6 Quick Tips For Integrating Construction Software with QuickBooksⓇ Online

Having project management software and accounting software can really streamline your financials and bring big benefits to your company. But, change isn’t always easy from the very start. So, here are a few tips that can help make software integration easier… quicker. 

1.) Research, Research, Research construction software options

Before you pick software, it is so important to research your options. There are a lot of construction software options to choose from and the functionality each one offers is a little different. Some are designed specifically for certain disciplines within the construction industry and may not work for every company. Take demos and see first hand how they operate. Thorough research will help you find the best option for you. A few important things to consider as you are researching are: 

• • Functionality
  • Reporting
  • Access and permission levels for your team

2.) Understand how information is communicated between softwares

You will want the software to work for both your project management needs and your financial needs. So, it is important find out how the construction software will integrate and work with your accounting software, like QuickBooks^Ⓡ Online. How does it talk to your accounting file, meaning how does it move information from one to the other? Many talk through the product/services function. In construction, this will typically be set up as your cost codes  or chart of accounts since they track financial information by line item and not by the general categories of materials labor and subcontractors. Considering software can use them to communicate, having a good set of cost codes that work for both project management and the integration is extremely important (among many other reasons).

Another area that you need to understand how information is transferred to your subcontractors, vendors and customers. They do need to be linked appropriately in the two softwares or it will cause errors and potentially duplicate or override information. 

3.) Know where input needs to be initiated

Do you need to record your financial transactions in the construction software? QuickBooks? Or both? Knowing where the data needs to be entered is crucial to avoid duplicate entries,  helping with accuracy and saving you time.

4.) Familiarize yourself with terminology

A common frustration construction owners have with software integrations is terminology. Softwares do not always use the same terms so it may be unclear as you are linking fields together. For example, one software may use “bills” and the other may use “invoice”, and they mean the say thing to you. If you are clear on the terminology used in both platforms and their functions, it can save a lot of confusion that could lead to errors.

5.) Evaluate and update processes and responsibilities

Integrating construction software with your accounting software allows you to truly streamline your process. With the change comes process and responsibility changes. Things that used to be manual, may now all be handled in the software, like payment approvals for example. Instead of physically getting the approvals, it can all happen in the software now. And maybe before it was just your bookkeeper touching anything related to financials, but with the new software, it may make sense and be more efficient to have your project managers take over some responsibilities. Or maybe, you can now go directly into the software to see budget information instead of getting it from your project manager.

6.) Make project reconciliation part of your monthly workflow

Now that you have software, you have the ability to get real-time information on your budgets. But it does require commitment to keep it updated. Reconciling project costs, regardless of software integration, should be done monthly. You will need someone to know the types of transactions, verify they are recorded properly in both softwares, check that all transactions expected are accounted for and not duplicated, and that what data is in the software matches what is happening in real life. This is a lot of work to keep up, but it is also what really makes having multiple softwares so great.