Product Reviews
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ACCPAC                                                                                  top

ACCPAC offers a powerful estimating tool for Job Costing.   The product also includes a flexible contract management solution and can be fully deployed through the web.  The comprehensive transaction processing and extensive inquiry capabilities are unmatched in the industry.   The product provides complete integration with ACCPAC Advantage General Ledger, A/R, A/P, Inventory Control, US and Canadian Payroll, and Microsoft Project.  Some of the major product highlights include some powerful estimating capabilities such as:

• Assign staff, material, subcontractors, equipment, miscellaneous items and overhead to each project within the contract.

• Set up complex estimates by specifying the quantity (for example, hours), unit cost and billing rate (for time and materials projects) for each staff member, material (inventory item), subcontractor, equipment, miscellaneous item and overhead expense allocated to a project. Assign the cost categories to which they apply to automatically calculate cost and revenue estimates for each cost category, or simply define the cost and revenue estimates for each category within a project.
   

The ACCPAC solution provides many features specific to job costing.  One notable example is seen in the flexible contract management incorporated in the product.  The contact management will manage jobs at three levels – contract (job), project (phase), and category.  It even allows for maintenance of multiple projects or phases within each contract and tracks multiple categories within each project.  Industry specific terminology can be applied and multiple contracts or jobs can be assigned for each customer.   The program offers an interesting method for selecting the accounting method (revenue recognition method) for each project within the contract. Choose from total cost percentage complete, category percentage complete, labor hours percentage complete, billings and costs, project percentage complete, completed project or accrual-basis. Mix and match the project types and accounting methods for very complex or simple projects.  Some other mentionable features that would be useful in job costing are:

• Specify begin and end dates for each project to allow for timelines.

• Set up projects and categories that you can use for default information.

• Assign each category to one of six cost types (labor, material, equipment, miscellaneous, overhead and subcontractor) to track costs at an appropriate level for your company.

• Assign up to seven progress statuses to each contract and project. Choose from estimate, approved, open, on hold, inactive, completed and closed.

• Close a project to billings and/or costs at any time.

• Automatically override General Ledger revenue account segments for each project and cost account segments for each category.

• Easily set up a new contract using the step-by-step wizard.
   

Comprehensive Transaction Processing allows the user to specify whether each transaction is billable, non-billable or no charge and automatically creates a customer’s invoice based on the transactions that are due to be billed.   The customer invoice can include multiple contracts, projects and categories.  Inventory methods include transfer items to a contract, project and category and bill customer appropriately for items associated with the project.   And automatically return those inventory items when they are not in use so they are available for other projects.

Extensive inquiry capabilities calculate the actual costs and determine whether the project is within budget.  The project status can be reviewed as well as profitability levels and estimate-to-actual comparisons.  Labor analysis can be conducted as well as costs for materials, equipment, subcontractor, miscellaneous items, overhead expense categories, original estimates, and current estimates.

 

eEnterprise                                                                                top
 

Microsoft Great Plains e-business solutions eEnterprise is designed to meet the broad spectrum of business application needs of the mid-market, which generally consists of businesses with $20 million to $500 million in annual revenues. Available in eight languages, the solutions are designed for businesses that are standardizing on Microsoft Technologies. The e-business solutions interconnect communities of customers, suppliers and employees. The products provide rapid implementation, ease of use and customization and are backed by industry-leading local and corporate-based support service.  To assist mid-market companies in more effectively managing their financials, eEnterprise now enables organizations to extend online cash receipts processing, automate customer refunds, easily administer cash and expense deferrals, automate customer and vendor balance consolidations and scheduled payments, and provide a powerful tool for advanced financial inquiries. Additional details follow:

• Lockbox processing automatically applies customer payment information in an electronic batch format from a transaction file provided by the customer's bank. This alleviates the administration associated with managing high volumes of cash receipts.

• Refund checks automatically reimburses customers, transferring their credit balances to eEnterprise payables management for voucher and check creation, while clearing the customer's accounts receivable balance.

• Revenue and expense deferrals enable users to defer revenues and distribute costs over a specified period by calculating and posting values spread over selected date ranges. This ensures more accurate accounting, realizing revenue and costs according to the rates they are applied to within the system.

• Customer and vendor consolidation enables users to classify customers as vendors, integrating payment and cash receipt transaction-processing activities. This alleviates manual calculations and greatly diminishes any rework in managing customer and vendor relationships.

• Customer and vendor scheduled payments creates payment schedules, calculates interest and amortization amounts, and performs "what-if" scenarios to determine the impact of various interest rates, pay-off options, frequency and installment number changes on payment amounts.

• Account rollup inquiry builds and stores specific segment and digit-based inquiries for any range of account segments within the general ledger, creating various analysis options without increasing the size of the chart of accounts.

• General ledger transaction matching matches different financial transactions for the purpose of "off-setting" or reconciliation, providing a final transaction balance often used in financial audits.

• Automated purchase order generation enables companies to set up any number of predefined parameters within eEnterprise Inventory Control to automatically replenish inventory items or groups of items. This automates the replenishment process, ensuring that customer orders are fulfilled on a timely basis.

• Extended pricing supports promotional, tiered and customer-based pricing often used in complex sales ordering processing environments. Manual pricing calculations are eliminated and time is saved, providing an automated pricing model that benefits customers.

Macola                                                                                         top

The Exact Macola Progression product line consists of  manufacturing, distribution, and accounting software. Macola Progression has a rich, deep history of providing accounting software solutions for the distribution and manufacturing markets in particular. The product has particularly strong inventory features and is therefore well-suited for both distribution and manufacturing situations. Today Macola offers 13 modules related to manufacturing, that have recently been re-deployed with clean Windows programming and running atop the Microsoft SQL Server database. 

Long Standing Low Cost Solution - Originally developed in Cobol, Macola was a stand out product in the 80's offering the only comprehensive manufacturing solution its' price range. They word on the street was "if Macola Progression didn't meet your needs, you'd better get out your checkbook - because the next best products costs four to ten times more than Macola. Today, Exact Macola continues to offer high functionality for relatively low prices. 

Mixed Environments - Progression allows you to operate Progression as either a full 32-bit application, a 16-bit environment, or a mixture of 16-bit and 32-bit client workstations. Progression 16-bit and Progression 32-bit can use the same database.  For example, if you modify a screenset, the modification will be available in both 16-bit and 32-bit Progression. Macola’s Progression SQL product line is a full 32-bit application which does not run in a 16-bit environment.

Great Customization - Macola has done a very good job deploying it's customization capabilities which includes blank user definable fields. The product has 28 modules and is integrated with popular add-on applications such as FRx, Crystal Reports, F9, BEST! Fixed Assets, EDI from Electronic Commerce Corporation, and Enterprise POs fro FYI Systems. It is interesting to note that a lot of the other accounting vendors have used Macola Progression as their module product when it comes to designing their own manufacturing strategy. The product employs Visual Basic for Applications for end user modifications and either the Btrieve or the Microsoft SQL Server engine to power the data. Being located in Marion, Ohio is both a blessing a curse. On the one hand, the cost of living is very reasonable for both the company and its employees, the community is great, and the people who live there truly enjoy the area. However, in this competitive day and age, finding-high powered programmers who are willing to relocate to smaller communities is often tough. You may have read stories recently in the Wall Street Journal in which programmers are being offered $60,000 BMW convertible automobiles as incentives for employment. Other companies such as Solomon (Findlay, Ohio) and Great Plains (Fargo, North Dakota) fight this battle as well. All of these companies have faced a very competitive marketplace when it comes to bring in the talent needed to construct a state of the art application these days.

Interesting Web Site References - The Exact Software website asks customers to enter a series of selection criteria (industry, employee numbers, country, etc). The web site then returns  a country map with customer reference locations identified, as well as contact information for the reference.  This is a great way for prospective customers to check references.

Click here to visit this site.
 

MAS 500                                                                                    top

MAS 500 contains many features that provide optimal functionality for a variety of industries including job costing.  Some of the most notable Advanced Features are listed below:

• 100 character user-defined account structure

• Sophisticated and configurable search engine

• Multicompany/Intercompany processing

• Multicurrency processing

• Sophisticated inventory replenishment, including Gordon Graham methodologies

• Multi-warehouse/multi-bin support

• Warehouse, ship-to, requested date, by line in sales order and purchase order

• Comprehensive pricing and costing

• Physical inventory using cycle counts

• Three-step warehouse transfers

• Automated e-mail distribution of sales orders, purchase orders and invoices

• Direct output of query results to printer or Excel spreadsheet

• Supports scheduling and material planning for multiple manufacturing facilities

• Ability to handle co-products and multiple parts produced per Work Order

• Integrated multimedia with ability to view images, video, and audio files directly

• Product Configurator generates new items on the fly as well as configured routings/BOMs based on user-defined options/values and configuration rules

• eExecutive provides a browser snapshot for busy executives

• Explorer provides in-depth query tools in a single place
  
  Reporting

• Crystal Reports 8.0 ships with System Manager and all standard and business reports are developed with Crystal. Runtime parameters are provided for all reports allowing users to define sort and select criteria without modifying source code. Stored procedures are used to extract report data providing enhanced report performance. Report source code is delivered allowing easy customization.

• FRx Desktop V 6.0 ships with the General Ledger providing a powerful financial reporting environment. Drill down from a financial report to the accounting application is supported.

• Best Office, delivered with the base application, provides a seamless way for users to easily extract accounting data to desktop productivity tools such as Word and Excel.

• Output query results to a printer or Excel spreadsheet.
  
  Customization

• Customizer allows end users to customize existing forms. Customization options include: modifying existing controls, adding new controls and adding procedural code using VBScript with access reuses controlled by site, company, security group or user.

• Application Framework includes Visual basic controls, tools, and utilities that together form the infrastructure on which MAS 500 is built. 

• Source Code is available by module and provides the ability to extensively customize the MAS 500 product. 

• Application programming interfaces allow simpler integration to most MAS 500 transactions.
  
  Third Party Integrated Products

• Warehouse Management

• Shipping Management

• EDI

• Quality Assurance

• Deferred Revenue

• Fund Accounting

• E-Commerce

• OLAP

• Fax Integration

• Credit Card Authorization

• Sales Tax Integration