I am starting a construction business now that I hope blossoms to a medium-sized custom home and remodeling business. In order to be seen as professional, I know that I need to look and feel professional, including my paperwork.
What software to you home builder use that looks and feels professional without spending thousands of dollars? There are some fine ones for $50 that do the job, but the honestly don’t look professional.
What do you guys use?
Replies
Try MYOB for accounting. It has won many awards and works on both Windows and Mac. I have used it for 15 years and haven't had any regrets.
Intuit's Quickbooks Pro. Retails for ~$350. I think they just came out with v. 2007, but you can probably find v. 2006 on Ebay (or elsewhere) for less than $100. This is excellent accounting software that can generate proposals, invoices, work orders, track expenses, and generate just about any kind of business report that you can imagine. Lots of trade guys use it around here.
I am sure these are fine, but I was hoping for software that was both estimating and accounting, so that all of my numbers could talk together.
The answer is still quickboocks pro.
Unless your looking for a combo package like a design build type software that gives you a materials estimate. I haven't found a package like that I consider affordable but I have Chief Architect and QB PRemier Contractor. For a total layout of less than $2000.
Being an accountant, I would say that most of our small-business clients use Simply Accounting. I live in Canada, so I'm not sure if it's available in the US or not. I have a few clients who use Quickbooks and I find Simply Acct. to be more user-friendly, etc. Also, a specific client had a problem with Quickbooks where things were being posted to a previous (and closed) year which really screwed things up.
As far as the estimating talking to the accounting that one's going to be tough I would think. Most companies either have very customized software, or just use two seperate programs. I think you can build in a job cost system into Simply, but I'm not positive. A job cost system could accomplish most of what you want b/c it would keep track of costs per job, vs. budget, etc.
Just my 2 cents from the "other" (i.e. accounting) side of it. Good luck.