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[Mary Mallazzo]

Hello
We currently use a third party software for AIA billing , Integrity.  We need to find a replacement.  We do not use the AIA billing report in Wennsoft because it is not flexible enough for our needs.
Does anyone have any suggestions for a third party AIA billing solution?

Thank you

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Mary Mallazzo
Fromkin Brothers
Edison NJ
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[Thaddeus Suter]

I don’t know any third parties. We do all AIAs and have for many years directly from GP Project Accounting. The Billing Format for AIA is: FEE Invoice 4.  You must setup and bill your Schedule of Values as FEEs. It requires some Report Writer work for beautification.
You also will need to use Retention on the Project if your contract requires retainage.
Change Orders can be supported on the AIA  but not using the internal PA feature as its a bit weak.
And here is a sample print out from the test company: Sorry I did not see one with Change Orders
And Page 2.

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Thaddeus Suter
Retus, Inc
HELOTES TX
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[Mary Mallazzo]

The problem we have is that we have separate jobs for different trades that we do – painting, flooring, ceramic and terrazzo.  We are a subcontractor.  Our customers combine items and mix match from trade to trade a lot of the time and the AIA needs to represent how they process our jobs not how we internally process our jobs.

 

For example:

 

We have a painting job for $5,000.00 and the flooring work is $2,000.00.

 

Because of their budget they give us a contract for painting for $4,000.00 and the flooring for $3,000.00.

 

We need to show the billing the way their contracts are written not by how we have them in GP. However internally we need to keep each division for our numbers.

 

This is just one simple example.  There are many others…more complicated ones…

 

We also need to go back sometimes to a req. from two to three months ago and revise it according to what the owner approved.

 

The way our business is run requires a lot of flexibility on the billing and once we set up a billing in GP if it needs to be changed at a later date because of what the contractor requires GP does not allow us to change set ups once we have billing and costs on a job.  For example we have a painting job for $10,000.00 and we invoice for it.  A month later we get the contract for the flooring work of $20,000.00.  The contractor makes it a change order to the original painting job.  On the AIA I must show both together.  However in GP I cannot setup a project combining them because I have already billed the panting.

 

The customer could also give us separate contracts for separate billing and then for their budget purposes add a change order that is flooring work onto the painting contract and we must bill it that way to them.

 

Our industry is a constantly moving target and we need  flexibility in order to provide our customers with what they require and need from us. GP just does not allow for what we need with regard to AIA billing that we can see.

 

That is why we use and need  a third party package.

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Mary Mallazzo
Fromkin Brothers
Edison NJ
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[Thaddeus Suter]

Here is one I found with Change Orders. It looks not quite complete.
Too bad your VAR couldn’t help you use GP Project. We’ve done 20 story buildings with different trades on every floor. 2-3 year jobs billing the Owner, the GC you name it. Its all in the setups. Best of luck.

Page 2

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Thaddeus Suter
Retus, Inc
HELOTES TX
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[Mary Mallazzo]

Do you ever need to go back to a req. from two to three months ago and revise it according to what the owner approved?
If so, how do you do that?  This seems to be our biggest stumbling block.

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Mary Mallazzo
Fromkin Brothers
Edison NJ
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[Thaddeus Suter]

The business process I recommend and works well is that when the Project Managers do the fixed fee project billing each month they save their PA Bills in an unposted PA batch called “pending approval”.

Project Managers are not allowed to post PA Bills

After they get their Bill approved and signed by the Owner/GC it goes/scanned in the Project file and the Project Manager moves the unposted PA Bill from “pending approval” to OKTOINV (OK to Invoice) where finance and accounting will get it posted.

We do not post unapproved PA fee bills that need to be approved. Not all need to be pre approved.

Since Revenue is recognized as a percent of completion in these types of projects, delaying the posting of the bill a week or two does not affect revenue or the P/L.
It also does not affect cash flow as we post and age by Document Date not Posting date.

In the event that a customer disputes a bill several weeks or months down the road, then the Project Manager must rebill the disputed Bill. We would not allow an external change in billed dollar amounts that is not reflected in the GL, Project or the Accounts Receivable bills.

The PA Fee Bills used for AIA are very easy to reverse and Rebill using a negative Fees in Project Accounting. PMs have a “cheat sheet” for this in their billing folder work instructions. It happens some but not often. Since PMs typically are paid on invoicing and cash receipts in addition to job margin, they are pretty motivated to get their billing correct.

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Thaddeus Suter
Retus, Inc
HELOTES TX
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[Mary Mallazzo]

Interesting.  We are not familiar with “fixed fee project billing”. Is that your term or is it a billing process in GP?

Thanks

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Mary Mallazzo
Fromkin Brothers
Edison NJ
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[Thaddeus Suter]

Its a billing process in GP. Fixed Fee Project Billing is from Great Plains Project Accounting (PA) module.
I just saw you use Wennsoft. I don’t know about it as we do not use it in any of the companies.
The PA Project is set up as type Fixed Fee/Price and Billing is done off the agreed upon schedule of values (Fees) that are added to the Projects in the Contract. The Fee Schedule is setup to match the contract with the Owner/GC

Revenue is recognized as a percent of completion (Costs incurred/Budget(Forecast) cost) not from the Billing in this type of projects.

These types are for “long term” construction type projects. Ie. several months to years.

You can also setup small Fixed Price jobs where you bill off an agreed upon schedule of Fees but you don’t recognize revenue as  a percent of completion. These are for short term jobs like one month maybe two or so.

The third common type in PA would be pure T&M where you bill hours and rates such as for professional services design jobs  and you could mix in some flat fee components such as Permit fees.

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Thaddeus Suter
Retus, Inc
HELOTES TX
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[Mary Mallazzo]

We do not have that module.  Does that module allow you  to track job costs/revenue?

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Mary Mallazzo
Fromkin Brothers
Edison NJ
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[Thaddeus Suter]

Yes the GP Project Accounting is designed for tracking Job costs and revenues.

Its been a core module and free for several GP versions. At least GP2013 and later I think.
Fully integrated to Receivables, Purchasing,  Payables, Inventory, Payroll and of course the GL. It has its own Billing sub module so does not use SOP and has its own Time and Expenses for employees that can feed AP and Payroll if desired.

I’m not a VAR and don’t sell software or services but your VAR will know. Only a few VARs know how to implement it well so sometimes maybe they didn’t tell you about it or they sell things they can get a bigger commission on.

I have used it for large construction type and professional services type jobs for fifteen years or more. Right now probably 600 open Projects in four companies.

Maybe it is just not installed in your environment.
Here is a standard Inquiry of Contracts by customer:

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Thaddeus Suter
Retus, Inc
HELOTES TX
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[Thaddeus Suter]

And since I’m putting a bunch of stuff out here. Maybe if not useful to you someone else.

Follows is what a GP Project Accounting Schedule of Fees would look like. Of course these are configured based on your business lines. This is a sample.

A job might have five agreed upon fee lines in the schedule or 300. Depends on the contract with the customer and how the job will be billed 

Again, I’m not peddling the product or services I just want the information out there for users to better understand what GP has.

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Thaddeus Suter
Retus, Inc
HELOTES TX
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[Mary Mallazzo]

Thank you for all this info.
  I am guess that the original VAR either was not aware of this module, or as you mentioned, made a few more dollars selling Wennsoft as a bolt on.

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Mary Mallazzo
Fromkin Brothers
Edison NJ
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