One issue facing many companies across the landscaping industry is growth that grows beyond the bandwidth of what you can provide. This is a good problem to have– growth is fundamental to a healthy business, and landscape management is no exception– but it is a problem that needs to be solved nonetheless. Demand for your landscaping services can outpace your supply of manpower, antiquated paper files can get stacked in the corner pile into Mount Slushmore, manually creating and logging invoices waste too much of your day, and so on and so on until you lose momentum from sheer inefficiency.
Much like how growing weeds must be tended to, the right landscape management software tends to your growing business. Here’s four ways landscape management software can help manage your business.
1. It Can Save You Time
I’d like to engage in a little thought experiment, designed by the fine folks at Greenius. Think about what you pay your workers or yourself per hour. Calculate what that adds up to. Now think about how long it takes for the average employee to complete tasks like estimating, invoicing, customer relationship management, scheduling, and training. This might seem like making a mountain out of a molehill, but once you tally the inefficiencies and account for the typical rate of human error that accompanies each of these tasks, that molehill starts to get pretty big.
With a decent landscape management software system, time-consuming busywork that would otherwise cost your business hundreds of hours annually is condensed into a simple, easy to use interface that displays everything you need within just a few clicks.
2. Software Eliminates The Guesswork
One of the trickier parts of landscape management is knowing the right estimate to give to a client. According to Joanne Bratton from Aspire, “Most companies underestimate their job costs by at least 1%. Combined with underestimating labor per hour by only 50 cents, that translates into $48,000 in lost revenue for a $3 million landscaping company.” Ouch.
Luckily, most landscape management software provides estimating tools that can take away the guesswork from landscaping quotes and help create consistent, profitable quotes. The beauty of having estimating features built into a landscape management software system is that you can customize them to your liking, adjusting for a job’s length and complexity; if that stump looks clingier than your crew is used to dealing with, all it takes is a single click to fetch you a more realistic estimate.
3. Easy-To-Use Software Works On ALL Levels For ALL Skillsets
Landscape management software that offers a full suite of features has something for everyone at your company, including inventory management, CRM software, scheduling software, supply chain software, integrated accounting, and project management. Now you might be thinking, “That’s a lot of features. I bet I’ll be roped in to buying a whole bunch of other software, and I’ll never be able to keep track of them all :(“. That’s where you’re wrong, hypothetical you.
The best landscape management software systemsare all-in-one services, meaning you and your employees will only ever have to pay for and learn a grand total of one software. They are designed for combining simplicity of use and coherent features, so if your company hires chimpanzees, I’m sure they could get used to the landscape management software, too.
4. Automated Technology Can Help You Work Smarter, Not Harder
The online nature of landscape management software means that technology can do the work for you. For example, an accounting software built into a landscape management software will digitally store and automatically organize your expenses for you. At a glance, you will know what your business earns and costs, and all it took was the right technology.
Furthermore, you can automate as many or as few processes as you choose. Integrated accounting means your software can automatically send out invoices and reminders for invoices, late payment reminders and fees, and even bill your client’s credit card in seconds. Tedious tasks suddenly disappear as software takes care of them, enabling your employees to do things a computer can’t—namely, landscaping.. Of course, everything is customizable, so you can automate as much or as little of your business as you’d like.
It can be tough to find a practical, simple, and affordable software solution for your landscaping business. Some software can seem as cluttered and random as the weeds you’ve been hired to pull out. Keeping track of inventory, searching for documents, and managing accounting can be arduous chores if your current software system doesn’t have the right features, or if you’re using a bunch of disconnected and inefficient software solutions.
Pruning the garden of your software and technology stack, so to speak, is just as important as the pruning you do for your customers. In fact, it’s this kind of pruning that needs to be taken care of before any of the physical weeds can be removed. Here’s a list of do’s and don’ts for what to look for in the landscape management software you depend on to be efficient and competitive as a business.
DO automate as many daily tasks as possible.
This can include scheduling jobs, dispatching landscapers, online booking, and even managing invoices. The best landscape management software provides an all-in-one interface where everything and anything can be put into your computer system, saving your business time and money. Learn it, then love it.
DON’T rely on pencil and paper systems for your documentation.
“Creating estimates on paper gives more room for error, especially if more than one person at your landscaping company writes estimates. Without a centralized business software system, inaccurate and unprofitable estimates often result from:
Shortage of time.
Erroneous or repetitive manual calculations.
Inaccurate labor and materials costs.
Inconsistent proposals.
Lack of visibility into costs of past landscaping projects.”
Save some trees (and lots of time, money, and labor) by switching to a landscape service software! ERP software solutions are designed for easy and effective landscape and lawncare management that avoids these major pitfalls that come from not utilizing the best landscaping management software on the market. Combining accounting, CRM, project management, HR, operations, and more into one easy to use interface allows your business to take on more work and to better service the customers that you already have.
DO make the most of marketing.
A key service that landscape management software offers is the ability to launch automated email campaigns, raising brand awareness and netting more clients for your business.
DON’T ignore the full range of possibilities that your landscape management software brings to the table.
Look for a software that boasts a full suite of features from accounting to dispatching. Remember, every employee in your SME can make use of a landscape management software system, meaning executives, accountants, gardeners, architects, salespeople, and so on can streamline their workflows equally. Most of these software systems are available as an app, meaning your employees will be able to add customer and job information, estimates, photos, and service notes with just a few clicks.
DO try a free demo.
Budgets can be tight, and there are lots of different kinds of business management software out there, so look for a software that has a free trial period.
DON’T clutter your business with too many software systems that don’t work properly with one another.
Simplicity is key—one single, integrated software system that your entire business can run on is always more efficient (and cheaper) than using a bunch of systems to complete your work. The quicker and easier you can accomplish a task, the better your workflow will be. Landscape management software allows you to spend less time on back office things like accounting, inventory management, or rooting around for documents and more time making the decisions that matter. For your employees, it means more time spent in the garden!
For any growing business, an excellent software system is crucial. That applies to private mental health practices, too. Luckily, there are mental health services software systems that can increase the efficiency of your private practice, allowing it to easily expand all while maintaining HIPAA compliance. By improving the efficiency of patient care and improving the way that your practice organizes and safekeeps its data, by optimizing scheduling and making billing and accounting easier, mental health services software benefits both the practice and the patients.
Mental Health Software Creates a More Efficient Practice
The biggest advantage that mental health services software can bring to a growing practice is its ability to increase operational efficiency, which outperforms pen and paper by any standard metric.. One way in which mental health software increases efficiency is through data management.
Mental health services software makes data easier to update and is safely secured after each edit, so that your private practice remains HIPAA compliant and that confidentiality remains front and center. EHR (electronic health records) software allows multiple health organizations to update patient data facilitating communication between doctors. This way, doctors can have up to date information about the patients they treat and can provide the best support possible since they won’t have to worry about any logistical hiccups.
Mental health services software also provides organizational tools to facilitate patient focused work. Note taking templates, looking up DSM codes, and intake/outbound forms are just some of the functionalities that mental health services software provides.
Effortless Scheduling
Scheduling can be difficult enough on its own, and with an average of one in five Americans with mental health concerns who may be looking for professional help, the process can be made even more troublesome and complex. Mental health services software eases this demanding task with intuitive patient scheduling features.
Patient scheduling software optimizes front office work by allowing the schedule to be more easily adjusted based on both patient and doctor needs. Best of all, mental health services software systems include patient portals which can help your patients maintain easier lines of communication with practitioners. Not only can patient portals build better and more friendly relations with patients, they also assist with last minute scheduling changes or unforeseen mental health dilemmas so that your practice and your patients can quickly and effortlessly figure out the best path forward .
The scheduling feature of mental health services software has other benefits too. This feature can track patient attendance so that the doctors in your private practice know who attends in individual or group therapy sessions and make note of any potential changes that need to be made to better aid your patients. Patient scheduling software can also send out reminders to patients that their appointments are due so they can make sure their personal schedules are adjusted for the meeting, or call and reschedule if necessary.
Insurance and Billing
Although, arguably the most appealing feature of mental health services software is how it can help with billing and insurance claims. One of the more simple additions that mental health billing software provides is credit card processing so that your patients are given multiple options for paying. Patients can also receive receipts and invoices through mental health billing software so that they know how much they pay and your practice gets compensated for its services.
More importantly, mental health billing software simplifies insurance claims. With an estimated number of 907 insurance companies in 2017, each with their own policies and plans, submitting insurance claims can be frustrating and confusing from both the patient and practitioner end of the spectrum.
Mental health billing software assists in that process by allowing your doctors to submit insurance claims, ERA files and CMS-1500 forms with the software. Combining the ability to file insurance claims with patient portals enables your private practice to make sure that both you and your patients are both adequately taken care of.
Accounting
With billing features and insurance management already included in mental health billing software, it only makes sense then that the best mental health services software contains integrated accounting features. Your private practice is a business too, so your mental health software should include features that help the business facet of your growing practice in addition to all of the tools necessary for providing patients with the best care possible.
Accounting software will help process payments as well as secure your financial data, and make the process of accounting incredibly easier for your practice. The meticulous records kept within the integrated accounting system is sure to simplify insurance claims and increase efficiency. Above all, integrated accounting is altogether just cheaper for your practice. Instead of paying extra for an accounting software to work alongside your mental health services software system, simply find a mental health software with accounting integrated into the system. That way, your growing practice doesn’t have to pay for two (or more) software systems.
Mental Health Services Software – The Takeaway
Investing in a mental health services software is one of the best decisions you can make for your growing practice. With the increased efficiency that the software provides, your employees and doctors can focus on what truly matters, the patients and their mental health. And with how easy mental health software makes scheduling, billing, and accounting both your employees and patients will benefit from the simplified process.
For a long time, manufacturers have operated within the parameters of globalization as a necessary strategy for success in a worldwide marketplace.
What is the definition of globalization? According to the World Economic Forum, globalization can be defined in simple terms as “the process by which people and goods move easily across borders. Principally, it’s an economic concept – the integration of markets, trade, and investments with few barriers to slow the flow of products and services between nations.”
In manufacturing, globalization has long been a strategy. Because of this strategy, products produced in large factories in low-cost areas such as Asia have benefited consumers. Low costs for doing business have generated operational cost savings that have been transferred to end users. The volume of available products has also been a benefit to consumers.
Yet globalization may be moving past its prime in terms of effectiveness in the world of manufacturing. Labor pools are dwindling and costs of doing business continue to rise. There is a shift towards localization happening in manufacturing.
This shift provides economic opportunities for companies of all sizes and it’s changing how manufacturers are doing business. When you add automation into this shifting paradigm, it becomes even more effective.
In manufacturing, localization is having a network of smaller manufacturing facilities around the world rather than a few large production centers. Why is localization important in manufacturing? It allows manufacturers to be closer to where their customers are. With a localization strategy, large companies can still think globally but build locally. This is efficiently achieved through automation in the form of micro factories.
Microfactories are smaller factories that utilize automation rather than human labor, saving money while increasing the quality of production and consistency of output.
Normally, smaller factories serving regional markets would seem at odds with the goals of large companies with production centers. Through automation in the form of microfactories, however, large companies can effectively achieve localization strategies. This opens the door to lower costs, more efficient operations, and greater scope of use for manufacturers. It gives large companies the best of both worlds.
Microfactories have another added benefit in the world marketplace. They even the playing field because they make manufacturing more accessible to businesses that can’t afford massive manufacturing overhead but still have products to produce.
Small businesses looking to better utilize automation can now utilize the scale of manufacturing for their products without the overhead costs that exist in a global strategy. With machine automation and localization, and the cost efficiencies that accompany them, manufacturing becomes accessible to just about anyone.
There are many cost benefits to automation as it affects localization. But there are other benefits for manufacturers as well. Proximity to customers means businesses can be more in tune with customer wants and needs. Marketing plans can be geared towards a specific regional audience and campaigns can be responsive to what customers respond to.
Globalization is losing the impact it once had in a world where consumer demand for authenticity and affinity is steadily increasing. Automation, as a bridge for manufacturers, increases the ability for companies of all sizes to embrace localization and succeed in a rapidly changing marketplace.
Is your business prepared to grow by 50x in the near future?
The answer is yes—if you’re prepared. A profitable business model and hardworking employees are baseline requirements, but it takes more than that to push your business over the top—it takes an all-in-one business management software platform.
In the spirit of preparation, take a minute to assess what a 50x growth would logistically entail:
The list above is surely incomplete in terms of the new costs, challenges, and variables that come into play as a business grows.
Many of these challenges can be addressed by utilizing all-in-one business management software. It’s understandable that your first thought may be “I don’t need that, at least not yet.”
The key word? “Yet”. Though business management software can help businesses of all sizes, it’s absolutely imperative to organizations that are poised to expand their business. So, don’t be behind the 8-ball—here are 10 signs that it’s time for your business to enlist an all-in-one business management software solution.
1. When Growth Is Imminent
Growth is exciting. It can also be nerve-racking, stressful, and full of growing pains.
In a hopelessly-romantic, Hollywood-esque way, it can be easy to believe that growth will hit in one tsunami-like surge—a big “aha” moment, a mega-deal with a corporate giant, or an upward profit chart akin to the likes of Bitcoin.
Not featured on the big screen, however, is the groundwork that is laid slowly behind the scenes—years and years of trial and error, finding the right employees, and testing the waters of various markets.
Albeit slowly at first, growth can actually materialize in an instant—that marketing campaign you launched went viral thanks to some verified retweeters and suddenly, you’re fielding calls from what will end up being the largest accounts your business has ever managed.
The point here: growth is built slowly, but can unfold all at once. Don’t be unprepared for that moment. You’re confident in your business—be just as confident in your ability to produce results.
As the old adage goes, “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.” Look at business management software in the same light—invest in an ERP for the company you want to grow into, not for the company you are at this very moment.
2. When Customer Relationships Need More Attention
Customers are the backbone of your business. Attaining a loyal customer base is hard work—it’s easy to become wrapped up in the exuberance of an influx of new customers.
Before your customers are customers, they’re leads. Is your sales staff equipped to not only handle managing additional customer relationships, but the additional amount of fresh leads coming in?
Help your employees assess the profitability and priority of each opportunity with an automated sales funnel. With an influx of new leads and customers, you may think hiring additional sales staff is the answer. While that may be a step you want to take at some point, it’s important to focus first on maximizing the efficiency of your existing employees.
Some of the biggest benefits all-in-one business management software brings to growing businesses lie in its CRM processes.
Automating marketing campaigns, visual dashboards to track the entirety of your sales pipeline, instantaneous synchronicity with the rest of your finances, and customer feedback portals are some of the tools that can help you attract and retain a loyal customer base.
3. When You Find Yourself Making “Educated Guesses”
Going with your gut is a natural instinct. In the early days of your business, it was probably even profitable. Heck, you’ve probably made a gut decision today. But as your business grows, decisions will require more than just a hunch.
Data-driven decision-making (DDDM) will enhance your productivity and profitability across the board. Every business contains nuanced differences in its approach—analyzing the data that is relevant to your business is what counts.
ERP systems with customizable dashboards and report-generating functionality bring you the information you need to make an informed decision at a glance. Your business is unique—the business management software you choose needs to mold to your needs, not the other way around.
4. When Tedious Tasks Eat Up Your Day
Some days, work might not even feel like work. On other days, an hour might feel like a lifetime. The reality is that not every part of your job is thrilling—those mundane tasks you dread are often some of the most important (crunching numbers, taking inventory, etc.)
While these are important tasks, it’s just as important to not let yourself spend a disproportionate amount of time focusing on them.
Automation is the key to working smarter—automate the tasks that eat up your time, and use that time to focus on the bigger-picture goals that will help bring your business to the next level.
All-in-one business management software will help you do just that. From accounting to inventory to sales, many parts of the process don’t require immediate and constant attention.
Aside from automation, delegation is important, as well—monitoring the status of all assigned tasks without filling your inbox with unnecessary back-and-forth “confirmation clutter.”
5. When You’re Spending Too Much On IT Systems
Repair costs are a necessary evil. Laptops bear the brunt of coffee spillage, and interns overestimate how many monitors they can carry at once. It happens.
But what about the cost of non-accident-related expenditures? Software updates, new servers, and backups for those can chew up a budget very quickly.
With cloud computing, you’ll be able to exert more control over your finances. A cloud-based ERP removes the need for excessive hardware spending, costly software upgrades, and backup costs. All of these needs are handled off-site—and at a flat, fixed, predictable rate—so that you can focus on your business, not the tech behind it.
6. When You Need To Double Down On Regulatory Compliance
Regardless of the industry you operate in, you most likely have someone in your organization tasked with monitoring compliance. Whether you’re a manufacturer, contractor, consultant, or educator, rules are rules—and it pays to follow them.
Most of the work of a compliance manager will come in the form of keeping track of documents and ensuring on-site traceability. Checking off boxes may seem mundane, but it’s arguably the most important part of the job.
Another example, construction managers are responsible for overseeing the safety of their crew and all associated subcontractors. Before the job begins, OSHA compliance needs to be taken care of. If these certifications and qualifications are not met, it could set a problematic ripple effect in motion—delays in compliance could cause a project to go over budget and disrupt your timeline for other jobs (including the schedules of your subcontractors). A bid could also be lost outright due to a lack of compliance, causing an unpleasant impact on your bottom line as well as negatively impacting the trust your employees and subcontractors have in you.
In short, it pays to stay on top of regulatory measures by keeping all pertinent documents in one centralized, easily accessible location.
7. When You Need To Back Up Your Data
These days, data security isn’t solely the responsibility of your tech-savvy staff—it’s everyone’s job. Having a data security infrastructure in place is key, and probably something you already do to some degree. But how much of your data is backed up? And more importantly, where and how?
If you are not currently leveraging any ERP solutions, the odds are your data is not sufficiently backed up. Sure, you may have redundancy measures in place on your local system, but more can be done.
In 2021, global cybercrime damage costs around $190,000 per second. Cybercriminals are everywhere and are unrelenting in their efforts to undermine legitimate businesses. If your data is stored in a singular, localized location, you may think it’s safer. But in all reality, this is not the case. If this one data center is breached, your systems will cease to function.
By utilizing a cloud software system, your data is not only decentralized and duplicated across servers, it’s backed by world-class cybersecurity professionals. Sure, your computer’s firewall is great—but having that firewall and a cybersecurity infrastructure tailored to your business needs will prevent any malicious actors from disrupting your business.
8. When Working Remotely Isn’t Efficient
Remote work is here, and it probably isn’t going anywhere for quite some time. In many respects, that’s a good thing—workers are achieving higher productivity levels, both companies and employees are saving money, and every organization’s talent pool has gone global.
There are many prerequisites to achieving successful remote work habits. Deploying proper management strategies, project management techniques, and a new kind of HR department are some of the adjustments that need to be made. But the common theme here is what lies underneath the human-based element of successful remote adaptation: using better technology.
The right all-in-one business management software doesn’t just need to be able to crunch the numbers and track your inventory, it needs to enable your people to be more effective in their roles. Track the status of projects, customer leads, and even new hires all from one place.
If your employees are able to have a centralized location where they can both find all of their work-related data and chat with their co-workers, they’ll be able to be focused and efficient no matter where they’re working from.
9. When You’re Unsure Of Your Employees’ Day-To-Day Schedules
Managing is a tricky job. On one hand, you want to be actively involved in your employee’s work. Their success is often a reflection of yours. On the other, most managers are savvy enough to know that micromanagement is not typically a successful method.
If you’re unsure about what your employees are doing on a daily basis, that’s a problem. Now, you don’t want to go breathing down their necks and asking them what they’re up to every day—that wastes both your time and theirs. The answer lies in the middle.
While you and your employees almost certainly use some sort of calendar app, are these calendars synced? Do you have a uniform, master calendar to access?
Not only should you have access to a universal calendar, but you should also have access to all of the tasks and projects that your team is working on. Instead of sending a dreaded “Hello! Just circling back on the status of this project! Kind regards!” type email, look to your software system for the answers. This way, you and your employees can be less focused on updating each other through emails and chats and be more focused on producing high-quality work.
10. When You Can Tell Your Employees Are Stressed
Hearing employees complain is never easy, especially when it comes to things beyond your control. Sure, there are some things that you wish you could provide them, but not every request is feasible or grantable.
Duplicate data sets, missing files and links, incomplete financial records, chicken-scratch notes strewn across an office—all of these problems slow down employee productivity. Even if your employees don’t verbalize their complaints, read the room. Frustration bubbles to the surface in different ways for every individual, and some may be more prone to silence than outward voicing of complaints.
At fixed monthly payments with top-quality customer support included as part of the base package, an all-in-one ERP is a much better solution to employee complaints than to Frankenstein together with various software that may or may not communicate with each other.
The best part? Most top-quality software is free to use at first.
It’s Always The Right Time For All-In-One Business Management Software
No businesses are alike. Products, customers, strategies, and everything in between all vary to a large extent depending on your industry’s specific needs.
However, people are a lot alike—we are stronger when working as a unified, coordinated front, climbing towards a common goal. While it’s people that allow your business to be successful, it’s software that allows them to reach their full potential.
The world is becoming increasingly digital, synchronized, and competitive. Enlisting the right all-in-one business management software for your business will help you stay ahead of the curve.
The eternal struggle: finishing projects on time, within budget, and making sure they’re profitable. Even with project management software, a skilled manager, and a dynamite team all working within carefully structured tasks and deadlines, there are always obstacles.
Scopes change. Orders change. Members of your project team get sick and miss work. No matter what industry your organization works in, Murphy’s Law probably applies when it comes to projects.
The numbers speak for themselves. An article in Gallup notes, “A study by PricewaterhouseCoopers, which reviewed 10,640 projects from 200 companies in 30 countries and across various industries, found that only 2.5% of the companies successfully completed 100% of their projects.”
What about time and budget? Gallup notes that a study by Harvard Business Review found that “average [project cost] overrun was 27%, but one in six projects had a cost overrun of 200% on average and a schedule overrun of almost 70%.”
That’s because projects, though varying in size and complexity, have a lot of moving parts. Finishing projects on time and within budget requires not only successful management of what’s known, but also having the agility to adapt to unknowns.
As with most organizational success factors, access to information is key. And the best way to access all of your company’s information at a glance? The best business managementERP.
Information, with respect to projects, isn’t just about who is working on what. In fact, many different kinds of data, from multiple sources within a company, comprise a project’s life cycle.
In this article, I’ll discuss what’s really involved in successful project management, the roles multi-divisional data play throughout project timelines, and how integrated software solutions go beyond the limitations of traditional project management software.
Project Tools: The Roundup
You can tell a lot about what’s popular in project management from some of the popular software products on the market. Gantt charts, task management systems, and agile team communication are all central to keeping your workforce aligned and aware of project status.
Indeed, consistency and efficiency in the way work is assigned, assessed, and communicated are all essential to project vitality.
But you’re not interested in just managing, right? You want projects to be profitable.
For more profitable projects, you need complete transparency, data access, and streamlined workflows. That means having a system robust enough to handle the complexity of each project stage.
Beyond Basic: Essential Project Management Tools
Any project management software worth the price tag must be able to cover the basics. But nearly every application does that.
Here are some of the necessary tools you should expect from your project management software.
Skill Management
Most projects require employees with special skills. But some are more specialized than others. From CPA services to someone certified to use specific machinery (a jackhammer, for example). Making sure you have the right person assigned to the right task is integral to project management.
However, those tools aren’t always included in typical project management software. You should be able to pull data from your HR division to give you more insight on which team members are best suited to project tasks.
Scheduling
When planning a project, you need to know who is available— and when they’re available. You also need to quickly see your team’s workload so you can properly schedule assignments.
But if your calendar isn’t connected to your project management software, you’re going to spend far too much time tracking down schedules and trying to make them fit into your project timeline. Having a dynamic, fully transparent scheduling tool can help you make sure you’ve accounted for every detail.
Time Off
You can’t easily schedule a project without easy access to employee time off. What if members of your project team are scheduled for vacation during a major deadline? Knowing that, and being able to make adjustments within the same software system, will prevent your projects from being delayed.
Order Management
As you’re planning your project, you’ll naturally ask yourself a version of the following questions: How much of the budget can we use on design? How much was approved by the customer for this construction labor?
No matter what industry you’re in, you want to make sure you don’t go over your budget. Having the visibility to see exactly what your customer ordered and approved will provide the details you need to allocate hours and resources on tasks and spending.
Communication and Visibility
There are many ways to communicate with your customers throughout a project’s lifecycle. But few of them are quick, simple, and built into the software you’re using. What if messages get lost, and you’re late replying to a customer?
Keeping your customers informed of their project status is the best way to limit risk and confusion. It’s also how you develop a good, long-term working relationship. In fact, if you’ve waited for your customer to inquire about a project, you’re probably not being proactive enough.
Having a customer portal allows your customers to see their project status without ever having to ask. They can also view messages, respond to them, and pay their invoices directly through the system. Customer portals provide a much cleaner way to communicate— you eliminate confusing email chains and the potential for missed messages.
Contract Management
Having the ability to upload a PDF contract is nice, but that’s a far cry from instant approval. Imagine submitting an order, having your contact review and approve it, sign it electronically, and store that information with the order and project.
There could be a great deal of interaction involved in getting orders approved. But there doesn’t have to be. With proper contract management software built into your system, you’ll easily be able to see what was ordered. You’ll also see whether (and when) the customer approved the order. All without the annoying back-and-forth.
Budget Commitments
A lot of project management software applications allow you to track your overall budget. But shouldn’t you really know how much money your customer approved for specific items, milestones, or project stages?
When you have integrated accounting and project management software, you’ll get a drill-down level of insight that’s very difficult to collect from separate applications. Seeing committed budgets in the form of invoices and line items can help you understand what has been paid for and plan for working hours to accommodate that payment.
Expense Tracking
Similar to your budget commitments, you should have the ability to track expenses down to specific levels of detail. For example: do you need to record expenses for specific job tools? Do you need to know how much you’re paying subcontracted labor?
Being able to track and bill for these expenses is a huge advantage in managing your project profitability.
You should also know when a customer paid for your service without them having to tell you. Closing a milestone is one thing, but being able to receive a payment against an invoice is entirely another. When you’re trying to understand how much income you’ve received, an integrated accounting and project management solution is essential.
Profitability Tracking
Understanding profitability isn’t just the core question: how much money did we make from this project? It can also give you insight about how (and whether) you should approach projects like it in the future. A good report can help make sure that no expense, billable time, or payment falls through the cracks.
In short, your profitability helps you make decisions about what’s working best for your company, and it gives you the data to understand why. It can help you learn from your mistakes, go after winning projects, and adjust your processes for the future.
A detailed profitability report needs to pull in your financial data, which is why a solution that integrates your accounting and project management functionality is ideal.
In short, your profitability helps you make decisions about what’s working best for your company, and it gives you the data to understand why. It can help you learn from your mistakes, so that your total expenses couldn’t harm your net income much, go after winning projects, and adjust your processes for the future.
Document Collaboration
Throughout the course of managing a project, you’re going to need easy, centralized access to documents. Whether you’re requesting a blueprint, compliance doc, or financial record, you should be able to access it in seconds.
Traditional project management software is unlikely to store all of the documentation you need to access your project information. And it’s not just a question of access. You’ll need to share documents with your team throughout the project timeline. Centralized document storage helps you make sure your team can stay on the same page as your project progresses.
Successful projects are both profitable and timely. To properly manage and account for every variable, you’ll need integrated resources that go beyond the limited scope of typical project management software.
Otherwise, you’re likely to spend half your time trying to track down information from accounting, human resources, sales, and whatever other sources of data comprise your projects. Being able to communicate within a single system that streamlines information is the best way to be completely in control of your projects.
When you’re evaluating management software, make sure you consider everything that affects the scope, profitability, and timeliness of your projects. When you find a solution that can account for all of them, you’ll know that you have chosen wisely.
