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There are many suggestions for PC that are a result of PC not being very intuitive when it comes to accounting or project management processes. This comment is based on what I have read in this forum and my experience with other major software programs such as American Contractor.
This issue becomes more and more apparent as I learn the software. It feels like the program was not created from an accounting or project management end-user perspective. This makes common daily tasks much more cumbersome and much more time intensive.
Examples include a vendor list report, budget report by columnar cost types, payroll quarterly reports that can be mailed, user-defined lookup lists, ability to "void" transactions instead of creating "adjustments", drill down in ALL modules, record selector buttons/key mapping, large screen sizes so we don't have to strain our eyes, and on and on. I have also noticed that most reports are based on rows instead of columns. For example, tjob costs reports do not present job cost type columns. We can get this data from the setups grids but not in reports. I believe that is because the overall reporting through SQL is not mature yet. I believe in time, many of these issues will be addressed because more and more end users will demand it.
I am the controller for a commercial general contractor and we are busy. Amercian Contractor has served us very well for over a decade. We are now committed to PC but so far, the overall system is slow and not well designed for high output or audits.
I also see that a number of important suggestions that have been marked for some future release have been around for a year! I don't know what to expect from all the suggestions many of us are posting here if it is going to take that long to address.
So in the meantime, I sincerely ask that those that are responsible for the future direction of PC really look at the ergonomic and process side of heavy volume end users. If the design can support that, then the less demanding smaller companies will only benefit from faster workflow and drill down options, etc.
The majority of data that is processed through PC is accounting based. Estimates are important but not for all of us. Accounting, payroll, and AP should really be looked at for how efficient the system is design for the user - not the programmer.
Thanks.
Jim Saad
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Jim, I believe you stated your comments very well. We the accounting users are getting the short end of the stick. It appears to me that the programmers had the final say in how reports look.. A perfect example is selecting invoices for payment. When I am selecting about 100 invoices for payment, I don't want to see the line item detail of the invoice, just the total of the invoice. In other words, 1 line for every invoice with a grand total. In addition the report should have Gross Invoice Amounts, Discount Amount, Retainage Amount and amount of the check. If nothing else, give the end users the option to print the line item detail or just invoice totals. This is only one example, but you get the idea.
As much as I disliked Management Suite, I have PC. It is time consuming, it IS NOT user friendly, and 90% of the enhancements are for estimating. While I agree estimating is important the bottom line of the company is their profit and loss. Make the software more user friendly, and more importantly give better reports, etc for the owners who made the mistake of purchasing this software.
What say you, Viewpoint?
I agree with you all. Management Suite had features we really liked, but there not in PC. Truly disappointing. Simple things like printing a list of employees or vendors. In PC you have go the view set ups and then uncheck the boxes you don't want and in most cases you end up having to export t excel so you can print it all on 1 page.
I agree. So many good things from Management Suite have been lost. We never thought we would be taking a single step backward. Were we ever wrong!
I agree, it's been a very frustrating transition from AC.
Well said. I, too, have been disappointed by the lack of user ease throughout PC. Although AC had its problems, it also did a lot of things right which PC would be wise to consider.