Why are customers paying maintenance for Job Cost if they ultimately aren't going to get an updated module? The modules need to be consistent.
by: Jim P. | over a year ago | Payroll / Job Cost
Completed
Bring Job Cost into the Business Framework.
by: Jim P. | over a year ago | Payroll / Job Cost
Comments
Please add a comment with a list of the framework features along with how the customer would use these features in their business for job cost.
There are many of my customers both manufacturing and construction who rely on job cost. We have done numerous customizations and crystal reports for job cost. We need to retain and update to business framework.
We have continually requested the expansion of the job # field, even Quickbooks allowed us more characters in the job # that MAS90 does. I would like to see the capability to have more than 2 segments and decide how many characters per segment to suite our organization. We would also like to see expansion of the cost code fields in the same manner. The greater the flexibility the better.
We are both a distributor and subcontractor. Our distribution side has greatly benefited from bringing modules into the Business Framework and just assumed Job Cost would eventually be included. We are having to look at available enhancements or third party software to address our needs and due to the tight integration of our distribution and contracting sides, may require our eventual migration to another system if job cost is going to be neglected and not brought into the Business Framework.
We're looking for more of a project accounting solution. We need to keep all of the POs, SOs, RMAs, service labor together by project and have an accurate profit/loss figure for the entire project rather than the individual documents.
I've been using Mas90 since late in the 1980's. At the time I had difficulty finding software that provided a good, solid integration of inventory, purchasing, sales order, payroll, job cost, and of course, general ledger - that was what our petroleum equipment company needed - and I felt like maybe Mas90 would be the answer. I bought every module for $1,000 off a postcard I received in the mail. Little did I relaize what a good investment I was making; but also, little did I know that Job Cost, which was and remains to this day a very critical part of our business, would be the proverbial "RHSC" of the entire package.
I would like to be able to print a readable, comprehensive list of the revenues and costs associated with a project or job (a true "Job Profit" report, as someone mentioned above). As it is now, it takes Sherlock Holmes to decipher the costs on the Transaction Detail Report, and I still don't have the revenue side of the transaction on there. I've made do by utilizing spreadsheets to track our jobs in summary, and by importing cost transactions into a spreadsheet and manipulating bits of data with various lookups to get detailed cost reports our project managers can read, work with, and approve.
I've been a cheerleader for MAS for over 20 years, but I've never understood why Job Cost was always so under appreciated.
Allow for user defined Cost Types similar to that which is available for the Cost Codes field. Anyone who uses job cost accounting needs more than 12 cost types.
Expand the job number field.
Allow for overtime tracking in job costing!
Make it easy to view all the cost detail transaction on one tab in Job Masterfile Maintenance, similar to the "Transactions" tab in Customer Maintenance or Vendor Maintenance. There would need to be subtitles and subtotals by cost code and cost type. There should be drill down by double clicking on the transaction.
Provide a more detailed transaction description, showing vendor number, vendor invoice number, invoice comment, etc.
Allow larger billing comments on invoices, or allow job detail to be billed from sales order.
I think the decision to wait (or never?) upgrade Job Cost is very short sited. As mentioned above, job cost is useful for many other industries in addition to construction or job shops. I have installed it for clients such as manufactures, who install their own product, but also need the work order and BOM features of MAS90 for the manufacturing side. There are distributors that perform some job type manufacturing for several of their larger products. I have installed it for a trucking company who uses it both for their garage to track repairs and for the trucking side to track costs by vehicle. I have installed it for a number of other businesses who need this capability, often outside of their core business, yet it has made MAS90 a well rounded product that can addresses the whole companies needs. To ignore job cost will eventually bring MAS90 down to a level of less functionality than quickbooks.
To confirm the comment by Lee C from about a year ago. I , too, am in the petroleum equipment/construction industry. We also have a service and parts division (for which Mas90 is PERFECT). The Job Cost module lacks A LOT to be desired. We use it because we have to and we can't justify buying another software just for the Job Cost/Estimating needs, when we've spent a good bit on Mas over the years. It should be sufficient.
It is VERY difficult to track costs, purchase orders and profit. This module not only needs to be on the Business Framework, but needs to be more extensive. It needs to allow different formulas for different costs (overhead, travel, etc) to be included.
The estimate number NEEDS to be included somewhere in the Job information.
Sales tax should only calculate on the Material and not the entire job. If you could bill a portion of Labor, Material, Sub, etc., then allow sales tax to calculate on the material only.
FROM LEE C - I would like to be able to print a readable, comprehensive list of the revenues and costs associated with a project or job (a true "Job Profit" report, as someone mentioned above). As it is now, it takes Sherlock Holmes to decipher the costs on the Transaction Detail Report, and I still don't have the revenue side of the transaction on there. I've made do by utilizing spreadsheets to track our jobs in summary, and by importing cost transactions into a spreadsheet and manipulating bits of data with various lookups to get detailed cost reports our project managers can read, work with, and approve.
I, too, have been a cheerleader for MAS for over 10 years, but I've never understood why Job Cost was always so under appreciated, either.
by: Lee C. | about a year agoFlag
There needs to be a true variance report that compares the estimate cost information to the actual cost information. The data exists when creating an estimate including item number, item description, quantity and unit cost. Actual detail can come from PO receipts and inventory transfers by job. This allows performance tracking in detail.
Job Cost is a very good module that distinguishes MAS from the competition. Failure to keep it up to date with other modules in Business Framework is a huge mistake (strategically and technically). Its far more important to businesses than say the sales tax module (which does not handle use tax) or the Intellisync software that essentially duplicates info in other modules.
I could add several UDF's to the job cost and do away with over 50 spread sheets (including tabs)that now substitute for MIS
Job Cost is archaic. With the improvements made to almost every other module in Mas90, it makes no sense that Job Cost is not one of them. Our business depends heavily on job revenue, but we cannot depend on the current version of Job Cost. It needs to be upgraded to Business Frameworks. We have been using Mas90 since the late 90's and would like to continue to do so.
It is astonishing to my company that Job Cost is still in the Legacy format. It is extremely limiting for reporting, tracking and invoicing options compared to all the modules that have been updated to business frameworks. When considering all these modules are integrated, one would think it would have been accomplished by now. Very very frustrating. What's the plan?
I do not believe that the Job Cost module is planned to be brought into the Business Framework.
I know the comments are over a year old but it would be nice to see job cost in the business framework. There is at least 126 companies using it and I know of 4 others that have not used this option. Any ideas on the update?
We just upgraded to Sage 100 ERP 2014 and are still frustrated with the fact that there is no movement to bring the Job Cost into Business Frameworks. If there are no plans to do so in future, then it should be clearly stated. Then, at the very least, those of us who rely on the Job Cost module can stop hoping that things will improve.
This will happen within the next two years according to announcements at Sage Summit 2015!
sounds like everyone is having the same issues that we have all had with job cost. I ended up writing custom WIP and Job profitability reports with indirect allocation by job type to the job. I also added UDF for prior year costs and revenue so that current wip would be correct. They are pretty slick reports and made my life so much easier.