Submit Your Suggestions For ProContractor

I have created a new idea called "Update Work in Progress - Allow manual input of cost at completion at cost type level"

If you are following this thread, your votes on the other idea would be much appreciated, plus I added some further detail on how to get a good projection by cost type, problem is "cost at completion" and "Projected Costs" are two very different things in this software.

Curtis,

Well said, the disconnect between either measuring in units or hours is indeed frustrating.  We need to be able to record both.  How else can you project hours left to complete a task or review historical production rates. Construction specific accounting must include both.  I echo your frustration of being told pre sale that the system could give relevant data in terms of  hours and units only to find out afterward that you get to pick one or the other.  I'm still not satisfied on this front.

Thanks for the response, we will see if we can use your knowledge to get us closer to where we need to be. 

I made significant grounds within this system in regards to update WIP and my cost code setups.  I still run into problems because this system is very restrictive in regards to project setup and WIP and the lack of additional functionality between the two different areas. 

I am now able to add projected cost detail at the cost type level.  Unfortunately, now we cannot claim quantity at the cost code level.  All of my quantity claiming is now done at the cost type level, which brings us to the next restriction, which is cost class labor.  Cost class labor, in the cost type set up, you enter in hours, because we always need an hour budget.  The issue I'm facing now is, I need to enter in the quantity completed for that cost code in cost type labor, lets say in qty m3, but cost type labor's quantity is only in hours.  I need to be able to input labor qty of m3 complete, not hours completed.  I need to know what my hours per m3 is as well but the software restrictions do not allow this.

I do have a recommendation that would fix this. 

may I recommend that the "cost code level" quantity be used as the cost type labor quantity for determining % complete at the cost type labor level and still allow for forecasting labor hours and labor dollars at the cost type labor level. 

At the cost code set-up, in the setup project section, Pro Contractor could add an additional Percent Complete method.  A method that basically says, for this cost type (labor), use the cost code level quantity, and allow forecasting dollars and hours at the cost type level.

This requirements is an absolute need to do any sort of hour per qty analysis and labour $ per qty as well.  This is so important for past cost analysis and for our field employees to always know the man hour factors. 

At the moment, in order to get around this restriction, I have created a new cost type called quantity.  I only claim quantity in this one type and have 0 dollars posted in this type.  This allows me to post quantity in only 1 section of the cost code, and for each other cost type, I chose the Percent Complete Method as Cost% where I can manually enter in the other cost type's % complete.

Now my reports will not have the projected man hours, but there will be dollar projections by cost type.  I can work with this for now, but my engineers are not happy, since they do significant analysis on projected man hours that we use in our schedule and all other man hour analysis.  now they have to do hourly analysis separate from everything else.  All because of the restrictions of this software.  It is not how this software was sold to us.  It is very frustrating.  I hope this suggestion gets some push from the top.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading.

I figured out the proper way to allow forecasting by cost type, but you have to change your WIP settings in the project.  In the "Percent Complete Method" you have to select "COST TYPE - Enter Method on Cost Type Level".  I set up a test project using this percent complete method and went to go a update WIP, this allowed me to enter projected cost detail at the cost type level.  The issue I am having right now is my existing projects.  The "Change WIP Settings" allows you to change to any of the different Percent Complete Methods EXCEPT for "COST TYPE - Enter Method on Cost Type Level"  which is the one that we need.  So if I want cost type details, I am going to have to set up new projects and make old projects inactive.

Quentin, I can provide additional info via email - cvanruskenveld@cwpconstructors.com

Great, how much did it cost for the custom report?

We had a custom report made for us.  It is basically a beefed up Project Status report. 

It shows all cost code data as follows:

Budget Summary _ Cost to Date _ Budget to date _ Gain/Loss to date

Cost class 1

Cost class 2, etc_____________________________________________

Total cost code:

Then there is a cost type summary at the end that follows this format:

Budget Summary _ Cost to Date _ Budget to date _ Gain/Loss to date

Now I want a final column that shows Projected cost, broken out by cost class, this is not available until the program can update projected costs by cost class.

Been using the management report and having project manager update each cost code by percent complete.  Is there a report or worksheet report that breaks out in summarized 1-3 page report cost code quantity and budget/actual cost comparison??

Ran into this as well.  Been training coworkers in the update WIP process to understand that if subcontractor has completed the work but the bill hasn't been posted yet to not update the WIP % Complete, which can in a very negative and material impact misrepresent cost to completion.