General Consultant Discussion

Job Cost. Project Costing? Any recommendations for a good solution for Sage 100? We have a customer using the Sage module but don't need most of its construction-tone kind of features. No inventory. Simply AP and PO invoices. Just a want to track costs and perhaps WIP against open projects. I was hoping to give up Job Cost. @GeneralConsultantDiscussion Thanks in advance for any ideas or direction.

JobOps aka Sage Manufacturing :)

Doesn't JobOps require SO & IM? Would Project UDFs and maybe a UDT for Projects along with some reporting work for your customer?

Got me Phil ... I read too fast. Sorry Robert!

I've been considering the UDF/UDT approach. However, the concept of WIP is giving me a bit of a headache. Currently in Job Cost, the client closes a job and then re-opens it when there is warranty work to be done. They've said that they won't do that in the future, but I'm not convinced. I'm sure we could mark the job in the UDT as closed to prevent posting, but sill trying to wrap my head around it. Was hoping to have a neat little screen that I could enter the job number and see a list of all transactions against that job. I guess I'm not entirely clear on how I see the end goal yet. Perhaps I've posted my question to early . . .

Without inventory, this sounds like professional services management? Maybe they'd be better off to use a dedicated PSM application, turn those employees loose on it, and migrate the resulting GL back to Sage wiht VI.

@RobertWhite - You could open a GL segment for the job but this could become unwieldy. UDF/UDT will work. WIP would just be one account with many UDF job codes tracking into it. You could use SI, Crystal or an Excel query to track costs by job. When you close out job via invoicing. For warranty work, you could use warranty GL accounts and the original job code in the UDF. All depends in where you want to put your efforts/money at. Grant accounting raises similar concerns. While JC is not a great fit, it may be the best fit.....

Maybe S2 Project Accounting? I have enclosed an old feature sheet because I couldn't find a new one on the NRT website.

We did an implementation of S2 nearly 10 yrs ago. If you think JobOps is complex, it will seem simply by comparison to S2. It is a very solid package for companies who must deal with job audits from government agencies for their projects. Otherwise it is not a fit.

Great input everyone, thank you. I'll keep the S2 solution in my reference list, but I agree that it is probably overkill for this current project.

You know, I've been asked for simple project accounting several times over the years. Essentially what everyone seems to want is the ability to create a project, post AP and GL entries and print Project to Date or date range reports. Additionally they all want the ability to inactivate or close a project to prohibit posting after a date. This seems like a money maker to me. I wonder why some enterprising MD didn't do this.

Enter Intacct from stage left.........

The UDF/UDT approach works well if they just want to associate a project ID with a transaction. They can do budget versus actual at the total project level but it doesn't work for breaking down budgeted costs at the category level. Sage Intelligence reports come in real handy for this. Pull transactions from all modules into one workbook by project. Also doesn't provide WIP and other accounting functions found in JC.