FAQ for Project Driven Companies:

Feel free to email us for specific questions you might have about your needs or call us at 1 866 455 9876
 

Q.  How does the web based Business Portal help you?

    Ans: Clearly the internet as a tool for delivering information to people is well proven.  We have a business portal for getting at the live information in our financial systems via the internet.  This keeps your Project Managers (PM) out the role of record keepers.  Deliver in a secure manner, all the information your PM's needs to proactively manage their projects for maximum profitabilty

Q.  Can Solomon collect times cards over the Web?

    Ans: Labor can be collected via web forms or over the local company Network.  Labor, which is consistently one of the key variable costs, can be processed into the Solomon payroll or into a service bureau payroll system.  Labor collected, but not yet processed into a payroll system, is available to be "reported on an accrued basis directly into the projects'

Q.  How much flexibility is their in defining the work breakdown structure (WBS)?

    Ans:  Solomon is extremely flexible in this area.  The project or job id can have mulitple segments(.16 digits/ 6 segments)  The task or phase can also have multiple segments(24 digits/ 8 segments).  The multiple options for work break down structure can be made simple if that is your business need, or very robust, if that is your need.  Prior jobs can be used as templates to facilitate rapidly setting up new jobs.  Budgets can be imported, and if you are using Project Server you can synchronize between the Project server jobs and the Solomon back office jobs, at a click of a button.

Q.  Can you track Open Purchase orders against project profitability?

    Ans. Yes, Open PO commitments are critical for all project and are tracked on the typical project profitability screens.   This is an example of the tight integration of the purchasing module and the project system.

Q.  Can you track change orders / budget revisions/ change orders?

    Ans.  Yes, revisions are tracked.  Since you have a live link between your back office project data and Microsoft Project Server;   This gives your project managers the ability to see the latest costs/ hours information on their projects. Similarly, your PM's can choose to enter changes to their jobs in the Microsoft Project Server software and have this information be synchronized in the back office accounting system.  Take advantage of the integration of the power of the web work flow with Project Server and the robust financial tracking solutions.  Get back to have one source of numbers for making key management decisions, and stop playing the game of "whose numbers" do I believe!!

Q.  Can you automate the invoice process?

    Ans.  Not only do you have the ability to design your invoices to show the types of data required by your customer, but you can create invoices in a matter of minutes!  There is the ability to create alerts (ie email messages etc) which tell the PM that it is time to review the preliminary invoice to confirm the invoice prior to being finally generated.  Over the web the PM can view and approve preliminary invoices.

Q.  How can your system help to make sure our projects are not under-billed?

    Ans: Because for Time and Material contracts is a function on timely collection of costs, it is critical that costs be quickly collect and entered into the back office software.   These costs can be submitted via web portals, spreadsheets etc.; so both time and expenses are quickly recognized in the softtware.   The software allows tracking of payroll  even though the payroll payment has not bee made.  Upon payment of payroll these accruals are reversed.  This approach makes sure that costs in a project at timely so billings can be correctly generated.  The project expenses submitted are automatically transferred to both the project and also the Accounts Payable system.   All payroll or project expenses can be routed through   an approval system, which also can be tracked for items submittted buy not approved.

When preliminary invoices are created, any adjustments for invoice writedowns are tracked.

Q.  Can you handle electronic reimbursement of employee expense reports?

  Ans: Many times employees and sub contractors are offsite at projects and sending via US mail their expense report checks is a not an exceptable option.  We have third party software which allows selected employees and vendors to have payemnts made electronically for both payroll and expense report reimbursements.

 Q.  Can the Solomon software help in  revenue recognition issues ?

Keeping deferred billed in sync with recognized revenues is often a big job for companies.  We have several tools to help properly track these transactions.  Our software has been used in many different industries to solve this problem.  For instance, construction billijng, service contracts, and progress billings are readily supported.  All entries for transactions for revenue flow through integrated general ledger system.

Q. .Can you track labor utilization for my employees?

Many labor intensive business (lawyers, cpa's, archetech's etc) are very concerned about tracking labor italicization.  Budgets for utilization can be created by employee and tracked.  Alerts, or email messaging, can be tied to key utilization metrics.  In addition, with either Microsoft Project Server or Sandler Kahne 3rd party software, we can track anticipated labor loading/ future utilization rates.

Q. Can you tracked payroll hours submitted by not approved to be submitted to project?

Yes, after payroll records are electronically entered, the system can track both unapproved time cards, and time cards submitted by not yet processed through payroll calculations.

Q.  Can you help in monitoring non labor resources (ie equipment/ conference rooms) availablility?

Yes, although this feature is somewhat limited.   Usage of key non labor resouces can be charged to projects.  You can also collect non billable memo information that was used on a project. For instance, you might want to track number of blueprint copies or Xerox copies used on a project, even though these items are not billed to the client/

Q.  Do you have visibility into skill inventories?

Yes, we have the ability through several methods to track key HR parameters as it relates to projects. This is true for both the project tracking software and the service tracking software.  With the Project Server software we can do load balancing using algorithms.

Q.  How can you issue / track material purchases to the projects?

Material can either be issued from an inventory account or purchase orders can be directly purchased to a  project.

Q.  How can you speed up processing of cash receipts and cash disbursements?

Instead of logging into separate companies to write checks, why not take advantage of centralized cash check writing with the multi company module.  See more info at this link.