Masonry Magazine December 2002 Page. 34
TECH
TOOLS
Computer System Basics
By Tom Inglesby
JUST USING COMPUTER PROGRAMS DOESN'T MAKE A COMPANY PRODUCTIVE; USING THE DATA THAT MOVES THROUGH THOSE SYSTEMS CAN, HOWEVER, ADD SIGNIFICANTLY TO THE BOTTOM LINE.
AND BEYOND
"IT'S IN THE BASICS THAT WE CAN FIND THE ANSWERS TO EVEN the most complex questions." We'd like to attribute that quote to some great philosopher but, frankly, we just made it up.
"You've got to start with the basics; that's where the first level of help is going to come from." That quote, on the other hand, comes from Brad Mathews, vice president of Dexter + Chaney, Seattle, Wash. Mathews was explaining where you can get the quickest "bang for the investment dollar" in choosing software to run your company.
And what are the basics? "What we think of as the core accounting functions," Mathews says. "You've got to have a general ledger, that's obvious. Then you need a payables module to pay to your vendors, a receivables and billing module so you can track your contracts and manage all the billings and hopefully get paid once in awhile plus payroll."
Beyond the basics are the programs that control the business functions that can make or break a company. Mathews continues, "The one that's really going to make a difference to a mason contractor is the job cost module. If somebody isn't utilizing a good job cost system that's fully integrated with their accounting and that means they're not getting the kind of information a system like that can provide it will be an eye opening experience when they do."