We implemented a list of requested features from the Feature Request category in the simPRO Community Forum, from clients visited in the field and from staff. Our staff are equipped with the industry experience and software knowledge needed to identify the features that will benefit our customers the most.

The features in this release have been divided into two categories: major features, which will affect all clients, and minor features, which may make an enormous impact to some clients but are not as significant to the simPRO community as a whole.

For a detailed explanation of each new feature, see the Version 11.2 Release Notes. It is recommended that your product champion reads the documentation to see what new features may be of assistance to you.

The upgrade occurred Saturday night at 9pm and your staff had access to the new and enhanced features when they started work on Monday morning. simPRO will continue to improve behind the scenes and roll out new features in automatic upgrades.

IMPORTANT NOTE RE: Accounting Link

Your accounting links require an update to continue working with the newly released v11.2. It is essential that you accept the update when prompted. Xero links will be updated automatically.

You’ll find a list of all v11.2 related links on our User Guide home page →

Webinars

We hosted a series of Version 11.2 Q&A sessions via webinar. A video recording of the webinar can be viewed online here →

Cityfire is a UK-based fire maintenance company that services over 1000 sites. They provide fire systems, emergency lighting, access control, general maintenance and servicing.

Paul, the owner of Cityfire & Electrical Services Ltd, discusses how simPRO has changed their business processes and enhanced their workflow efficiency.

On Field Mobility & Job Management

With ten staff in the field and seven working in the office, streamlining workflow and business process was paramount to Paul.

“We needed to get something that would allow us to go paperless. Something that would work on the road. All our boys on the road use iPads now to do all their jobs.”

simPRO manages their entire workflow ensuring no leads are lost, job progression is monitored and each job is invoiced on time.

“Through simPRO we use a system of quoting jobs (which is very useful), individual jobs and job tracking, from when we put the job on until we invoice it and get paid. And the full reporting. So we use it quite a lot in the business.”

On Growing & Improving the Business with simPRO

“There is still a lot more to use but we are gradually building into that.”

As the owner of the business, Paul wants to know the status of all his jobs and be able to track invoicing and manage cashflow.

“The best thing is the job tracking. From placing the job on the system to tracking the jobs and invoicing the jobs, and then seeing the invoices get paid and having that confirmation. That has been the best thing about it.”

How Cityfire is perceived in the fire industry is also a high priority for Paul. Using iPads in the field and generating instant reports for clients enhances his business profile.

“I can organise the business more and be seen as being more progressive in our industry.”

Paul also has plans of utilising the new eForms in V11.

“We are looking forward to the V11 forms, we will obviously have teething problems but we are growing the business looking to expand into extinguishers, and setting systems up to run automatically.”

Cityfire has been using simPRO for two years and anticipates a fruitful relationship into the future.

“simPRO has worked well for the last two years and it will help us grow our business.”

For more information on Cityfire & Electrical Services visit www.cityfireltd.co.uk

Cetnaj are a 100% Australian owned lighting, electrical and data wholesaler. Gareth Young, the Information Technology Manager, discusses how their customers introduced them to simPRO.

Gareth explains how simPRO’s ability to import a pricing catalogue meant that if Cetnaj could integrate with simPRO, they would have an advantage over their competition.

“We’re competing with the big guys, multinationals, so anything we can find that is going to be an advantage to us, helps us in the industry.”

They also found that customers were not willing to purchase from Cetnaj unless they supported simPRO and the digital catalogue.

“We’ve had customers who have said to us, ‘We can’t do business with you unless you support simPRO’, as soon as someone says that, we’ve got to take notice.”

Gareth continues to detail the enormous benefit granted to their customers by the time savings that simPRO can provide. No longer do their customers need to search for material prices, it is all detailed in simPRO and can be instantly added to a job, ensuring your business is getting the best price and value for money.

Watch the full case study video to discover the other reasons Cetnaj and Gareth believe simPRO to be pivotal to any business.

In order to implement these constant improvements, the software must be updated. There are a few different types of updates that have been a source of confusion for some in the past so we thought we’d help clarify:

Point Release (Patch)

Our developers are continually working behind the scenes to fix any bugs that occur in the software. A bug fix is a patch applied to the software to improve the stability of the product but does not introduce any new features to the product.

This does not require any action by the user – they are applied automatically and in most cases the end user is not affected and would generally be unaware of these taking place.

Incremental Release
(Minor Version)

An update to an existing major release (such as the upcoming 11.2 release) refers to the addition of new features & enhancements to the software. This is a cumulative update that also includes all point releases generated between this release and the previous incremental release.

This does not require any action by the user – new features are automatically added to the software and appear the next time the user logs in.

Major Release
(Major Version)

A major release usually includes significant updates to the software look & feel, major new features and a range of operational changes. This type of software update can often also include architectural changes to the way product operates based on inclusion of new software technologies.

This type of software update usually requires Users to go through a training process prior to updating their system. Major releases are communicated and planned in advance with clients so that the relevant changes of operation, workflow and interface can be disseminated to Users prior to the update taking place.

NOTE: Our last major release (Version 11) required existing users to go through a migration process to update to the new version. This will no longer be the case with subsequent major releases as we’ve now updated the software framework for a more seamless update process.

Typically in a service business there are four major components to your current assets (cash or items soon to be turned to cash):

• Cash at Bank
• Stock on Hand
• Work in Progress
• Accounts Receivable (Debtors)

Put simply, if you aren’t measuring the above items accurately, not only will your profit and loss be incorrect, but your cashflow is also compromised as you cannot measure where your current assets are.

Cash at Bank and Accounts Receivable are measured effectively in your accounting program as long as bank reconciliations are performed and debtors monitored. Managing the value of your stock and work in progress are a little more complex and effective use of simPRO can assist you here.

Stock

simPRO’s Stock Value Report will give you the value of your stock on hand. With Version 10 the report provides stock value at the current point in time only. Version 11 allows you to backdate a Stock Report which will be accurate to the date you converted to Version 11.

With end of year approaching we suggest that you look at performing stocktakes to get an accurate measure of what the real value of your stock on hand is. Remember you need this value to give to your accountant at year-end for your tax return.

Managing stock can be done at various levels in simPRO. Maybe you simply want to track stock level movements each month compared to your purchasing levels. This lets you know if you are consistently purchasing more stock than is being assigned to jobs. Or maybe you want to move to real-time stock control with multiple storage devices and automated ordering levels. Regardless of what level you wish to go to, you can learn more about managing stock with simPRO in our Specialised User Training Courses.

Work in Progress

The term ‘Work in Progress’ has two different meanings. In operational terms and in the simPRO WIP report, it refers to all open jobs that have not been invoiced in full, and it shows what costs have been applied to those jobs.

From an accounting perspective, it means the value of work performed that is not yet invoiced. This figure is also required for your end of year tax reporting. Unfortunately providing this figure is not as straightforward as with stock. simPRO gives figures which enable you or your accountant to calculate the financial value of WIP in the most appropriate manner for your business operations.

Many factors affect the way this should be calculated such as the type of work you are doing, for example: quoted or do and charge, long projects or short projects, how progress claims are calculated etc. Then, there is the method of calculation used. This may be based on a percentage complete on the job compared to the percentage billed or possibly a costs to date plus expected margin method to name just two ways of calculating Work in Progress.

If your eyes glazed over in the last paragraph, you are not alone. If we are looking at WIP and how it affects cashflow you can do the following:

• Make sure you invoice out your jobs as soon as you can and move the jobs out of work in progress. Use the Jobs > WIP Report to make sure all open jobs are captured.
• If it is a large job, use the Cost to Complete Report to ensure you are keeping pace with the progress claims, i.e. if a job is 30% complete and 30% invoiced, then the financial WIP of that job is zero. Both under-claiming and over-claiming will result in cashflow problems over the life of the project.
• Seek professional help to set up a system for managing Work in Progress and cost to complete based on individual business and contractual requirements.
• Print out the Work in Progress report at year-end and give this to your accountant for evaluation.

It’s common to leave it and say you’re too busy to start preparing for the end of financial year but you must keep in mind that the WIP report (in Version 10) can’t be backdated! It’s not designed to work that way. We recommend, if you are still on Version 10, to make sure that job cards and invoicing are up to date at financial year-end and then print the work in progress report before you start invoicing and performing transactions in the new financial year. The report can be kept with other documents to go to your accountant.

For those using Version 11, it is possible to backdate the WIP report BUT it’s essential to ensure that all activity for the prior financial year is entered before providing documentation to your accountant.

The end of financial year is fast approaching – wouldn’t it be nice to be ready and prepared for it with a healthy cashflow and a smiling accountant?

We are pleased to announce the introduction of a new support system which allows us to provide an improved support experience and better resolve your queries.

To date, we’ve run separate support systems which were created in-house for tickets and live chats. As we continue to grow, we’re finding these systems are not able to keep up with our requirements in providing the support you need & expect and the ongoing maintenance of such systems takes away valuable development resource time from our engineering team.

After a 6 month review process we have settled on a system called Kayako. This is fully integrated commercial help desk software used by companies like Virgin, Skype, DHL, Sony and many more.

The benefits of this new system include:

• Client Portal – Providing greater transparency by allowing you to access chats, news and tickets (including history) all in one place
• Automated Ticket Routing – Providing a much better way of routing inbound queries to the right person to make our responses faster
• Automated Ticket Escalations – Providing an escalation method of identifying if a ticket has taken too long to respond to (or worse, got lost in the system with no response)
• Remote Desktop – Built-in one-click desktop sharing and remote screenshots, so with your permission we can quickly and easily see what is happening on your system for a faster resolution
• Whole Company View – Allows us to see all tickets and chats across all of your staff (currently we can only see each person individually). This will allow us to spot any trends and help identify any knowledge gaps in your business and take a proactive approach in suggesting ways in which we can help
• Integrated Phone System – In the coming months we will also be integrating our phone system into the support system to enable call monitoring and recording for training and quality assurance
• Cloud – The entire system is web-based (like all things simPRO), allowing our support staff to work remotely from home if required (e.g. in the event of an office internet outage) with full access to chat, tickets and phone
• Scalability – The ability to scale with our company as we continue to grow

From Tuesday 02 April onwards you will be taken to the new help system when logging in to access support. The first time you visit, you will need to complete a one-off registration that takes less than a minute. This will generate your account, allowing us to keep track of your history.

Please note that we are unable to bring across any support history from the current system to the new system. As such, the tickets and history viewable from the new support portal will be limited to items created in the new system.

How to use the new simPRO support system:

Audits

Are used to assist with workplace safety compliance. Field technicians fill out JSAs, SWMS or QAs in Connect using check boxes or text as required. Upon completion, a PDF version is attached to the job.

Visit http://help11.simpro.co/?page_id=22628 for more information on how to set up audits in Connect.

Stock Purchase Orders

The purchase order functionality has been improved by adding stock purchase orders to Connect. Stock purchase orders are specifically designed to allow technicians to restock their storage device when in the field.

Jobcard/Runsheet Reports

Reports for runsheets and job cards are now available. The report results are sent as an email to the employee the report was run for. Great for forwarding back to the office to update job cards.

Gallery Browsing

This feature allows technicians to use the gallery of the device they are using to upload attachments to Connect.

Job Assets

This check box, when selected on the Assets page of Connect, searches for all assets of a job irrespective of cost centre. This will allow the technician to search for any of the customer’s assets that are part of the job.

Pre-Builds

If your technicians have access to pricing pages then adding materials just got easier. It’s now possible to search for pre-builds to add to the pricing of the job.

Easier Navigation

We’re constantly trying to improve our products and customers asked for easier navigation. We’ve delivered and not only are buttons bigger, we’ve reviewed and updated our button naming conventions to improve usability.

A comprehensive list of features can be found in the simPRO Connect Version 2.1 User Guide.

Download simPRO Connect from the App Store or on Google Play today.

In trade contracting, business income comes from invoicing jobs. Your terminology may be different but these jobs normally take the form of:

1. Service Jobs (invoiced on time and materials or small quoted amounts)
2. Maintenance Jobs (invoiced at recurring intervals on contracted/agreed rates)
3. Project Jobs (invoiced based on a claim for works completed as a percentage of the total quoted amount, plus invoiced variations to the original quoted amount)

The purpose of this article is not to discuss how to maximise the invoiced revenue of job types (that’s for another article), this article is about securing cash payments for invoices generated.

8 Steps to Automate Cashflow

Step 1. Invoice within 24 hours (of stage or job completion)

Why this is critical to your business?

• It drastically reduces disputes from customers regarding invoices. An invoice on your customer’s desk within 48 hours is still fresh in mind and will rarely (if ever) be disputed.
• It reduces lost/orphaned jobs; these are jobs that don’t get invoiced at all. If you invoice daily on routine, this will ensure that all invoicing is completed and not forgotten.

Step 2. Screen new debtors

Bad debtors have a habit of leaving unpaid accounts all over town.

Before providing credit to new customer, ask them to complete a credit application form. Your credit application form should include the following:

• Contact details of a creditor who holds an account for the customer
• What products/services they provided for credit
• How long they have worked with the customer
• What credit terms they were provided and if they abided by them

Do a search of the customer’s business at Australian Security and Investment Commission (ASIC) to confirm their credit application details (i.e ABN and registered address). It’s quick and easy.

A Google search may also reveal any court actions or other disputes your potential new customer may be engaged in.

Step 3. Debt collection

Be stringent with procedures of debt collection.

Many companies are hesitant about chasing unpaid invoices from customers whom they continue to work with on other jobs. However, the work has been completed and therefore, costs have been incurred so compensation in the form of a cash payment needs to be made. Non-payment of work, no matter how small, impacts the cashflow and liquidity of the business.

The table above is to be used as a guide only as there is currently no data available specific to the building and construction industry.

The normal process is:

1. 24 hours after job completion – Invoice service and maintenance jobs. Project claims should be invoiced after each stage is completed. Minimum monthly, although invoice twice if multiple stages are completed within the month (contract permitting).
2. End of month – Even if not overdue, send statements (this acts as a reminder).
3. +1 day overdue – Resend statement, highlighting that it’s now overdue.
4. +15 days overdue – First phone call from accounts to chase payment (in simPRO this process is easy, document notes as per responses below and set another reminder from standard responses):
   1. invoice not received
   2. specific issues with work completed
   3. has been paid yesterday / processed today / this week
   4. customer can’t fund and has cashflow issues
   5. customer has not been paid for the job
5. +30 days overdue – Send another statement (highlighting soon to be overdue) with a message asking to contact accounts immediately if there is to be further delay on payment.
6. +45 days overdue – First overdue letter (asking for payment or communication of why the account is still unpaid). Request an act of goodwill and an initial 50% part payment of the invoice.
7. 60+ days overdue – Phone call from the Business Manager (this has been escalated from accounts). Identify the issue, diagnose as per the above process and request 50% payment of the invoice(s).
8. 75+ days overdue – Second overdue letter.
9. 90+ days overdue – Final overdue letter providing 7 days to pay or the account will be handed over to debt collection unless payment terms are negotiated (e.g. 25% x 4 months).

Be creative in debt collection procedures. Keep in mind you’re not the only company going unpaid by this debtor and the objective is that you become a priority. To get in their list for payment, some ideas include:

1. Use stickers for overdue dates – send email and mail letters.
2. Tug a heart string (on the lighter side) to open up communications with a non-payer and get your invoice to the top of the list. (e.g. including an image of a sad hungry dog with a message stating “your payment impacts everyone in our business and their families”).
3. Send thank you cards or emails to your customer’s bookkeeper for paying their invoice. It doesn’t take long to complete and may give them a moment of happiness in their day, and will be remembered the next time an invoice comes in.
4. If it is a substantial amount of money, consider discussing that non-payment is limiting your ability to complete or bid for projects, thus handicapping your business.

Step 4. Reduce inventory

Warehouse and vehicle stock/inventory is tied up cash. There are reasons for needing it particularly with service and maintenance jobs. Try to keep to them to a minimum.

Step 5. Renegotiate outgoings

Landlords, utility providers, banks, insurance agents, advertising, in fact most recurring suppliers and creditors are not impervious to the fluctuating economic conditions. Renegotiation of these costs can free up serious amounts of cash each month.
I have heard of advertising budgets for the current year being dropped by 25%, rent by $600 per month, data being thrown into mobile contracts on the threat of moving to another carrier and industry associations providing insurance and fuel discounts for association members.

Use your buying power and consumer rights by renegotiating overhead costs. Limit the amount of cash going out of the business.

Step 6. Negotiate favourable terms and pricing with wholesalers

Other than employees, wholesalers are responsible for the biggest outflow of cash from the business. As a contractor, you deal with your local branch but remember, in many cases they are part of a national or international corporation, also with strict procedures for cashflow. They have risk management strategies in place that determine the discounts you receive. Paying them within terms is critical to maintain a good relationship and securing the best pricing.

If you cannot pay your wholesalers on time, communicate with them. Make sure they are aware of why you are having difficulties with payment and that when funds become available they will be paid immediately. Negotiate terms for payment and if possible, make partial payments as a reassurance to them; in turn they should supply you with favourable pricing.

Step 7. Invoice and cost variations as separate jobs

Invoicing variations separately eliminates disputes and consequently, the delay on invoices being paid.

From a legal standpoint it’s important to include the following statement (or equivalent) on ALL invoices:

“This is a claim for payment for work completed under the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 2002″

- Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 2002

This clause allows contractors to claim and get awarded payment, rather than having to go down the path of the civil claims process, which takes a considerably amount of time.

Step 8. Debtor factoring

Debtor factoring is a fantastic option where a company enters into an arrangement to sell its debt (outstanding invoices) to a factoring or finance company. You get the cash upfront when the invoice is created, rather than waiting for your debtor to pay which hinders cashflow. The factoring agent charges 3-10% of the invoice to cover their risk in collecting the payment.

Improvement Tactics

• If you’re a small company and concerned about damaging a relationship with a customer by chasing up invoices, set up an accounts-specific email address (e.g. accounts@yourcompany.com.au). Communicating with your customer through this email address helps take the personal relationship out of the equation.
• Keep thorough notes on all contact with the customer relating to cash payments and negotiations.
• Standardise invoice and contract Ts & Cs for favourable invoice and collection terms.
• Confirm the customer’s outstanding balance when logging new jobs. Never discount, instead provide part payment or extended terms. Read a previous article on why you shouldn’t discount.
• Remember “Cash is King” and cashflow is crucial. If after 120+ days you still have not received payment, seriously consider re-evaluating the business relationship.

The Cashflow System

Your cashflow system is a sequence of processes carried out in your business to achieve predictable and profitable results.

The true effectiveness of the cashflow system is reflected by job profitability and total invoices raised. These two system tests are critical business success measures. However, to really test the performance of your automated cashflow system there is one very important measure:

e.g. ($113,000 x 365) / $1,200,000 = 34 days

The average period for cash collection within the construction industry is 51 days¹.

All businesses expect credit in a business to business (B2B) relationship. Whether you’re a small or large business owner, the measures are still the same. By sourcing new jobs and completing existing ones, you’ll bring cash into the business. It’s not easy, but it’s why you got off the tools and started a contracting business… to get a slice of the cash! Put these procedures in place, then test & refine your cashflow system and prosper!

Written by Gerard Lyons, Business Development Manager – Victoria
@GedLyon

¹http://dnb.com.au/Header/News/News_Archive/2009/Payment_days_provide_further_evidence_of_improved_conditions/indexdl_5549.aspx

The average business incurs many fixed costs such as overheads, rent, power, vehicles and wages, which don’t change irrespective of the amount of work it’s doing. When discounting, very few contractors appreciate the true cost of the discount or how it will impact their bottom line. Costs don’t change, it will still cost the same amount to complete the job but the net revenue will decrease when a discount is given.

Although the same for project or estimated works, if we consider service/do-and-charge work for this example, it can be seen that a business needs to increase the number of service jobs it completes to recover any discount given. You need to work more to cover the reduced profit on each job. When applying discounts, many businesses fail to consider the amount of additional work required to achieve the same profit. The table below illustrates the cost of discounting:

Firstly, decide what your current margin is and then look at any discount you may consider offering your customer. Match the two up and you will see the increased percentage of work required to achieve the same level of profit within your business.

Increased competition tends to drive rate discounting, resulting in companies reducing their labour rates in order to attract or retain particular customers, contracts or quotes. The real trick in understanding the table above is to work out the true cost of your employees. Once the “cost per hour” is calculated, the margin you are making on labour can then be calculated.

Many companies are hesitant to raise rates and often believe that they would lose too much business in doing so. Once you understand the cost of employees and what margin you make on labour, the volume of sales you can lose while retaining profit can be calculated as shown in the table below.

It is important to keep in mind that profit margins are key to the success of a business. Seemingly no one is surprised when companies liquidate even though they have been continually winning work. It’s not enough to win work or keep busy – it needs to be profitable.

Written by Gerard Lyons, Business Development Manager – Victoria

Ray Hodge is the Director of Ignite Business Consulting. Ray has coached and provided consulting services to leaders and teams for over 20 years. His key strengths in consulting include crafting efficient business processes, optimising human resources, aligning the business with the buyer and delivering results-based work through strategic planning and measurements.

Ray sat down with us to discuss the benefits of streamlining a business with simPRO Software.

“Recently we tracked a business’ internal job time at 143 minutes per job for all the internal process time. We reduced that down to 60 minutes, so we saved 83 minutes per job. When you actually multiplied that by the number of jobs per week, it was 51 hours, so essentially it was a staff person”

He discusses the importance of accountability and tracking within your business to ensure there are no loose ends and that all jobs are followed through with.

“You don’t have job cards flying out of the ute or arriving seven days later, you can invoice straight away so cash conversion cycle reduces massively.”

Discover more on why Ray believes Job Management Software is essential to ensuring optimal efficiency in the case study video.