Streamline Your Projects with Premier Construction Management Software

Managing a successful construction company in Maryland, Virginia, or DC requires precision, tight budgets, and seamless communication. Relying on basic spreadsheets or outdated software leads to costly data entry errors, payroll headaches, and mismanaged job costs. To stay competitive, modern contractors need robust software solutions tailored to the construction industry. D. Miller & Associates has over 30 years of experience helping local construction companies integrate, optimize, and troubleshoot top-tier management platforms.

Maximizing Efficiency with TCM and StarBuilder We specialize in supporting industry-leading platforms like The Construction Manager (TCM) and StarBuilder. These powerful tools unify your back-office accounting with your field operations. When correctly implemented, they provide complete visibility into your project’s financial health. Our team ensures your software is configured perfectly for your unique workflow.

• Accurate Job Costing: Track every dollar spent on materials and labor in real-time.

• Document Imaging: Digitize your paperwork to ensure blueprints, invoices, and compliance documents are never lost.

• Seamless Payroll: Integrate systems like About Time to automate remote time collection and eliminate payroll disputes.

Local Support You Can Count On Software issues halt progress and eat into your profit margins. When your systems go down, you can’t afford to wait on hold with an overseas call center. As a local business partner, we provide rapid, hands-on troubleshooting to keep your operations moving. Stop letting software frustrations slow down your builds. Contact D. Miller Associates today to optimize your construction management tools and take control of your job costs.

 

Custom Websites and Smart Marketing Tools for Local Businesses

Upgrading your small business marketing tools in Maryland, Virginia, and DC is the fastest way to multiply your customer base. Having a great service is no longer enough; you need a powerful digital presence to capture local search traffic. Many local companies struggle because they rely on outdated websites and manual client follow-ups.

D. Miller Associates now offers comprehensive digital marketing solutions designed specifically to scale your business and increase your daily conversions.

Custom WordPress Websites That Drive Traffic

Your website is the digital storefront for your entire operation. If it is slow, hard to navigate on mobile devices, or looks outdated, potential customers will bounce off your page instantly. We build lightning-fast, highly optimized WordPress websites that are designed specifically to rank at the top of Google.

Our web development process ensures your site stays online, loads instantly, and turns casual visitors into paying clients.

• SEO-Optimized Design: We structure your site perfectly for search engine crawlers.

• Mobile Responsiveness: Your site will look flawless on any smartphone or tablet.

• Secure Hosting: We provide robust hosting environments to prevent costly website crashes.

Powerful Marketing Tools and CRM Automation

Following up with new leads manually is incredibly time-consuming and prone to human error. Our advanced digital marketing tools automate your entire customer journey from the first click to the final sale. By implementing a powerful Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, you never lose track of a potential deal.

We set up automated email campaigns and SMS follow-ups that nurture your leads automatically. This ensures your sales pipeline remains full without requiring extra effort from your staff.

Leveraging AI for Better Customer Conversion

Artificial intelligence is completely changing how local businesses interact with their customers. We integrate smart AI tools, like automated webchat widgets, directly into your new website. These tools engage with your site visitors instantly, answering basic questions and booking appointments while you sleep.

By utilizing these cutting-edge marketing strategies, you can easily 10x your customer reach across the DMV area. Contact D. Miller  Associates today to transform your digital presence and start dominating your local market.

 

Secure Cloud Backup and Server Upkeep for DMV Businesses

Finding reliable cloud backup services in Virginia, Maryland, and DC is critical for keeping your doors open in today’s digital landscape. If your internal network crashes or your website goes offline, you immediately start losing customers and revenue. Modern businesses cannot afford extended downtime or catastrophic data loss.

D. Miller & Associates has expanded our services to ensure your entire digital infrastructure stays completely online and fully operational around the clock.

Maximizing Your Uptime and Staying Online

Your customers expect your business to be available whenever they need you. Constant server drops and network outages frustrate your team and drive your clients directly to your competitors. Our dedicated IT team actively monitors your systems to prevent these outages before they ever occur.

We focus on proactive maintenance rather than waiting for a digital disaster to happen.

• 24/7 Monitoring: We track your network health continuously to spot early warning signs.

• Guaranteed Uptime: We implement redundancies so your operations never skip a beat.

• Rapid Response: We resolve technical glitches immediately to keep your workflow moving.

Advanced Cloud Backups That Protect Your Data

A single hardware failure or cyberattack can wipe out years of critical business files. Traditional physical hard drives are no longer enough to guarantee the safety of your information. You need a modern, cloud-based safety net that covers your entire network.

If the worst happens and your servers crash completely, we can get your data back. Our advanced cloud recovery systems restore your files, applications, and network settings safely and securely.

Routine Server Upkeep and Maintenance

Servers require constant attention, patching, and optimization to run at peak efficiency. Ignoring routine server upkeep leaves your systems vulnerable to security breaches and performance bottlenecks. We handle all the complex backend IT work so you can focus entirely on running your company.

Our team ensures that your software is always up-to-date and your hardware is fully optimized. Contact D. Miller Associates today to secure your network and keep your business online permanently.

 

Expert TCM Software Support and Custom Reporting for Local Contractors

 

Securing expert TCM software support in Maryland is the key to maximizing your software investment. The Construction Manager (TCM) is a remarkably powerful tool for job cost accounting and project management. However, many contractors only use a fraction of its true capabilities.

If your team is struggling with confusing administrative settings or broken workflows, you are losing valuable time. D. Miller & Associates offers deep, specialized support to optimize your entire TCM environment.

Mastering Advanced TCM Reporting

TCM holds an incredible amount of data regarding your work-in-progress, labor hours, and overhead costs. Getting that data out of the system and into a readable format is where many teams struggle. Standard reports often do not provide the specific metrics your executive team demands.

We help you build comprehensive reporting manuals tailored specifically to your company.

• Custom dashboards: See exactly what you want the moment you log in.

• Automated exports: Schedule reports to generate automatically in Excel or PDF formats.

• Standardized training: Reduce onboarding time for new accounting staff with clear documentation.

Optimizing the TCM Document Manager

A cluttered, disorganized digital filing system slows down your entire accounts payable department. TCM Document Manager is designed to streamline how project invoices and lien waivers are processed.

Eliminating Paper Bottlenecks

We help you configure the system so scanned images of invoices attach directly to the corresponding account balances. This allows your project managers to drill down from a high-level job cost directly to the supporting paper invoice.

Routing and Approvals

Invoices should never sit on a project manager’s desk for two weeks. We can set up automated routing workflows so documents are digitally sent to the right person for immediate approval.

Utilizing TCM Job View for Project Managers

Your accounting team and your project managers need entirely different access levels within the software. TCM Job View is the perfect solution for bridging this gap safely.

It gives your project managers an easy-to-use, Excel-like interface to view real-time job costs. They can monitor subcontractor performance and labor productivity without ever accessing your sensitive corporate financial data. We ensure these permission levels are configured securely.

Your Dedicated TCM Support Partner

When your software produces an error, you cannot afford to wait days for a response from a massive corporate helpdesk. You need a partner who knows your exact setup and can remote in immediately.

We have been working with The Construction Manager for decades. From troubleshooting deep administrative permissions to fixing data entry errors, we ensure your back office runs flawlessly. Contact us today to optimize your TCM software and take control of your job costs. Contact Us today and boost your productivity. 

 

Reliable Small Business IT Support and Fast Data Recovery Services

 

Finding reliable small business IT support in Maryland is essential for keeping your daily operations running smoothly. Hardware failures, network outages, and accidental deletions can bring your company to a complete standstill. When disaster strikes, you need a local team that can step in immediately and fix the problem.

D. Miller & Associates provides comprehensive technology services for businesses across the DMV. From custom PC setups to complex server migrations, we handle your entire network infrastructure.

Protecting Your Most Valuable Business Data

Your business data is the most valuable asset your company owns. Traditional file backups are rarely enough when a major server failure occurs. You need a comprehensive disaster recovery plan that protects your entire operating environment.

If your system crashes, do not panic. We can get your data back. Our advanced restoration protocols ensure that your files, applications, and network settings are recovered safely.

• Rapid restoration: We minimize your downtime so you can get back to work.

• Complete backups: We secure your entire system, not just a few loose files.

• Automated safety: We set up continuous online backups so you never have to remember to save your work.

Seamless Server Migrations for Growing Teams

When your business outgrows its current hardware, upgrading your server can feel incredibly risky. A poorly handled migration can lead to corrupted databases and massive productivity losses. We specialize in making this transition completely invisible to your staff.

Careful Pre-Migration Planning

We map out your entire network architecture before moving a single byte of data. This ensures all your user permissions, active directories, and security protocols transfer perfectly.

Weekend and After-Hours Deployments

We perform our major system migrations outside of your normal business hours. Your employees will leave work on Friday and return on Monday to a faster, fully optimized network.

Comprehensive PC and Hardware Support

Beyond massive server projects, we provide everyday technical support for your office staff. Slow computers and dropping Wi-Fi signals cost your business thousands of dollars in wasted payroll.

Custom Built Computers

Off-the-shelf computers from retail stores are filled with unnecessary software that slows them down. We build custom desktop computers tailored exactly to your specific business workload.

Virus and Malware Removal

Cyber threats are evolving faster than ever before. If an employee accidentally clicks a malicious link, we provide immediate on-site troubleshooting to isolate the virus. We thoroughly clean the infected machine and deploy robust anti-virus protection across your entire network.

Stop dealing with frustrating technology issues and unreliable tech support hotlines. Call D. Miller Associates today for expert, on-site IT support that actually understands your business.

 

Or, “Are You Really Making Money, and If So, How Much?”

The Construction Industry has historically operated at one of the lowest profit margins in American Business.  Because of these low profit margins, it’s critical that a contractor be able to adequately track, monitor and control his job costs.  Even a few percentage points of the total job budget can make the difference between a successful or a losing bid, and a well-managed or a failing company.

It’s important that the accumulation of actual job costs correlates with the method used to produce the total job cost estimate. This enables you to accurately measure profitability as the job progresses, as well as adjust for overruns and unforeseen circumstances while there is still a chance of recapturing some or part of a loss. In addition, many contractors use accumulated job costs to determine the amount to bill for work completed–if costs are understated or not kept up to date, billings and cash flow may be negatively affected. Your accountant will rely on your job cost reporting in determining your tax liability, just as your banker or bonding agent will compare your financial performance to industry benchmarks.  If you’re not properly classifying direct and indirect job costs, or if you’re unable to reconcile your job costs, you may end up overpaying your taxes, under- or over-bidding future work, or drawing unwarranted attention from the IRS or other financial institutions.

Finally, when it comes time to justify your costs (e.g, to support costs included in draws, time and materials or cost-plus contracts, or change orders/claims), it is critical that your method of cost accumulation be the same as that used to estimate and price the work.  Otherwise, it may be impossible to collect for all costs incurred.

There are a number of methods contractors use to accumulate their job costs—smaller contractors may type descriptions and amounts into Excel spreadsheets, while relying on programs like Quicken, QuickBooks or Peachtree to keep track of their bills and their checkbook.   However, it’s easy to outgrow these methods, and to lose control of the timeliness and accuracy of your information.  It’s at that point that contractors will either adapt the job/project and item/classification features in a generic program to their business, or move to an integrated construction accounting and job cost system, where functions like accounting, document management, estimating, project management, subcontract control, etc., can all work together.

Regardless of whether you use spreadsheets, generic software or a construction package to manage your business, you still need to ensure that the numbers your computer provides you are good ones.  This means that what we refer to as your subsidiary ledgers (accounts payable, job cost and accounts receivable are the three most important subsidiary ledgers) have to balance, or “tie,” to a General Ledger.  This holds true whether all of your ledgers are in a single integrated package, or if, for example, your Job Cost ledger os in Excel spreadsheets, your Accounts Payable ledger is in QuickBooks Pro, and your General Ledger is maintained by your accountant.

 What does that mean?  Let’s take your Accounts Payable ledger as a simple example.   You print an Accounts Payable report called “Open Payables by Job,” which lists the invoices you need to pay on each of your jobs as of a specified point in time (as well as retention payable, if your company uses retention).  There will be a total for each job, a total for the “non-job” (e.g., overhead) invoices, and then a “Grand Total” for the report.   You then compare this report to two other ledgers:  the Job Cost Ledger and the General Ledger.  The total for each job on your “Open Payables by Job” report should equal the “Amount Owed” value for each job in your Job Cost Ledger, and the Grand Total for the report should equal the number in your General Ledger Accounts Payable account(s).

Reconciling the Job Cost Ledger is less simple.  You may have a single account in your General Ledger called “Work in Progress,” or you may have accounts for Labor, Material, Subcontract, Equipment, Payroll Burden, and Other.  At any point in time you specify, if you print a Job Cost Ledger, the “Grand Total” for all your jobs should equal the “Work in Progress” value in your General Ledger.  If you have several work in progress accounts, the totals by “Cost Type” (Labor, Material, etc.) in your Job Ledger should tie to the values of the corresponding General Ledger accounts.

There are other issues which can further complicate the Job Cost reconciliation process:  if your company reports on a “percent complete” basis, there are values inside your General Ledger for “overbillings” and “underbillings” (deferred costs), which have to be tied to Job Cost.  If some or all of your labor is self-performed, it’s important that labor burden (Payroll Taxes, Workers’ Compensation, Liability, etc.) be properly posted to the Job Cost Ledger.  However, if your Payroll system (or Payroll Ledger) doesn’t provide a method to allocate the job-related labor burden to the “cost of construction” section of the General Ledger instead of the overhead section, your reporting will be inaccurate.

The goals of your Job Cost Ledger are to ensure that actual costs and estimated costs can be properly compared; to ensure that you bill for and collect on your costs, overhead and profit; and to allow you to compare your operating margins and overhead percentages with others in your industry segment.   Reconciling your Job Costs ensures that numbers in your Job Cost Ledger are timely and accurate.  Keep in mind that most integrated construction systems were designed with these goals in mind, so that you’ll get maximum accuracy reporting capabilities from your system, with minimal effort.

(Want to learn more about integrated construction software, and how D. Miller Associates can make it work for you?  Call 800-895-1698 for more information today, or email info@dmillerassociates.com.)

Many smaller contractors, Fourth, contractors’ financial statements are subject to significant scrutiny by outside users, such as sureties and bankers, who often compare financial performance with industry benchmarks.  If, for example, the contractor is including direct and/or indirect job costs in overhead rather than charging them to jobs, the contractor’s overhead will appear excessive.

Thus, how and what costs are included in the job cost and job estimate affect not only the amount of revenue recognition, but also cash flow (due to underbilling for work completed) and profitability (due to the inability to include all cost incurred in the performance of the work).

What Is Job Cost?

by Keith R. Fetridge

After 20 years of working with hundreds of different contractors, the one question I always hear is: “What should be charged to job cost?  My controller tells me we should include X, Y, and Z in our job cost, but my project manager says that his former employer charged X, Y, Z, and the kitchen sink too. Who’s right?”

As you may have already surmised, there is no simple answer that will fit every contractor’s situation. The definitions and terminology vary within industry publications, and the application of what guidance does exist varies significantly between both CPAs and construction companies.

What does the applicable accounting literature say?  The most current guidance comes from the AICPA’s Statement of Position (SOP) 81-1 “Accounting for Performance of Construction-Type and Certain Production-Type Contracts.”

SOP 81-1 states that “contract costs should be accumulated in the same manner as inventory and charged to operations in the same period in which the associated contract revenue is recognized.” Contract costs include all direct labor, subcontract, and material costs, in addition to indirect costs that are identifiable and allocable to the construction contract. What SOP 81-1 does not clearly address is the types of costs that are included within indirect costs.

It’s Not as Simple as It Sounds

The difficulty in identifying and charging costs to jobs does not arise from identifying what direct costs should be allocated to job costs. The problems arise when contractors attempt to identify what indirect costs should be charged to a job and how those indirect costs should be allocated between their current jobs.

The issue of indirect costs lies with the term itself and how different people interpret it.  For some, the term indirect cost means any cost not specifically identified to a particular project that must, therefore, be allocated according to a systematic methodology.  To others, indirect costs include only overhead items, such as estimating, purchasing, etc., which are often referred to as job overhead.

For this discussion, I will use the second definition, which includes costs such as labor burden and equipment as direct costs and classifies costs such as general conditions, field overhead, and/or job overhead as indirect costs.

Why is it so important to know what costs belong to each job?  The first and most important reason is that contract revenues earned for financial reporting purposes are generally computed based on the amount of contract costs incurred. That is, most contractors use the cost-to-cost method to determine the percentage of completion on individual jobs. As a result, the accumulation of actual job costs should correlate with the method used to derive the total job cost estimate. This enables the contractor to accurately measure profitability as the job progresses.

Second, many contractors use accumulated cost on jobs as a measure to determine what amount to bill; thus, if costs are understated, billings and cash flow may be negatively affected.

Third, when it comes time to prove a contractor’s cost (for purposes of supporting costs included in time and materials or cost-plus type contracts, or for purposes of documenting change orders or claims), it is critical that the contractor’s system of cost accumulation be the same as that used to estimate and price such work.  Otherwise, it may be impossible to collect for all costs incurred.

Fourth, contractors’ financial statements are subject to significant scrutiny by outside users, such as sureties and bankers, who often compare financial performance with industry benchmarks.  If, for example, the contractor is including direct and/or indirect job costs in overhead rather than charging them to jobs, the contractor’s overhead will appear excessive.

Thus, how and what costs are included in the job cost and job estimate affect not only the amount of revenue recognition, but also cash flow (due to underbilling for work completed) and profitability (due to the inability to include all cost incurred in the performance of the work).

Direct Costs

Direct costs are relatively easy to identify and accumulate for most contractors.  Direct costs can generally be defined as those elements of cost associated with the specific work to be put in place.  The difficult aspect of identifying and allocating direct costs lies with the portion that must be accumulated in pools and allocated to job costs.

Some of the most commonly identifiable direct costs are:

• Actual labor wages and related payroll taxes (FICA/Medicare, FUTA, and SUTA), fringe benefits (pension, health insurance, life and disability), and insurance (workers’ compensation and liability), etc.
• Charges, fees, and assessments incurred in the performance of a specific contract, including taxes, freight, storage costs, etc.
• Subcontractors’ costs.
• Equipment (either owned or rented) used in the performance of the work. This includes both ownership and operating costs, such as depreciation, insurance, storage, taxes, licenses, maintenance, repairs, transportation, fuel, oil, tires, etc.
• Other costs – bonds, permits, etc.

Indirect Costs

The identification, accumulation, and allocation of indirect costs is by far the most difficult aspect of job costing.  Practice varies greatly between individual contractors depending on the size and type of work being performed.  What determines if a particular cost should be classified as an indirect job cost or as a G&A cost?  To make that determination, ask yourself the following questions:

1)   Does the cost relate to the performance of a particular job in progress?

2)   Does the cost relate directly to the contractor’s construction activities?

If the answer is “yes” to either of the questions, then the costs should generally be included as either direct or indirect job costs. If the costs are time-related, and do not relate to contracting activities, then they should be classified as overhead costs.

The types of costs that are typically included as indirect costs include:

• Project management salaries
• Estimating salaries and fringe benefits
• Safety salaries and associated costs
• Purchasing salaries
• Contract administration salaries
• Labor burden, including payroll taxes, fringe benefits, and insurance on the above salaries
• General condition costs such as field offices, utilities, and security
• Small tools, expendable supplies, and tools
• Shop drawings and plans
• Vehicle and communication costs
• Engineering and architectural costs
• Insurance – Builders’ Risk, Umbrella policies
• Other costs associated with processing paperwork and/or accounting for the project

By their very nature, indirect costs require not only that you identify which costs fall into this classification, but also that you allocate these costs to individual contracts.

Cost Pools

Many costs in both the direct and indirect cost categories must be accumulated into separate cost pools and then allocated to the individual projects on some rational basis.  For example, the cost of equipment storage, yard and/or shop facilities, or the cost of operating a separate contract administration or purchasing department cannot be specifically identified or costed to a particular project.  But under our definition, the equipment costs would be classified as direct costs and the project administrative costs as indirect costs.

For these types of costs, the most common procedure used to allocate costs to individual projects is the use of a cost pool.  Typically, contractors will accumulate costs into a number of different cost pools, such as:

• Labor burden
• Equipment ownership and operating costs
• Shop and yard costs
• Vehicle costs
• Job management overhead costs

The development and use of cost pools requires the contractor to decide the following:

1)   Which costs should be included as a job cost and in which pools should they be included?

2)   How much of the cost should be included in the cost pool?  In some cases, could the cost be allocated between job cost and overhead costs?

3)   What method is most reasonable for allocating the cost to the jobs?

How you allocate indirect costs can vary depending on the type of work and amount of costs incurred.  For example, a general contractor may choose to lump more costs together into one pool because they represent a very small percentage of total cost, while a subcontractor may use two or three separate cost pools for the same types of costs.  What is most important is that the costs be accumulated and allocated to all jobs on a rational, consistent, and systematic basis over all years.

Some of the most common methods for allocating costs to jobs include methods based upon the number of labor or equipment hours incurred or the amount of labor, material, or equipment costs.

Costs accumulated in this pool can relate to both direct and indirect labor costs, but the method of accumulating and allocating the labor burden should be the same for both direct and indirect labor costs.

The sample labor burden calculation was developed using the percentage cost of each labor component to calculate the amount applied to each labor hour incurred.  Another method used to develop and then allocate cost pools involves accumulating all the costs incurred in one reporting period (typically a month or year) and dividing that total cost by the allocating factor.  For example, the total equipment cost pool would be divided by total anticipated equipment usage hours to obtain an hourly rate, which would be used to allocate costs to jobs based on the actual usage of equipment.

Cost pools, by their very nature, involve the use of estimates and, as such, contractors may find that the costs included in these pools are often over/underapplied to jobs.  Depending on the reason for the over/underapplied amount and the amount of over/underapplied cost in relation to the total cost of the contracts, the contractor may decide to reallocate these costs to jobs or recognize the amount as a cost item.

Conclusion

Defining what costs should be included in job cost is a confusing area because contractors define direct and indirect costs differently and also use varying criteria for identifying which costs are considered indirect costs vs. overhead.  The objectives which must be kept in mind when determining your company’s job costing procedures should include the ability to:

1)   Obtain a high degree of comparability between actual costs and estimated costs.

2)   Bill and collect for all your costs.

3)   Compare operating margins and overhead percentages with others in your industry segment.

If you make decisions and set up your job cost accounting system with these considerations in mind, chances are you will have good answers to the question: “What should be charged to job cost?”

Keith R. Fetridge, CPA, is a Managing Partner and Director of the Construction Industry Service Group of Aronson, Fetridge & Weigle, in Rockville, Maryland (e-mail: kfetridge@afwcpa.com or phone: 301-231-6203).  Keith has more than 20 years experience in financial management, tax, and business consulting for all types of contractors.

Keith is a member of the Greater Washington, DC Chapter of CFMA, as well as several other construction-industry associations.  He is a frequent lecturer on many different management, tax, and financial topics.  He is the author of over 100 articles on contractor management and a co-author of R.S. Mean’s Contractors Business Handbook, an editor and author of “The Contractor,” and a contributing editor to Construction Today.

Keith earned his BS degree in Accounting from the School of Management of Boston College in 1976 and has been practicing accounting in the Washington, DC area ever since.  He is a licensed CPA in the state of Maryland.

Over the past decade the business model of software companies providing information systems to construction-related businesses has evolved significantly. Traditionally, implementing a comprehensive software system has been a service-intensive task, requiring significant accounting, technical and management experience on the part of the provider, and a serious commitment of both time and money on the part of the client. Often contractors had a close and long-term business relationship with a local provider of software and various training, support, and IT services. These relationships were critical to the success of the implementation and ongoing support of the software systems.

Now that this market has stabilized, and the technology matured, some software companies have attempted to take over the provision of these services and support, often outsourcing these services to foreign countries. This tactic has met with mixed success, since their employees were seldom equipped with the necessary communications, industry knowledge and technical skills. Recently, flush with cash and short on new customers, software companies decided that the best way to stabilize and increase their market share would be by acquisition. No company has more aggressively pursued this strategy than Viewpoint, a leading construction software vendor in Portland, Oregon.

One of Viewpoint’s early acquisitions was Construction Imaging Systems (CIS), a provider of document management, invoice routing, and other systems to hundreds of construction companies. While at first CIS customers hoped for improvements in software and support from Viewpoint, it wasn’t long before Viewpoint decided to “sunset” this program. Customers were left with the choice of continuing to use an unsupported system with no updates, and purchasing expensive new software from Viewpoint to replace their CIS system. Several other companies acquired by Viewpoint met similar fates.

More recent acquisitions by Viewpoint included Dexter-Chaney and Maxwell Systems, two of Viewpoint’s most significant competitors. Again, customers hoped that Viewpoint would provide additional features and better support for their existing systems, but soon it became clear that this was not their intent at all. Customers using Maxwell’s American Contractor package were told that their system would no longer be supported, but that they would qualify for “a special deal” on a much more expensive system.

Then, customers using Maxwell’s Management Suite, a comprehensive and high-end system with a large customer base, were told that this product is also going to be discontinued, but that they too would qualify for a “special deal” on more expensive software, along with (costly) assistance in the tremendous task of implementing the new system and providing training for dozens of employees who were perfectly content with their existing system.

Now that Viewpoint is part of https://www.trimble.com/ , the long-term future of the Dexter-Chaney software, and Maxwell ProContractor, is unclear. For the time being, however, these programs continue to be supported.

It would not have been that difficult for Viewpoint to continue maintaining their existing systems for years to come, instead of implementing a policy of “forced obsolescence.” Customers could then move to more sophisticated platforms at their own pace; both Sage and Infor (Viewpoint’s biggest competitors) seem to have taken that route. Both Infor and Sage now offer upgrade paths to cloud-based systems, as well as enhancements and support for their existing product lines.

After the Trimble acquisition, most large/mid-sized construction-related businesses will be using software from one of three companies: Trimble (Viewpoint, ProContractor, etc.); Sage (Timberline, MasterBuilder, MAS*90, etc.); or Infor (Starbuilder, TCM, Infor/Construction, etc.). Smaller companies will continue to use Intuit (Quickbooks), or one of the newer general purpose accounting systems. A few outliers, like Bluegrass, Accu-build, Foundation, and others, mostly small, one-product family-owned companies, may find it difficult to compete, and may be hoping to sell their company to one of their much larger competitors.

At D. Miller Associates, we believe that as long as your software system meets your needs, and is built around a technically viable platform like SQL/Server, no one should force you into moving your company to a new software system.