Forms for Field and Office Reporting in Excel, Word, Acrobat or ??

How many times in a day or week do you complete the same report or form by hand?  Are you still doing transmittals, fax cover sheets, daily reports, safety logs, submittal logs, etc. by hand on copied forms?

If you are still doing them by hand every time you need to send a fax, send plans or complete a daily report, you need to reconsider the use of technology in your office.

Automating common tasks and using fillable forms for your repetitive tasks will make your life easier.  Whether you are using Acrobat, Word or Excel or any other program like these, you can automate your routine forms and tasks to make life easier.

Every company that I have worked with, I have automated as many tasks as possible including labor burden calculations, WIP, daily reports, fax cover sheets, transmittals, submittal logs, change order logs, lien logs, and many other forms.

Making your employee's work smarter and not harder should be at the top of your list of priorities -- it will make your company run smoother and more profitable since you are not paying them to repeat the same task over and over by hand.  It will also keep your projects more organized as long as you have policy and procedure manuals in place and your employees are following the procedures.

Take the time to get things organized now before it gets too busy again (a good thing) and these important things go by the wayside.  I have many, many forms that I have created over the years and can help if you need it.  Check out my book and you will see some of the things that I have made easier by automation.  

PS: One of my all time favorite programs is Excel :)  I have created very complex spreadsheets in Excel.

Get automated today !

Charlene S. Reed
www.MyConstructionOffice.com

Job Cost Variance Reports for Projects

Are you using Excel spreadsheets to track your projects or do you use one of the software programs to do this?  I've used Timberline for years and love it and have worked with many standard and customized reports, but what about the new start up companies?  The companies that can't yet afford the good programs?  What do they do?

Do you know what your job profit is on your projects at a glance?  Do you have a way of getting a report that tells you where your projects are at any given time?

What about costs to complete, owner change order status, subcontractor change order status and commitments that are outstanding?  The small details on projects can impact your bottom line and can get out of control quickly if they are not properly tracked.  

Whether you are a subcontractor or general contractor, you need to track your jobs and all the details carefully.  You should be able to track your labor hours against your estimate as well as your committed costs to subcontractors and suppliers.

Variance reports are a great tool to track your job progress.  Knowing the profitability of a project or where you are running tight makes a world of difference in your bottom line.  It's the difference between making money and enjoying the art of construction and just breaking even or losing money.

I have created many spreadsheets for all types of contractors to track job costs, labor hours (burdened and unburdened), job schedule progress, payment applications, break even calculations, and am currently working on a dashboard report in Excel to help contractors track all their projects.

You need to know where your projects are at all times -- what would help you, what do you look at to get your job cost variance reports?  

Charlene S. Reed, Owner/Author

"Construction Administration Handbook"

www.MyConstructionOffice.com

Year End Planning -- Have You Taken Care of This?

Year end is almost here -- I know you probably don't want the number of days counting down to then so I will spare you of that, however, I will not spare you of the list of things that you need to prepare prior to year end.  

There are a number of things that you need to consider prior to year end such as:

• Funding your retirement plans for yourself and your employees ( or planning to meet the deadlines that will be here before you know it),
• Tax planning meeting with your CPA and management team,
• Setting up your budgets and forecasts for next year including your budget vs actual spreadsheets (or in your accounting program),
• Updating all of your software for year end W-2's, 
• Gathering any missing information to generate 1099's,
• Update all equipment and depreciation lists, making sure all additions and deletions are noted and all back up including purchase and sales receipts are copied for your accountant,
• Set up new files for vendors and accounting tasks for 2013,
• Forecasting for projects - both existing and in the pipeline,
• Make copies of all new leases (including equipment, property and vehicles),
• Review tax law changes coming in 2013 that will affect your company in the coming year and discuss how these will impact your bottom line, and what you can do to maximize your deductions now versus  waiting,
• Discuss any distributions from the company with your CPA to determine timing for your personal/company tax situation
• Make tax deposits for estimated tax deposits prior to year end on the advice of your CPA.

As you can see, there are lots of things you need to sit down with your accountant and your management team on and make sure everyone understands the tasks that each will need to complete prior to year end and others that will need to happen soon after year end.

Everyone should leave the meeting with a clear understanding of time frames for all items of business and another meeting should be planned just prior to year end to make sure these items were completed/are on schedule to be completed by their respective deadlines.

Please let me know the items that I have left off this list.  Share those items so that we can all benefit from the collective knowledge .  Your feedback and input is very much appreciated.

Thank you,

Charlene S. Reed

www.MyConstructionOffice.com

One Page Report/Dashboard To Keep You Up-to-Date

If you could have a one page Excel report or dashboard that showed you all of your information at a glance, that was up to date all the time, what kind of information would you want to see on it?

Would you like to see things that were dealing with the field, the office or both?  What are the things that you want to see on one master report?  Would it be:

• Current bank balances in all accounts
• Outstanding checks and deposits
• Accounts Receivables aging
• Accounts Payable aging
• Work in Process
• Status of Contracts (Field Reports)
• Subcontract status on projects
• Upcoming employee vacations
• Loan Balances
• Task lists with status

Think about this and give me some feedback.  Someone mentioned to me that they would like one that was geared towards contractors and I have a pretty good idea of what people would want but would also like feedback from you as to what you would like to see.

This would be an additional service that I would offer to you besides the book, consulting, sales tax and accounting.  You could have all field, all office or both on one spreadsheet.

Let me know what would help you out the most and I will work on developing it and hopefully having it ready by the end of the year.

Thank you for your input in advance.

Charlene S. Reed

Responsible Business Services

Setting Up A Job Numbering System

So you need to set up a job numbering system -- where do you start??  For your own sanity, you will want to set up a numbering system for your job files that makes sense to the people working with the files.  You will want to think about the numbering structure of your numbering system since you will be living with it for some time to come.  

You will want to think about the types of construction you will be doing.  If you are doing ground up and tenant improvements or with the addition of service work.  Consider how many divisions you want to break down and whether you want to run your companies financial or production data by those divisions.  

You can set up numbering systems for service and construction with a year designation and then a number to classify the type and then a 4 digit number for the job numbers. You can also set up separate cost centers for the various divisions.

Numbering would then look like this:  12-01-1001 or 12-02-1003 - where 12 is the year, 01, 02 or 03 would be the type and then running consecutive job numbers until the end of time. I don't think I would repeat a job number in the next year. I would just keep on numbering 1003, 1004, etc and just change the year -- just in case a file label gets ripped and all you have are the last 4 digits.

There are several ways you may want to do the divisions and financial statements could be ran individually by a division, by state, by type (IE: government, private, school, etc.) or as a whole for the company. It just really depends on how your company decision makers want to see the breakdowns and financial statements.

Take a little time to think it through thoroughly and ask for some ideas that work and ones that don't from people around you in the same type of construction.  Ask them what they would change about their current set up if they could and take notes from those conversations.  

You should make the decision based on your needs and don't forget to think about future expansion and company growth.  You may decide that 4 digits for job numbers is just not enough -- go for 5.

Numbering and archiving your jobs is covered in my book in detail.  You need to also plan on archiving these jobs upon completion.  Keep a spreadsheet of all the boxes by numbers and what is included in each box -- be very detailed so that you can find things when you need them again.

Happy Numbering !!

Charlene S. Reed

"Construction Administration Handbook"

What Happened to the Fun of Construction?

What happened to the fun in construction?  What is the biggest issue you face in construction today?  What do you feel takes your attention away from the business of building?  

People in construction are faced with more and more regulatory issues and things that take their time from the actual business of construction.  Construction has become a hot bed of lawsuits and disputes.  Construction should be fun.  Doing a tenant improvement or building a new project should be enjoyable -- watching something transform before your eyes.  Where has that feeling gone?

What do you feel would make the difference and bring back that feeling?  I know from my end, the things that could make a huge difference in bringing down the stress level are:

• Good documentation on every one's part
• Payments on time for work completed
• People caring about the end result
• Employees who are trained and qualified to do their jobs -- and do them :)
• Accountants who understand construction and keep you straight
• Owners and developers who value the relationship with the construction company

A cohesive and qualified team can make a construction project fun and profitable for everyone involved.  Taking the team mentality with you everyday will make all the difference.  

I love construction and seeing things come from nothing to something.  I take pride in knowing that the company I work with developed something impressive out of steel and drywall.  We need to get that feeling back into the business of construction again.

My goal in life is to get people happy about what they do by giving them all the tools they need to do their job correctly and to enjoy what they are doing.  No, I don't live in fantasy land and I don't think there will never be crisis in construction, however, I do feel that you can enjoy what you do and who you do it with if all team members have a genuine intent to bring their best to the table in all matters.  I worked for a company that did have this mentality and are very successful -- I loved working with the people there (thanks Bob & Pat).

Let us help you develop a plan for training in your company.  My book can help you get a good start in the right direction.  If you are in the Greater Phoenix area, we can schedule a time to come to your office to put together a plan and implement that plan for you.  Check out the book at www.MyConstructionOffice.com today.  The first printing is selling out -- order yours today!

Thank you and Happy Contracting !!

Charlene S. Reed, Owner/Author

"Construction Administration Handbook"

Responsible Business Services

sales@MyConstructionOffice.com

Templates for Everyday Tasks

Do you have set templates for those tasks that you do everyday?  Are the forms and spreadsheets that you use regularly available and in digital form for use by you and your staff?

Some of those items that you need to get in digital form are:

• Fax cover sheets
• Subcontract agreements and attachments
• Work in Process
• Bank Reconciliation form
• Employee new hire forms
• Employee Evaluation forms
• Expense Reimbursement Sheets

Almost anything that you use on a regular basis can be made into an electronic format,  You could save yourself a lot of time by streamlining processes for everyone in your organization.

Excel is one of my all-time favorite programs next to Photoshop :)  I create simple and complex spreadsheets  for many things in life.  Sometimes, it will take a lot of time to set it up but you have to look at the long term time savings in what you are doing.

If you need help with creating forms or spreadsheets, I can help you out.  Whether you are in the Greater Phoenix area or else where, I can give you an estimate to create a spreadsheet for you.  Contact me anytime for details.

Also,  I have the book that explains in detail with examples of forms and templates on sale -- You need this book -- it is on my website -- www.MyConstructionOffice.com.

I have some on hand that I need to get sold which is the reason for the sale -- Please buy your copy today while they are still marked way down.  

Thank you,

Charlene S. Reed, Owner/Author

""Construction Administration Handbook"

Responsible Business Services

www.MyConstructionOffice.com

Are You Taking Unnecessary Risks In YOUR Company?

Are you taking risks with your company?  Risks that are unnecessary and could be avoided with the right procedures and controls in place?

Some of the unnecessary risks that I see repeated in companies that could cost you short term and in the long haul are:

• Using 1099 labor in place of employees under workers compensation,
• Allowing subcontractors to work without having a signed subcontract in place with all insurance and licenses necessary,
• Not e-verifying employees that you hire to work for your company,
• Failing to keep your policies and procedures up to date ,
• Renewing your insurance policies each year without verifying that your coverage is still sufficient for the operations that you are undertaking,
• Treating employees differently under the same circumstances, (ie: letting one show up late everyday while writing up another employee for being late a few times),
• Unsuccessfully negotiating change orders or otherwise securing payment for your subcontractors on a project (undue enrichment on the part of the owner -- You have a responsibility to your subcontractors to get them paid -- regardless of pay when paid or pay if paid clauses which only apply in wrongdoing),
• Failing to pay prevailing wages as required on a project,
• Not keeping accurate accounting records,

Is your company at risk?  Are you guilty of any of these or others? We can help you out -- my book covers all of these items and more -- "Construction Administration Handbook".  You can find it on my website www.MyConstructionOffice.com.

We can also help you with all of this in person -- If you are in the greater Phoenix Area, please feel free to contact us.  

Charlene S Reed, Owner/Author

"Construction Administrator Handbook"

Responsible Business Services

www.MyConstructionOffice.com

Workplace Policy and Procedure Manuals

If you have an employee who knows his or her job, why waste your time on Policy and Procedure Manuals?

Well, let's just visit that topic for a minute and look at some scenarios where these will come in very handy.

What happens if:

• Your employee gets mad and leaves?
• Your employee finds another job?
• Your employee is out for a period of time because of an accident or illness?
• Your employee moves away?
• Your employee is in the reserves and gets called up to active duty?
• Or ______________________ (YOU fill in the blank).

Policy and procedure manuals are important in that they will help anyone coming into a new position or filling in a position to perform the necessary tasks in your office that keep your business going even when they are away.

What happens if your office staff is off for a week -- do deposits stack up?  do payables wait?  do tax deposits go late?  will your employees wait to be paid?  who will send out invoices so you can get paid?  

So many things will sit by the way side if your key people are out even for a day or two -- just a bad case of the flu can set an office back.  Think about all the things that happen everyday in your office and how many of those are only performed by one person with all the knowledge in their heads -- NOW think about those things not getting done on time or correctly.  How does that impact your business and performance?

Let me help you with detailed Policy and Procedure manuals -- not the broad brushed ones you can purchase on the Internet.  We come to your office and go through the procedures that happen with your people and customize these manuals to your particular office.  

Policy and Procedure manuals cover the tasks that your office is required to perform to run an efficient and profitable office.  They are not the manuals who tell people how to act or what is acceptable for dress code -- those are employee manuals and we do those too in collaboration with your attorney to be certain you are protected to the fullest extent of the law in all issues.

If you are in the greater Phoenix area, contact me about scheduling a meeting.  If you are outside of this area, you can contact me about an out of the area assignment and we can discuss our services.  Also, my book gives you a good sampling of the procedures you need to run an efficient and profitable company.

Have a great weekend !!

Charlene S Reed, Owner/Author
Responsible Business Services

www.myconstructionoffice.com
"Construction Administration Handbook"

What are the Challenges You Face in Construction?

We all face challenges in construction - what challenges do you find yourself facing regularly?  Is it:

• Personnel related?  
• Contract related?  
• Quality workmanship? 
• Accounting? 
• Legal Issues getting you down?  
• Sales Tax?  
• Documents Management?
• Policy & Procedure Manuals including Workplace Violence, Sexual Harassment and Other Policies?
• Job Descriptions and Employee Training?

What is taking your attention away from the actual construction activities where you need to be focused?  

Are you spending time dealing with these items instead of estimating new projects??

If it is document, accounting or management related, we can help.  Because this is what we specialize in, we can come in and handle a wide variety of regulatory and management processes for you and we can offer assistance with most every issue you face including government contracting.

We also have the book that is completely updated to walk you through the most of your contracting issues.  Look at the book on the website (www.myconstructionoffice.com).

There is a pdf of the table of contents so that you can see what all is covered.  And when we say covered, we don't mean we just give you a definition of the meaning, we actually show you how to complete the forms, show you examples and explain the processes.  Check it out and give me feedback -- I would love to hear from you.

Thank you,

Charlene S. Reed, Owner/ Author

www.myconstructionoffice.com

Responsible Business Services

"Construction Administration Handbook"

Certified Payroll and The Fringes

Whenever you are involved with projects where government funds are being used, you will most likely be required to pay Davis-Bacon or prevailing wages.  You will also be required to prepare Certified Payroll Reports.

You only have two options when you are faced with these reports:

1. Prepare these reports and run through the pages and pages of requirements and face the learning curve that could hold up your funds until they are correct, or
2. Call someone who knows what is required from the beginning of the project to prepare these reports for you and get paid quicker.

Preparing these reports requires that you understand the items that you can deduct from the required fringe pay (where applicable) and what you cannot deduct from these same fringes.  And all the wile, your funds from the government could be held up until these reports are completed.  Bad for cash flow.

If you are required to pay a fringe per hour on top of the regular wages, you have to know what is allowed.  Some of the items allowed are:

• Uniforms paid for by the company on behalf of the employee
• Health, Dental, Life & Vision Insurance paid by the company on behalf of the employee
• Union dues paid on behalf of the employee by the company

You should see a pattern here -- you can only deduct items that the company pays for the employee that the company gets no benefit from at all.

Some of the items you cannot deduct as fringes are:

• Cellular phones that the company pays for and the employee carries
• Company vehicles
• Per Diem pd to the employee
• Hotel or housing paid for by the employer while an employee is working out of town
• Fuel re-imbursement

There is a common theme here as well.  These are items that you would pay on behalf of your employee whether they were on a government project or not.   If you had employees working out of town, you would have to put them up in a hotel or other housing and so it is not deductible as part of the fringes.

Our company has a lot of experience with certified payroll or Davis-Bacon Wages.  If you find yourself in a situation where you need assistance with certified payroll reports, contact us -- we can help.

Also,  take a look at my book -- it covers certified payroll reporting and lots of other things that you will need to know to run a successful construction company.

Until tomorrow,

Charlene S. Reed, Owner/ Author

Responsible Business Services

www.MyConstructionOffice.com

"Construction Administration Handbook"

OK - So I Listened. . . Sample Schedule of Values and So Much More. . .

Thank you to everyone who has seen the book and given me feedback.  I have also had a lot of feedback from all of you and am finding that you are looking for specifics on what is covered in my book -- so here you go:

• Accounting - SOV (Schedule of Values), Payables, Receivables, WIP, Break-even Calculations, Sales Taxes, Controlled Funds, Cash Flow, Closing Entries, Bank Reconciliations, Allocating Indirect Costs, etc.
• Employees - Labor Burden, E-Verify, Certified Payroll, Restitution, Company Property, Job Descriptions, Policy & Procedures Manuals, etc.
• Subcontractors - Subcontracts, Change Orders, Lien Releases, Pre-liens, etc.
• Misc. - Internet and Computer Use Policies, 24 & 48 Hour Notices, Safety, Archiving Your Projects, etc.
• Contracting - Schedules, Bonds, Contracts, Notice to Proceed, Document Management & Logs that you need to keep, etc.
• Closing Out a Project - Warranty, Punch List, Release of Claims, Consent of Surety, etc.

The book not only explains to you each of these items and more, it shows you actual examples of these forms or spreadsheets, etc.  You will get an explanation of the labor burden calculation with the actual figures shown of how this is calculated.  There are also sections on government contracting and the forms required.

You will get a sample Schedule of Values with an explanation of how you set this up for each contract and what you need to get from your subcontractors to build yours.

On my website (http://myconstructionoffice.com/table-of-contents-08-2012.pdf), you can see the Table of Contents showing you what is covered in the book.  Also, if there is something that you want to know, I can cover it on this blog.  Just go through the book after you purchase it and let me know what else you want to know and see.

Also, if you are in the Greater Phoenix Area and need assistance with some of these items or if you need any of the following, Please feel free to contact me anytime:

• Construction Accounting (Timberline, Quickbooks and MAS 90/200), Budgets vs Estimates, Buying Out a Job,
• Fraud Prevention & Detection
• Closing Entries/Month End Closing/Year End Closing Procedures
• Cash Flow Spreadsheets
• Software Training (Word, Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint)
• Powerpoint Presentations
• Custom Excel Spreadsheets
• Policy & Procedure Manuals
• Employee Training or Evaluations
• Employee Job Descriptions
• Construction Management or Training
• Sales Tax Preparation or Audit
• Labor Burden Calculations
• Assistance with Setting up Your SOV (Schedule of Values)
• Government Contracting including the forms
• Certified Payroll 
• Employee Manual
• Contractor Pay Applications & Lien Releases
• And so much more. . .

Get your copy of my book today at a special low price for a limited time only.  It can be in your hands in a few days.

Contact me if I can help you with anything else not in the book.  I can schedule you on a first come, first serve basis.  Openings are available as early as next week and will fill up fast so email me at sales@myconstructionoffice.com.  

The right knowledge will help you run a successful business.

Charlene S. Reed, Owner/ Author

Responsible Business Services

MyConstructionOffice.com

"Construction Administration Handbook"

Twitter:  #ConstructionOfc

Facebook:  myconstructionoffice.com

Are Paid Holidays Part of Your Labor Burden?

If your company offers paid holidays as part of your employee benefits, they should be excluded from the productive hours that your employee works.  These paid holidays are part of your labor burden.

You have productive and non-productive hours that you typically pay an employee for -- the non-productive hours include paid holidays, paid vacations, paid sick days and any other time that an employee is paid for but does not work.  I guess if your employee spends an hour every working day gossiping and drinking coffee, you could add that to the non-productive hours -- but generally it would only be paid time away from the office.

The amount of paid holidays, sick time and vacation time varies from one company to the other -- so there is no hard and fast calculation for labor burden but if you need help with the calculations, please feel free to contact us.  My book also covers the complete information on how to calculate the labor burden including overtime hours.

You can purchase the book on our website at  www.myconstructionoffice.com  It is still on sale for the time being.  Get yours today !!

Charlene S Reed
Owner / Author
Responsible Business Services
MyConstructionOffice.com
"Construction Administration Handbook"