Engineering Services and Project Consulting companies across disciplines, namely, electrical, mechanical, electronics, construction, architectural and those addressing infrastructure execute projects wherein tracking Project Budget and Actuals for material, labor, revenue and other expenses is essential. These companies execute a wide range of projects across industry verticals which make it important for them to adopt best practices.

In order to deliver on milestones within budget you need to have effective co-ordination and communication between the various departments involved, coupled with accurate tracking of materials, expenses and revenues. In other words, you require a strong project management and job costing mechanism built into a robust accounting system.

Business Challenge

For every project, post analysis and requirement scoping, a detailed design and component selection is undertaken. A Bill of materials is then created which goes to the purchase department wherein it has to be logged in against the specific project. In such a complex scenario there is a major challenge in material management, tracking and planning. Also since there are various costs that have to be incorporated into the project billing, such as material cost, time cost of man hours spent by personnel from multiple departments, you require a system that could ensure accurate time and materials costing while providing estimates to its clients. The billing process is also quite complex as invoices need to be raised at any phase of the project, hence it is essential for project cost visibility at all times in the project cycle.

Apart from needing a project job costing solution, there is also a requirement for accounting software that could meet your financial requirements, ranging from Indian tax compliance and payment, accounts receivable and accounts payable, bank reconciliation and general ledger.

All small and mid-sized companies are concerned about the impact that growth would have on its technological investments and would want a modular, scalable solution that would adapt to its unique workings and keep pace with the organization's growth.

Solution

An ERP system having a strong project job costing module that integrates with the financial modules and purchase order addresses these rigorous requirements. A sophisticated, robust operating and accounting system, The Project Job Costing module makes the estimating, tracking, costing, and billing of projects easy and manageable, thus simplifying the cost control and planning. Project Job Costing connects project activities with company financials, provides extensive inquiry and reporting capabilities and helps ensure accurate and timely accounting and billing processes throughout the life of a project. The powerful features incorporated in

Project and Job Costing help in identifying potential issues, tracking costs, ensuring profitability and determining success factors for any project. The automated billing features in this job cost accounting software streamline customer invoicing and reduce the time spent managing this process.

Benefits

The project and job costing module in an ERP enables you to place orders, receive materials, track materials and assign manpower against specific projects. Since it automatically tracks the project cost throughout its life cycle, it allows the managers to keep track of project profitability at all times.

The strong reporting feature avoids delays in the project work flow due to communication lapses, prevents misallocation of materials and ensures effective utilization of manpower and resources to guarantee profitability.

By providing a greater understanding of the profitability and multi-level costing of projects, the ERP also helps you to estimate better. Since it helps in tracking arrival and dispatch of materials at all times, it also facilitates supply chain management.

Companies like Sage India has their ERP solutions which are project based ERP helping SME and SMB's.

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