Industry-specific software has come a long way

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Plusfactor wrote its first program for the construction industry in the mid-1980s — a very simple job costing application for Hartner Construction Ltd.

From that simple beginning, the company evolved initially into a complete suite of software written for DOS (remember that?) and, more recently, for Windows.

The latest edition of the software bears little resemblance to its predecessors.

There is a very powerful new Progress Claim routine that caters for residential, commercial and civil contracts, with fully detailed contract amounts, variations, retention handling, and items such as margins, materials on/off site etc.

There is also a smart routine for invoicing Charge-up Jobs that ensures every item that is charged to the Job gets invoiced to the client — thus guaranteeing full margins are made.

Likewise, the program caters for Self Billing Invoices, with Variations and Retentions also correctly catered for. Both types of Retentions are detailed separately in the General Ledger from Debtors and Creditors, and GST is not charged until the Retentions are finally invoiced when released.

Withholding Tax on labour-only subcontractors is also catered for, and automatically returned to the IRD along with PAYE from the Payroll module to the irFile electronic system. No system can claim to be totally comprehensive if it does not feature its own Payroll fully integrated to the Jobs Ledger.

Plusfactor is designed so that if a Job is priced using the Quoting module then the relevant Purchase Orders are electronically created in the Purchase Ordering module. And when receipted, the Creditor Invoice is also created electronically in the Accounting module.

Eliminating multiple keying of data means faster, more accurate processing.

Plusfactor is very “web-aware”, and all documents such as Quotes, Invoices, Purchase Orders and Payslips can be emailed direct from the package, and the Cash Book features electronic payments through any New Zealand bank.

Plusfactor has a user base extending from Kerikeri to Invercargill — all supported 24/7 from the company’s offices in Auckland.

The company provides obligation-free, on-line demonstrations for any prospective buyer with a web browser. No software is required for this.

Plusfactor staff have accumulated a wealth of knowledge on the idiosyncrasies of the construction industry, and their latest software fully reflects this knowledge. If your current software is beyond its use-by date, give Plusfactor a call.

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