We Help Implement The Right Technology

For Your Construction Company

The purpose of this article is to find construction company owners who want to position themselves to take advantage of the coming harvest of pent-up remodel, repair and commercial tenant improvement demand that will occur in the next seven years beginning in 2014 and need help to stay in business now.

A Blinding Flash of the Obvious (BFO) occurred to me this morning while contemplating something worthwhile to share with you! There is a thread of success weaved into the fabric of the most successful, wealthiest, consistently most profitable house builders, general contractors, residential remodel contractors, flipper house contractors, commercial tenant improvement contractors, sub-contractors, specialty contractors, handyman, architects and designers and over 100 other types of contractors and construction related companies all over the U.S.A.

The Thread Of Success Is They Adapt To

A Constantly Changing Environment

Everything in the Universe is in balance and parts of it are easy to see and understand and some parts are hidden in plain sight and require some effort to see and understand. Your ability to look beyond the initial statement and understand the hidden meaning why successful contractors adapt to change in order to survive and thrive will serve you well. The truth is the most successful, wealthy, highly profitable construction contractors don't like change.

They have self-discipline; a skill nobody is born with. They worked hard to develop self-discipline through trial and error, repetition, time and practice until it became a habit. This ingrained habit of self-discipline is what drives them to analyze, plan and adapt to a constantly changing environment because the alternative is to get a job and most of them are unemployable.

A mind that has been in the arena of construction company owner and experienced all of the blood, sweat and tears that it takes to own and operate a construction company is not suitable to work in someone else's company for more than a short while, in most cases less than six months.

Forget the contractors who refuse to adapt to change because they fade away into the night wondering what happened and in most cases blaming everyone and everything else. These are good hearted people who really hate change and as much as you and I do. Even though we would jump at the chance to help them, we can't because they will not allow it until the pain of change exceeds the pain of staying the same.

Babies With Wet Diapers Are

The Only People Who Want Change

Forget survival of the biggest, baddest, strongest, meanest, fastest, toughest or smartest construction contractor! They embrace the self-destructive paradigm of competition and eventually disappear without a trace. When they grow weary of trying to beat every other contractor they come in contact with they turn to an easier, weaker prey that they know they can destroy...themselves!

From the mid 1970's until 2000 we owned and operated several construction companies and a few Plumbing Contracting companies. Six keys helped us out perform other contractors in terms of cash flow and profit year after year regardless of the economic conditions:

1. I was raised in a construction family

2. I majored in Accounting in the first of several Universities I have attended

3. Subsequently I have become a perpetual student of Construction Accounting

4. We understood the difference between Regular Accounting and Construction Accounting

5. We understood the value of being Process Dependent Vs. People Dependent

6. We embraced technology that reduced dependency on people by automating a process

In 1991 we started offering contractors bookkeeping services to a few select contractor friends as a side business and a hobby and only got serious about it in 2004 when it became obvious that what we thought was easy, construction accounting, was in fact very difficult to other bookkeepers and accountants and the demand from construction contractors could no longer be ignored.

In 2011 it became apparent that we had to adapt to the changing environment in outsourced construction accounting because we were seeing a lot of horrible QuickBooks Setup and data entry errors being performed by offshore accountants in foreign countries with little or no understanding of construction accounting which is understandable since it is all price driven, putting quantity over quality.

An even worse plague descended upon unsuspecting construction contractors; C.P.A's and tax preparers who suddenly thought they were capable of handling construction accounting during the off-season when their tax return work slowed down. They began performing QuickBooks Setups and data entry disasters before turning the day-to-day contractors bookkeeping over to under-paid and poorly skilled cheap bookkeepers again being price driven and putting quantity over quality.

C.P.A's and tax preparers have good hearts and they really do mean well but they are ingrained with preparing income tax returns which means every QuickBooks Setup and all of the day-to-day contractors bookkeeping services are done with the intention of making it easy to prepare the annual tax returns, not helping contractors operate and grow profitable construction companies.

Never, never let your C.P.A. or your tax preparer perform a QuickBooks setup or oversee the data entry. Tax accountants make horrible construction accountants. While we are on the subject the reverse is true as well never, ever let your construction accountant prepare your annual tax return. It is O.K. to let them prepare the Quarterly Tax Returns but not the annual tax return.

Up until 2011 we only served construction contractors in Washington State and primarily those contractors who were in the western part of Washington State. After getting a number of requests from contractors in several other states we decided to take our own medicine again and implement the right technology for outsourced construction accounting services and it was one of the most painful experiences we have ever experienced.

We liked meeting with contractors face-to-face, developing a relationship and inviting them to stop by our office in Lynnwood, Washington bring their paperwork, have a cup of coffee, cold soda or bottle of water and a light snack of cookies, cakes and energy bars.

We had a few contractor clients in Central Washington and insisted they come to our office for the initial meeting and to bring, mail, UPS, FedEx or have someone deliver their paperwork afterwards.

During the early part of 2011 we invested thousands of dollars in salaries, equipment, hardware and software to plan, implement and test technology processes that would make it easy for contractors like you all across the U.S.A. to hire us.

We reviewed hundreds of hardware and software solutions and tested dozens of them and here are the results:

1. 75% of them were expensive failures

2. 20% of them generated results that broke even

3.   5% of them worked and generated results which made up for all of the losses

Of the ones that worked over half of them required some major tweaking from the software supplier or our internal staff during internal beta testing.

When we began to get contractor clients from the east coast in places like New York and Florida our Contractors Bookkeeping Services System had some initial breakdowns; however, in a few short weeks everything was up and running smoothly.

Now We Serve Construction Contractors

All Across The U.S.A!

Short List Of Ten Unique Technology Processes That Can Reduce Construction Accounting Labor In Your Construction Company

1. Business Purpose - Understand exactly why you are in business. If it is anything other than earning a profit please rethink it. You need a Business Plan and for more about that click here.

2. Separate Business And Personal - Being available 24/7 is not productive in the long run. It drains your overall productivity, destroys your staff because they feel unworthy for not keeping up with you. The resulting cognitive dissonance or mental noise will make them resent you and often time they will take steps to sabotage your success. Successful contractors work hard and fast and are very productive for 8-12 hours a day five days a week then "unplug and recharge" at night and on the weekends. For some interesting reading about on Construction Psychology click Here.

3. Smartphones - A smartphone dedicated for business use and one for personal use and keep them separate. Evaluate your business smartphone and all of the "apps" and discard the ones that are not helping you make money.

4. Cloud Backup - Use an automatic backup service to store files, documents, contracts, jobsite photos, change orders and everything else you need to operate your construction company on a daily basis in the cloud. It is imperative to include all of your computers, desktops, notebooks and any web enabled device that contains data. There are several services available, no one is best for every contractor, we can consult with you to determine the best one to serve your needs.

5. E-Mail - Outlook linked to a cloud server means you can have all of your standard email accounts, G-Mail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc. downloaded automatically into one Outlook program on your office desktop, notebook and on your desktop and notebook at home. This gives you the ability to access, automatically synchronize and manage all of your email wherever you are.

6. Time Card Calculator - Upgrade from paper based time cards to web based time card calculator that can be accessed from any web enabled device including smartphones, iPhones, tablets, desktops, notebooks etc. For more information about the only web based time card calculator we trust for our contractors bookkeeping services firm staff that links to QuickBooks and actually works without messing up your QuickBooks; and will dramatically improve your Job Costing Reports and save time and labor click here.

7. Cloud Based Financial Reports - Without having to open QuickBooks for contractors and get lost in the muck and mire. We have a program that links to QuickBooks and allows contractors to visit and very simple yet powerful secure portal website to review, analyze and run hundreds of financial reports including ratios without opening QuickBooks and risk destroying the underlying data. It is updated every 24 hours and provides everything you need to operate and grow your construction company. Click here for more.

8. Online Bill Payment And Customer Invoicing - Online invoicing and bill paying and is saving contractors time and money by streamlining their entire processes which means they and getting paid faster and putting more money in the bank to operate and grow their construction company. With the optional bill tracking and bill payment services they are increasing bottom line profits by avoiding late fees and taking advantage of vendor discounts which in some cases can generate 36% Return on Investment! Learn more about this by clicking here

9. Cloud Based Contractors Bookkeeping Services - The two best contractors bookkeeping services software solutions are QuickBooks Desktop Version In The Cloud and Xero Accounting Online. The main difference is Job Costing Reports. If you need Job Costing Reports QuickBooks Desktop Version In The Cloud Works Best. Otherwise for simple contractors bookkeeping services Xero Accounting Online works best. For a complete overview of QuickBooks Vs. Xero click here.

10. Paper Reduced Office - It will be a while before your entire construction company is "paperless" however; there are some technology solutions that can substantially reduce the need for paper. Each page of paper you print costs roughly $0.50 which includes the cost of labor and vehicle expense to go to the store and buy the paper and bring it to office, the office workers and bookkeepers labor, printer ink or toner, electricity, storage cost to print something on the paper and the eventual disposal cost. A more efficient money saving alternative is using scanners, smartphone pictures emailed, cloud based document storage and retrieval. We even have methods to link PDF documents to an individual transaction in QuickBooks Desktop Version In The Cloud and Xero Accounting Online. To learn more about paper reduction methods click here.

This Is Only The Short List Of The Hundreds Of Ways We Can Improve Your Cash Flow And Bottom Line Profits To Put More Money In The Bank To Operate And Grow Your Construction Company And I Hope You Enjoy Them And Get Value From Them

In closing we don't like change either, we just prefer to grit our teeth, let our ingrained habit of self-discipline do its work and embrace it because the only alternative is losing money and eventually going out of business.

So if we can be of service to help you design and implement a plan of unique technology processes to reduces construction accounting labor in your construction company please feel free to contact Sharie 206-361-3950 or sharie@fasteasyaccounting.com

Profitable Construction - Companies have known about the value of outsourced bookkeeping services for a long time and now you know about it too!

We Scan Your Receipts And Invoices link them to your QuickBooks or Xero transactions where it is appropriate and give you back a CPA-ready packet for your tax return and we provide ongoing Cloud Based Contractors Bookkeeping Services by accountants who understand construction.

Thinking About Outsourcing Your Contractors Bookkeeping Services To Save Time And Money?

Click On The Button Below To Download A Free Guide

Business Process Management (BPM) For Contractors

Need Help Now?

Call Sharie 206-361-3950

sharie@fasteasyaccounting.com

QuickBooks Outsourced Construction Accounting Services

QuickBooks Outsourced Construction Bookkeeping Services

We Are Xero Accounting Experts Specializing In Construction Bookkeeping Services