ERP Software for Construction

More and more large and complex construction organisations are seeing the benefit of using industry-specific, purpose-built Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. Compared to generic business management systems, an ERP for construction gives you complete control over estimation and profitability, compliance and document management, and project accounting.

What is ERP Software for the Construction Industry?

An ERP system is a powerful platform that you can use to manage a complex organisation. This includes Finance, Tax, and Accounting, Payroll, Projects, Inventory and Supply Chain, Sales and Customers, Field Services, and Production – depending on your organisation’s requirements. Because an ERP has access to data from across the entire organisation and between different departments, you can use this information to automate processes that usually rely on manual intervention. ERP systems, and the automations within, are customisable to fit your unique business – no two companies will ever have the same configuration.

ERP software for the construction industry is better suited to meet the needs of the industry and be further customised to meet your exact requirements than generic software. For complex construction organisations, the best ERP systems are often cloud-based, so that you can access all your important data at any time, whether you are on site or in the office.

When organisations in the construction industry use an ERP system that has been completely customised to meet their needs, they benefit from less time spent on manual tasks, fewer mistakes, and better data-driven decision-making.

Stop Wasting Time on Manual Work that Slows Projects Down

Construction organisations often struggle with manual work when preparing budgets and project estimates, maintaining project documents and compliance requirements, and keeping the client up to date. Companies that persist with these old, manual processes risk falling behind their competitors who are more willing to embrace modern technology and improve efficiency. Manual processes in construction cause issues such as:

• Inaccurate project estimates, which may compromise your ability to bid for new work or doom a project to unprofitability before you even get on site,
• Delayed approvals, especially between the site and the office,
• Poor documentation of changes across a project lifetime,
• Slow expense allocation between project costing, payroll, and invoicing can lead to inaccurate billing to the client and waste more time resolving issues.

Implementing an ERP system for the construction industry is a critical step towards automating repetitive, manual administration tasks. This frees up your team to focus on your core purpose and growing the business.

MYOB Acumatica Capabilities for Construction Companies

MYOB Acumatica Construction is a purpose-built, cloud-based ERP system that meets the needs of complex organisations in the construction industry. Whether it is reduced administration time, greater control of costs, or real-time reporting, MYOB Acumatica Construction will improve efficiency in your organisation. Its integrated, modular design means that it can become one advanced platform to manage your entire organisation.

Accounting

MYOB Acumatica Construction has an enhanced project management and project accounting module, compared to more generic ERP systems. This means you have direct, real-time visibility over project costs, including allocated payroll expenses, margins, and outstanding customer accounts. MYOB Acumatica has specific accounting functionality for retention accounts, progress billing, and WIP reporting.

MYOB Acumatica Construction Simplify complex compliance for project and retention trust accounts Brochure

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Field Management

Connecting your onsite and office teams with the same data, in real-time, is critical to avoiding project roadblocks, reducing departmental friction, and maintaining timelines. MYOB Acumatica Construction is cloud-based, so there are no accessibility limitations. Your team can access the same data at the same time from any location, if they are connected to the internet.

Data flows both ways between teams, so any changes are captured immediately. Because MYOB Acumatica always has access to the latest information, this means daily reporting, progress monitoring, and compliance details are always up to date.

Automations

Having data integrated across your different departments is the key to effective automation. MYOB Acumatica Construction’s integrated, modular framework allows the real-time flow of data across your organisation, which can trigger automations that eliminate manual administration work.

Document capture, routing, and approvals, plus customer notifications, can all see efficiency improvement through automation. This speeds up the manual administrative work in projects so you can focus on delivery and client satisfaction.

Documentation, Reports & Forecasting

MYOB Acumatica has robust document management to store RFI/RFPs, change orders, contracts, insurance certificates, and photo logs in one connected platform. Everything can be tracked and stored against the project. Document workflows are linked to contracts, budgets, and accounting, enabling seamless handling of change orders and commitments with a complete audit trail.

MYOB Acumatica Construction supports role-based dashboards that are customisable with reports specific to each individual’s requirements. You can use the information in these reports to forecast (and reforecast) based on the latest data to keep clients up-to-date with budget and timeline changes.

Inventory & Procurement

Use MYOB Acumatica Construction to keep track of materials, orders, and supplier costs. Having this information included within your ERP system means that changes are linked directly to project budgets and costing. This streamlines your billing process and maintains accuracy across the organisation. MYOB Acumatica supports multiple cost valuation methods so you can factor in the changing cost of materials over the lifetime of a long project.

Mobile Accessibility

MYOB Acumatica is a cloud-based ERP platform with a dedicated mobile application. Using this app, field superintendents can upload progress photos and associate them with specific tasks or milestones instantly. The real-time sync between mobile updates and the core system means everyone is updated regardless of location. The mobile application can also be used to view reports and dashboards, approve tasks, and manage payroll information such as leave applications and approvals, clock-in/out, timesheets, and rostering.

Payroll and Workforce Management

MYOB Acumatica Construction has inbuilt Payroll and Workforce Management modules that are also integrated into the core ERP. MYOB Acumatica Workforce Management is ideal for companies with larger, shift-based workforces with complex rostering and timesheet requirements. Approved timesheets are automatically integrated with MYOB Acumatica Payroll and allocated to individual Projects, even with the capability to split the allocation of one employee’s time across multiple projects if appropriate. This is a key factor in assessing project profitability and controlling expenses over the lifetime of a project.

Benefits of ERP Solutions for Construction Companies

An ERP system is a tool that, if used properly, will help improve areas of the business and transform the way you do everyday business tasks. An ERP system that is built for the Construction industry will bring many tangible and measurable benefits for your organisation.

Track Every Dollar and Keep Projects Profitable

Instead of wondering where the money is going, an ERP system provides real-time insight into budgets, job costs, and cash flow across all projects. This certainty allows you to make informed decisions, prevent cost overruns, and keep projects profitable. With integrated financials and project management in one platform, you eliminate guesswork and replace anxiety with confidence in your numbers.

Stay in Control of Every Site, Every Day

An ERP system keeps you in control from wherever you are working, instead of scrambling for updates or reacting to issues after they have escalated into major problems. With real-time visibility into schedules, progress, and resource allocation, you can spot potential problems early and act before they impact timelines or budgets. Centralised and live dashboards mean you no longer piece together project update from out-of-date and scattered reports. You can manage projects proactively, minimising stress and keeping everything on track.

Cut the Manual Work and Keep Projects Moving

Free your team from the grind of endless approvals, repetitive reporting, manual document management, and time wasted fixing mistakes. Taking advantage of automation in your Construction ERP eliminates unnecessary admin that slows projects down, so you can focus on project progress. With streamlined workflows and digital approvals, tasks move faster, communication stays clear, and everyone works from the same up-to-date information. You spend less time chasing signatures and fixing mistakes, which leads to stress-free projects delivered on time and within budget.

Make Confident Calls Backed by Live Data

Stop second-guessing decisions based on outdated or incomplete information. A Construction ERP gives you instant access to accurate, real-time data across every project. With live insights at your fingertips and aggregated information from budgets and timelines to resource allocation, every critical decision you make is informed by the right information and keeps projects moving in the right direction.

Order Smarter and Eliminate Costly Delays

A Construction ERP gives you complete visibility into upcoming needs and project timelines. By connecting purchasing directly to live project schedules and budgets, you can plan, approve, and keep your team working without interruption because everything is in the right place at the right time.

Stay Compliant

A Construction ERP system stores every file in one place and assigns it to the project, which removes stress from manual compliance and document management. Cloud-based ERP systems are also maintained with obligations such as Taxable Payments Annual Reports (TPAR) and Payment Times Reporting Scheme (PTRS) to automatically support your reporting and industry-specific compliance requirements.

How to Choose the Right ERP System for Construction

Many ERP solutions for Construction have overlapping functionality but differ in the way that they integrate and manage data across the organisation. If you are ready to make the step towards a purpose-built construction ERP system, then there are two major considerations when choosing your new system:

1. The Construction ERP Software: Does the system do what we need it to do?
2. The implementation consultant: Can the team customise the software to fit our requirements?

ERP systems are sophisticated platforms that require significant customisation to match and support your complexity. You need an implementation partner who understands the system, your industry, and what makes your organisation unique, to deliver a successful implementation. Your choice of implementation consultant is as important as the ERP software itself. To make the right choice between systems, it is best to trust the advice of an experienced expert who can analyse your business processes and the available options to guide you towards the best outcome.

Kilimanjaro Consulting are experts in MYOB Acumatica Construction implementations. We have a proven history of improving efficiency for larger, more complex project-based organisations through the clever use of innovative, proven, and creative technology such as MYOB Acumatica Construction.

One of the keys to our success is our structured implementation methodology, which has been developed and honed through thousands of ERP implementations. We rely on the methodology to manage the risks associated with an implementation and ensure it is delivered to meet your requirements the first time. We understand that in all complex projects, the cost of rectification and completion far outweighs the cost of doing it properly the first time.

Watch the video to learn about how our client, Thompson Construction, found efficiency improvement through our MYOB Acumatica implementation.

Frequently Asked Questions

MYOB Acumatica Construction is a complex and fully featured business management platform. Naturally, this leads to many frequently asked questions.

How much does ERP Software Implementation Cost for a Construction Business?

Implementation costs for MYOB Acumatica Construction vary from business to business, because of the varying requirements for customisation. Every organisation will use the system differently and with a different number of users, so there will be variance between companies for the final cost.

An MYOB Acumatica Construction implementation will cost between $75k and $125k, depending on the individual requirements. More complex organisations could fit outside this range. Ongoing licence fees range between $3k and $7k per month.

Your organisation may be more or less complex than the exemplar. The best way to find out how much it will cost is to talk to an expert. Our team will attempt to understand the uniqueness of your organisation, how MYOB Acumatica can best meet your needs, and provide a quote for implementation, ongoing licences and support.

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Does MYOB Acumatica Construction have CRM Capabilities?

Yes, MYOB Acumatica has a built-in, integrated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) module. CRM and ERP systems have different core objectives, but are both valuable systems for improving efficiency. Integrated CRM as part of the MYOB Acumatica platform improves the way you manage customer and prospect relationships, while automating manual admin tasks based on data you are already collecting from the rest of the system.

Features in MYOB Acumatica’s CRM module include:

• Opportunity and Pipeline Management with configurable order types and flexible per-customer pricing matrices,
• Project Accounts, including lead and list management, email marketing, and document management per customer,
• Automated Service and Support through case and contract management functionality that is also tied to document management.

MYOB Acumatica Customer Management eBook

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The core focus of any ERP system is on financials and project management, and so CRM functionality is less of a focus. If you require stronger functionality in regard to customer and prospect relationship management, you can seamlessly integrate systems such as HubSpot into MYOB Acumatica to get the benefit of a market-leading CRM system and market-leading ERP system.

Is it better to build or buy ERP construction software?

In general, unless your organisation requires an extremely specific feature that is not catered for by the wider market, it is far better to buy a construction ERP compared to building one in-house.

Advantages of buying an ERP system for the construction industry:

• Much faster deployment, as the system is being customised to fit your requirements, not built from scratch,
• Customising an established ERP system uses pre-developed, baseline functionality and then adds additional customisations to suit your requirements,
• Support from experienced experts who understand the software and how it was built and configured for your organisation,
• Maintenance, including backups, server allocation, and disaster relief, is the responsibility of the software vendor, especially in the case of cloud-based ERP systems such as MYOB Acumatica,
• Automatic updates, including the introduction of new compliance requirements to keep pace with local legislation requirements, as the product is continually developed with new functionality,
• Continued development from a larger team that is specialised and experienced in construction ERP,
• Take advantage of significant development into the User Interface and User Experience of the system,
• Access to new technologies (such as Artificial Intelligence) as they are developed and introduced through more established developers,
• Training is widely accessible for established ERP products.

Advantages of building your own ERP solution:

• You have complete control, responsibility, and governance over how the system uses, stores, and manipulates your data,
• You can develop unique functionality to suit your business requirements that you would not be able to get anywhere else.

Disadvantages of building your own ERP solution:

• Extremely difficult to forecast the total cost of developing and maintaining the ERP system,
• You have total responsibility for backup protocol and disaster recovery, which is a significant risk if anything goes wrong and you are not prepared,
• The system will require constant development and maintenance to perform at its peak, including the manual introduction of new compliance requirements,
• User Interface and User Experience are often a secondary priority compared to functionality, so the system will likely be difficult to use,
• Your team requires specific expertise on a one-of-a-kind product. New starters in your team will be starting from square one.

If you require specific functionality that cannot be catered for in an established ERP system, then you might find it in a best-of-breed add-on that can be integrated into the core platform. Common integrated solutions for the Construction industry are:

• Workbench
• ProEst
• ProCore
• Kynection

Our team can help you navigate the ERP selection process, including identifying any required add-on solutions that can help your team improve efficiency.

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Do you offer a live demo of MYOB Acumatica Construction?

Yes, we can offer a short, high-level on-demand demonstration as well as a longer, more in-depth and customised demonstration, prepared by our team. Both options are stress and obligation-free ways to tell if MYOB Acumatica Construction could be a good fit for your business.

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Next Steps

Contact us to organise a free, no-obligation assessment of your organisation and whether MYOB Advanced Construction is the right fit for you. Kilimanjaro Consulting is experienced in understanding the unique requirements of construction organisations and customising the solution to improve efficiency.

To start a conversation about how MYOB Acumatica Construction can improve efficiency in your organisation, email sales@kilimanjaro-consulting.com or call 1300 857 464 (AU) or 0800 436 774 (NZ).