Implementation Tips For Fiscal Year-End Closing and Reporting

1. Sage Construction Management Periodic Cleanup, Closeout and Maintenance:

  1. Clean up Contact Management Companies
    1. Check for and Delete Duplicate Companies
    2. Confirm there are no Pending Records or Transactions. See Vendor Hub
    3. Archive Inactive Companies. Click Here for instructions.
    4. Confirm Insurance Certificates are current. See Insurance Listing Log
    5. Confirm Licenses are current. See License Listing Log
    6. Confirm Active Companies are Classified. See Listing by Classification Log
    7. Send out W9 forms (Canada: Form TD1)
  2. Human Resources
    1. Check for and Delete Duplicate Employee Profiles
    2. Archive Inactive Employees
    3. Confirm Payroll Codes and Rates are Current. See Employee Payroll List Log
    4. Confirm Burden Calculations are correct and current
    5. Send out W4 forms (Canada: Form TD1)

2. Sage Construction Management Financials and Year End Closeout Checklist:

  1. Confirm and Approve Any Transactions in Sage Construction Management that are currently marked pending
    1. Labor Timecards
    2. Misc. Expenses
    3. Bills
    4. Sub Invoices
    5. Prime Invoices
  2. Confirm there are no transactions in Sage Construction Management posted to future dates inadvertently. See Analytics | Projects | Select Project and Prime Contract | Add Filter for only future dates
    1. Labor Timecards
    2. Equipment Timecards
    3. Misc. Expenses
    4. Bills
    5. Sub Invoices
    6. Prime Invoices
  3. Human Resources
    1. Confirm all Labor Timecards are marked Approved and Exported to your accounting software. See Unapproved Timecard Details by Employee
    2. Confirm all Misc. Expenses are marked Approved and Exported to your accounting software. See Unapproved Misc. Expenses Log
    3. Confirm all Labor Timecards have the Sage Construction Management Workers Comp Code applied. Go To HR | Labor Timecards | Actions | Approve Labor Timecards. Confirm the 'WC Code' column is added to the Log View using the Column Settings Option.
    4. Run, Print or Export the Timecard Summary By Workman's Comp Code / Employee Log Report. Go To HR | Labor Timecards | Reports.
  4. Procurement
    1. Run PO Status Log by Item Status.
    2. Confirm all PO Items are received, and vendor invoices are entered. Show PO's complete.
    3. Adjust PO's Original Quantities for delivered quantities received if there are variances
    4. Confirm all Bills are entered and have approved status and date
    5. Confirm all SCO's are marked Approved or Not Approved. No Pending SCO's. See SCO Log
    6. Confirm all SCO's were 100 % billed on Sub Invoices
    7. Confirm all Sub Invoices were 100% billed (all SOV or Line Items)
    8. Confirm all Sub Invoice Retainage or Holdback was billed out 100%
    9. See Sub Invoice Items Log by Job Cost Code
    10. See Sub Invoice Billing Summary Log
  5. Prepare to Archive completed Prime Contracts
    1. Confirm Cost Budgets are complete as entered
    2. All approved CPR's are converted to Prime Change Orders
    3. All Prime Change Orders have Cost Budgets. See CO Budget Summary Log
    4. Adjust budgets to show Contract 100% complete
    5. All Prime Change Orders marked approved. No Pending Prime Change Orders.
    6. All Prime Invoices marked approved. No Pending Prime Invoices
    7. Cost Plus Prime Invoices show all Approved Costs are billed and markup was applied correctly. See Cost Plus Contract Pre-Bill Report
    8. All Prime Invoice SOV/Line Items billed 100% complete. See Prime Contract Invoice Log
    9. All Prime Invoice Retention or Holdback is billed. See Prime Contract Invoice Log
    10. Mark all Completed Prime Contracts as 'completed and closed' status
    11. Run WIP Analysis to confirm all Completed Prime Contracts have a status of 'completed and closed' and confirm Prime Contracts show as 100% complete
  6. Prepare to Archive Completed Projects
    1. Confirm all transactions are approved, exported, and considered complete.
    2. Confirm all Prime Contracts in each Project you plan to archive have a status date in the Closing Year and the Status of each Prime Contract is marked 'Approved and Closed'.
    3. Archive Project. Click Here for instructions.
  7. Confirm all Transactions in AccountingLink are exported to your accounting software. Run 'Sync' Process in your AccountingLink for Accounting.
  8. Backup your accounting software and store the backup in a safe location, preferably offsite.

3. Sage Construction Management Financials and Reconciling Year End

  1. Possible reasons Sage Construction Management totals do not match Accounting Software totals:
    1. Transactions entered in Accounting Software, but Not Sage Construction Management.
    2. Transactions entered in Sage Construction Management and not exported to Accounting Software. Possible reasons:
      1. The transactions were never approved
      2. The transactions were Marked as Exported in the AccountingLink Advanced Utilities but was never recorded in your accounting software.
    3. When a Project or Customer Company was never linked to the Customer Company and Job in Accounting Software, this causes Approved Transactions to be held until those links are made
    4. Sales Tax applied or calculated differently in Accounting Software
    5. Payroll Timecards calculated in Accounting do not match the cost and burden in Sage Construction Management
      1. Rates and Burden in Sage Construction Management Do Not Match Accounting
      2. Payroll Checks are calculated by 3rd Party
      3. Labor Timecards not recorded in Sage Construction Management
      4. Overhead and/or Salary Payroll Costed to Jobs in Accounting and Prime Contracts in Sage Construction Management.
      5. Costs Accrued on Labor Timecards in Sage Construction Management are not recorded in Accounting Software
    6. Equipment Timecards in Sage Construction Management do not export to Accounting Software
      1. AJE's can be recorded in your accounting software and costs charged to jobs.
      2. This method requires an offsetting entry (Credit) to a Contra-Account or Over/Under Allocation Account.
        1. Since Equipment Timecards are estimated and accrued costs, the actual expenses (fuel, repairs, maintenance, depreciation, interest) that are included in the Equipment Cost Accrual Rates need to be recorded as Non-Job Cost or General and Administrative Expenses and affect the Contra-Account or Over/Under Allocation Account.
        2. The Accrued Equipment Costs will Debit Cost of Goods Sold and Credit an Over/Under Allocation or Contra-Account. Actual Equipment Expenses are not recorded in Sage Construction Management and the AJE's in your accounting software will Debit an Over/Under Allocation or Contra-Account and Credit Accounts Payable, Credit Card Liabilities, or Cash/Checking Accounts.
        3. Any over or under allocation at the end of a quarter or year can be allocated to cost by some method of your own design.
    7. Confirm transactions in Accounting Software are recorded in Chart of Accounts that have a COGS account type.
    8. Beginning Balances recorded during Implementation did not take into consideration the timing or were not recorded
      1. Beginning Balance Entries representing the transaction summary in the current accounting year will have a transaction status date in the current accounting year.
      2. Beginning Balance Entries representing the transaction summary in prior accounting year(s) will have a transaction status date in the prior accounting year(s).
      3. The goal of these dates represents timing differences so that Sage Construction Management Dashboards filtered on the Current Accounting Year dates do not include Amounts recorded in prior accounting years.
    9. Jobs tracked in Accounting Software that were not tracked in Sage Construction Management
  2. Find Reports in your Accounting Software the show:
    1. All transaction Summarized by Item (Service Item or Non-Inventory Items depending on which accounting software you integrated with).
    2. All Transactions not exported to the Accounting Software using Service Items (In some software these are called Non-Inventory Items).
  3. Reconcile by Level of Detail in Accounting Software. Several optional levels of detail:
    1. Sum by Prime Contract (Job Revenue vs Job Cost)
    2. Sum By Prime Contract and then by Classification (Service Items in Accounting Software)
    3. By Transaction Line Item Detail
  4. Sage Construction Management Dashboards available by level of detail
    1. Select all Active Projects and Approved or Approved and Closed Prime Contracts
    2. Summary by Project and Contract:
      1. Billings vs Cost-To-Date
      2. Billings vs Cost-To-Date by Fiscal Year
      3. WIP Analysis
    3. Summary by Job Cost Code or by other Internal Classifications
      1. Sage Construction Management provides this level of detail when a Single Project and a Single Prime Contract are selected at a time.
      2. Billings vs Cost-To-Date
      3. Billings vs Cost-To-Date by Fiscal Year
      4. WIP Analysis
    4. Full Detail by Transaction Line Item
      1. Remember only certain Transaction Types Export to the Accounting Software
        1. Prime Invoices (Net and Retention or Holdback)
        2. Labor Timecards (hours only)
        3. Bills
        4. Sub Invoices (Net and Retention or Holdback)
        5. Misc. Expenses (Credit Cards, Debit Cards, Handwrite Checks, Employee Out of Pocket Expenses for reimbursement.
      2. Run these Dashboards, in the Detailed Analysis, select the 'View Details' Button, then' Export to Excel'
        1. Billings vs Cost To Date
        2. Est. Cost vs Cost To Date By Resource Type
        3. Est. Cost vs Cost To Date By Transaction Type

4. Reconciliation Pointers:

  1. Always begin comparing at the highest level of summary detail and then drill down only of larger variances. Reconcile but one-line Job Level first. For each Job that is off by considerably amount, drill down to Summary by Job Cost Code. For any Job Cost total that is considerably different, drill down to the transaction level.
  2. Finding the cause of larger variances may help identify variances of smaller amounts.
  3. If your AccountingLink is setup correctly, your job costs recorded in Sage Construction Management should post on your Accounting Software's Chart of Accounts as a Cost Of Goods Sold Account Type.
  4. If you created an Overhead Project and Contract for Non-Job or General Administrative Expenses in Sage Construction Management, treat that as a separate reconciliation. These transactions should be expensed as General and Administrative, NOT to Cost of Goods Sold Account Types.
  5. Think big picture. Don't get bogged down in details until you find the primary cause of variances.
  6. Remember to use identical date ranges on reports, when comparing totals in Sage Construction Management to totals in your accounting software