry is date and time stamped for legal authenticity.

This solution is made exclusively for Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate and it imports automatically into Sage 300’s Project Management module. Not only will this eliminate the clutter at the job trailer, but now the log can be more readily used by Project Managers to resolve disputes or even monitor the daily happenings at the jobsite.

On tablets and smartphones, hh2 Field Reports can even do voice transcription, so that your field supervisor doesn’t have to be an excellent typist.

For a limited time, hh2 Field Reports is available at no charge (normally $1,500+) and with six months of usage absolutely free. At the end of six months you’ll start getting billed the normal monthly rate, starting at just $25 dollars a month!

What About Remote Time Entry? Paper timesheets are

typically filled out by hand. Handwriting causes its own legibility problems, but when you compound that by scanning or faxing it, it really gets hard to read.

Also, the data has to be recorded twice: first by the field employee; and second by the payroll staff. No one is perfect and typing in timesheets is not only a waste of time and money, it is error prone.

Another problem is that you cannot control what someone writes on paper. If there is a cost code the field staff thinks should be there, they will just write it in. But, there might be a reason that code doesn’t exist.

And, finally, there is no way to know for sure who filled out the timecard and when they did it. This leaves your company open to possibilities of abuse. Timecards can be forged or tampered with before your payroll staff even sees it.

All this can be avoided using hh2 Remote Payroll, a mature, cloud-based offering that won the 2012 Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate Third Party Solution of the Year, and completely eliminates the need for paper.

How Does it Work?When you sign up with hh2 Web Services, we install a synchronization client on your Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate server and all your employees, jobs, cost codes, pay IDs, etc., are synced up to our servers in the cloud. When your employees log their time or your

Paperless Payroll and Free Field Reports in the Cloud

ties Sage, BuilderMT and Sales Simplicity with a 3D CAD design center. Instead of working with pencils on drawn house plans, Logan has a seamless digital connection between its virtual home design center and its estimating systems, which are integrated with Logan Homes’ vendor pricing. As a new home is customized on a screen, Logan Homes’ software systems are calculating, in real time, the running price of the new custom home. Once the options are locked

in, the digital purchase orders and work order are electronically delivered to all essential employees and subcontractors on a critical path basis, tied to the scheduling function in BuilderMT.

Gone are the days of office staff running around job sites tucking pieces of paper in windshields or mailing/faxing paper to subs and trades. Instead, the subs and trades and supervisors are checking their smartphones,

iPad and laptops to get the latest, always-current information.

Today, using BuilderMT and Sage 300, Logan Homes engages in a largely digital home building process, and the reams of paper that used to be so integral to operations are a thing of the past. You see, we want to save the trees for what they are really meant for – building houses.

by: Devon Dorrityhh2 Web Services

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October 2012

supervisors record it for them, they just use their computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone to enter it.

The time then travels through a customizable, electronic approval process before it is displayed on the web to your payroll administrator. They can then go through time, read comments and make sure it is complete. Finally, they import it through Sage 300’s import time feature.

When your daily or weekly payroll is handled this way, time is only entered once, you don’t have handwriting legibility to deal with, you have absolute control over which codes your employees have access to, and you know the exact date and time that every employee recorded their time.

What’s more is that hh2 Remote Payroll is a field-hardened product that has been used by construction companies for over 12 years. Yet, our latest 2012 version is made from scratch using the most advanced technology available today. We have advanced features that have

evolved from over a decade of real-world usage. Since hh2 Web Services is made exclusively for Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate, we support all of the custom configurations that Sage 300 might be set up with, including: multiple data folders; multiple master files; or renamed master files.

We have experience in setting up construction companies of all sizes. Whether you have 10 employees or a thousand, we have a polished, elegant solution that fits your budget.

How Much Does it Cost?We bill our hh2 Remote Payroll customers on a monthly basis based on the number of employees you enter payroll for each month. If you scale down during the winter, it’s no problem. hh2 Remote Payroll scales with you and you’ll pay less. After an initial setup fee, our service starts at just $48 per month for up

to 25 employees and the price per employee goes down from there. Go to www.hh2.com for detailed pricing.

hh2 Web Services also has solutions for Service Management and Human Resources, both of which move you one step closer to a paperless environment. Call us at 1.877.442.9327 or visit us online at www.hh2.com to schedule a personalized demonstration.

Plans are well underway to bring you a rip-roaring good time, so saddle up and join us for four days of non-stop educational sessions, hands-on labs, roundtable discussions, third-

party exhibits and lots of networking, not to mention the down-home feel of Texas.

2013 TUG National Users ConferenceMay 14-17, 2013

SAVE THE DATE

Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center | Grapevine, Texas

November 2010News and Information for Users of Sage Timberline Office Software

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Estimators leaving the 2010 TUG National Conference took along many new ideas that will make a huge difference in their daily work lives. We asked a few estimators what they considgineers, architects) as estimators see them.

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Compiled by Jon K. Banse, LEED AP, CPESeedorff Masonry, Inc.


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October 2012

Document Management Issues Solvedby: Jason Burg

Construction Imaging

As any busy contractor knows, when a company is growing fast, the piles of pa-per documents start growing, too. West

Coast general contractor BNBuilders has ex-perienced this scenario in a big way and the company’s information manager, Brendon Ressler, took some time to explain how imple-menting an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solution by Construction Imaging solved their document management issues.

The ProblemBNBuilders was growing fast with large proj-ects taking place in a number of states simul-taneously. Not only did they have to open new offices to better oversee these projects, they had to figure out a way to manage the in-creasing load of invoices, e-mails, timesheets and other important documents that were piling up. “Manila envelopes full of invoices were ending up in drawers and inevitably getting ‘lost.’ We needed a better way to route and distribute our documents – our workflow needed help,” explained Ressler. “We were also look-ing for a better way to get labor into the ERP system to both eliminate manual entry and reduce data entry er-rors, and, most importantly, we wanted something that was easy for our employees to use.”

The Solution BNBuilders originally tried using the docu-ment management system offered by their ERP accounting/project management soft-ware provider, but quickly found out it wasn’t providing all the efficiencies they hoped to achieve. Ressler added, “We tried their solu-tion, but it just didn’t meet our needs so after

previewing several systems we ended up im-plementing Construction Imaging in 2009.”

When asked about the implementation pro-cess Ressler said, “The implementation of Construction Imaging exceeded my expec-tations. It only took 60 days and everything went very smoothly. Our users immediately acknowledged the improved workflow and the efficiencies were quickly apparent to management, as well.” He concluded, “The integration with our ERP software was seam-less, which contributed significantly to the ease of implementation.”

The ResultsBNBuilders has taken advantage of the ben-efits provided by Construction Imaging by gaining efficiencies in the routing and distri-bution of documents. Along with a dramati-

cally improved workflow, the company has experienced productivity increases and time savings, as well. Ressler explained, “Scan-ning our invoices gave us the ability to im-prove the accuracy of approval process and greatly reduce entry errors.” When it came to time keeping in the field, Ressler described the advantages gained with Construction Imaging by using timesheets created using the Formatta electronic forms product. “We were getting a bunch of spreadsheets from

the field, so we asked Construction Imaging to build a Formatta timesheet that the users in the field could access to enter and sub-mit time on a local machine.” He continued, “Since Formatta is tied to our ERP system using the existing Construction Imaging inte-grations, our users have all our ERP job infor-mation available in lookups, and our payroll people can bring up all the employee time, see the entered hours and automatically im-port the data to payroll, eliminating a lot of hand keying and speeding up the processing significantly.”

SupportAbove and beyond the capabilities of the Construction Imaging product, Ressler has been extremely pleased with the support and service he has received from the Construc-tion Imaging team. He concluded, “A major

factor in Construction Imaging’s success with us has been the relationship with the people behind the product. Customer service has been stellar and we’ve been pleased to have such a great team to work with – we look forward to a continued strong relationship in the future.”

To learn more about BNBuilders, please call Bonnie Rappe at 800.333.3197 or visit, www.construction-imaging.com.


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October 2012

Real-Time Efficiency – Or, a Real-Life Story of a ProjectManager, a General Contractor and a Controller Embracing

the “Information Age” in Which We Live by: Ben WandSage Software

Does this sound familiar?John is a con-troller of a mid-size general contractor with six project managers who work on

projects over a broad area. The project man-agers visit the office every Friday to pick up weekly reports, summing up the status for the previous week’s work and sign their time cards.

The following Friday, when John runs the reports for his project managers, he notices that the demolition budget is nearly gone. When the project manager, Mitch, comes in for his reports, John asks him about it.

“We literally only have an hour on that left, so I’m not worried that we’ll be over by very much,” said Mitch. John raises his eyebrows and Mitch leaves with a stack of printouts.

Another week goes by and John is again looking at the weekly reports. He nearly spits out his coffee when he notices that the de-molition budget – the same line item that was nearly expended last week – is now more than 15 percent over budget.

“It took longer than we thought,” Mitch said. “Wednesday morning I looked for another cost code to bill the remaining couple hours on, but I couldn’t get the information when I needed it.”

John sighed. “This job is already too tight as it is. We need a way to get that information to you so we can hopefully make it up some-where else on the job.”

“I don’t have time to come to the office every day,” Mitch said.

time today, or it will push his schedule and then he’ll be over on that item, too. Now he can pull any of the thousands of Sage Timberline Office reports through his iPad and receive them at the job site, or where ever he needs them.

Mitch visits the office the following Friday, as usual. Although this time he doesn’t pick up any reports. He doesn’t need to.

“We’ll have to find a way to get you the reports while you’re at the project,” John replied.

John’s company, with a full implementation of Sage Timberline Office running and, with it, has access to thousands of reports. But, unless he can get that information into the hands of the people who can actually use it to impact efficien-cy and productivity, he wonders how ef-fective they really are.

As he ponders this, he notices Mitch’s iPad and remem-bers a recent e-mail from Sage. After a brief phone call and download, John is setting up his first project home page on Sage Construc-tion Anywhere. He sends each project manager an e-mail, with a link to their own project pages.

Monday morning, Mitch checks his e-mail while stand-ing in line for cof-fee and opens his project home page on Sage Construction Anywhere. Within minutes, he pulls up the latest Job Overview report for his next job, and sees that he has to make sure that he makes sure the electricians show up on

ANNUAL PAPERLESS Survey Shows More Users …...News and Information for Users of Sage Timberline...

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