10/2015 – Pharaoh Phacts
Happy New Year to all our IBSWIN clients.
This editon of Pharaoh Phacts includes a list of some of the important IBSWIN features that have been added recently along with our new web class schedule. Please download the newsletter using the following link — Pharaoh Phacts Newsletter 4th Quarter 2015
Contact us at support@ibswin.com for IBSWIN update instructions and password.
04/2015 — SuperView Introduction
As part of our continued plan to expand and improve our IBSWIN add-on product Webview, Pharaoh is introducing SuperView. SuperView is a new module designed specifically for your field superintendents to access specific pertinent project information.
Currently, Superintendents can view documents and POs for their specific projects. They will get automated Email notifications when new documents arrive. They can also view construction schedules online and soon will be able to update their schedules via SuperView.
Get your Superintendents linked in via SuperView…..
Purchasing Power
Purchasing Power provides your purchasing department with all the tools they need to fully automate the contracting process. From entering budgets and bids to generating payment schedules this module will assist you with contract preparation and the printing of all the necessary reports and documents. Since it links with the other IBSWIN modules, it shares the common subcontractor, project, phase, and lot information. It provides a simple electronic interface to your accounting software to export your commitments and eliminate redundant data entry. Give your purchasing department the power!
Subcontractor Information
Provides master database with all pertinent information on each of the subcontractors and suppliers that you order from. It includes the ability to enter and track license and insurance information and automatically gives you expiration warnings when creating new contracts
Budgets Made Easy
Just like your current Excel spreadsheets you can easily enter your on and offsite budgets and even track any revisions. Compare your budgets to bids and to contracts already issued to determine your variances. For off-sites IBSWIN will even create a bid request sheet which can be used to solicit bidding on actual items that have been budgeted.
Bid Entry and Awarding
Enter and revise bids and easily compare them to your budgets to help you determine who to award your contracts to. Awarding a bid is a simple "click of a button" that will transfer the bid information automatically help create your contract documents.
Off-site Contracts & Change Orders
Simple entry of each line pertaining to your offsite contracts and change orders or select them from a predefined list. Generate payschedules, addendums, and/or exhibits. Provides a simple one-screen history of all the contracts and change orders issued to each sub.
Automated On-site Contracts
By entering the bid costs per plan for a specific subcontractor the system will automatically "spread" the cost to each lot and pay point. Saves time and errors. Print pay schedules breaking down your costs by lot and pay point and other contract documents.
Generate, Print, and Edit Option Purchase Orders
Simple interface to Options Plus allows purchasing to view the option orders and generate necessary purchasing reports.
Create and Print other Purchase Orders
Provides you with a simple tool for generating purchase orders and back charges.
Automatic Contract Merge with Microsoft Word
Allows you to easily print boiler plate documents and scopes of work prepared in Microsoft Word.
Available Commitment Reports
- Contracts, change orders, and purchase orders summarized by project/phase.
- Purchase order detail by lot.
- Commitment detail by subcontractor.
Automated Data Interface to Construction Accounting
Currently IBSWIN has interfaces with Sage Timberline, Master Builder, and other accounting systems.
Sample Reports
- Contract
- Budget Contract Comparison Report
- Subcontractor Agreement
- Contracts Summary Report
- Purchase Order Summary Report
- Direct Construction Budget
- Direct Construction Budget vs. Actual
Options Plus
Options Plus assists your salespeople from the moment they sit down with the homebuyer on the initial discussion through the final selection of Options. This system completely automates the intensive and time consuming paper process from start to finish by generating accurate options orders. It even automatically generate purchase orders to your subcontractors, provides your superintendents with immediate updates, and keeps everyone on the same page. The database is comprised of pricing, suppliers, subcontractors, cut-offs, and other vital data which is used to generate orders.
Automated ordering
Auto-generation eliminates Purchase Order typing, and the loss of revenue due to outdated or incorrect pricing or mistakes in calculating.
Plans
Allows for “Plan Specific” option pricing so that your salesperson only gets a listing of options specific for each buyer’s plan.
Price Book
All current option prices are maintained on the database. Improving pricing accuracy. Provides professionally printed Price Book.
Prices
Auto mark-up feature makes price changes easy and speeds up initial cost and price set up.
Purchase Orders
Automatic generation of Purchase Orders with a push of a button.
Sales Orders
System produces a hard copy Sales Order for customer to sign. This can be tailored to each builder’s requirement.
Management Reports
- Lot Profit Analysis Summary Report
- Ordered Option Recap by phase
- Options Purchased by Subcontractor
- and many more…
Options Plus greatly increases your staff’s productivity and output capacity. Orders, whether they are customer option orders or supplier purchase orders, are generated in minutes not hours.
The Options Plus system allows your salespeople to spend more time with the home buyers and less time with their calculators – in fact, they won’t even need a calculator anymore.
Sample Reports
- Options Order
- Superintendent Report
- Options Purchase Order
- Options Profit Analysis
- Sales Manual
- Option List Detail Report
- Ordered Options Recap Report
Sales Manager Plus
Sales Manager Plus provides the sales and marketing department with the tools to track prospects from the time they visit your models to the time they happily move in. It automates the buyer qualifying process and provides professional looking print-outs and the ability to track every key date in the escrow cycle. It is designed to run in your sales offices and fully automates sales processing and tracking.
Real-time Communication of Sales Information
Using Microsoft Terminal Services© or Citrix© your sales offices can link through the Internet directly to you corporate database so that sales related information is updated in real-time.
Automated Letter Preparation and Follow-up
Letters and mailings to prospects and / or buyers are tracked and created automatically via a simple mail merge with Microsoft Word. Create as many letters and documents as you need and schedule regular letters for automated processing. You can also print mailing labels with a simple click of a button. In a similar way phone calls can be logged and scheduled so that you never forget to do the necessary follow-up with your homebuyers and prospects.
Mortgage Plan Alternatives
Pre-qualifying a prospect can be done as easily as selecting the right loans from a list of alternatives as setup in IBSWIN. Each loan can be setup with its own rates, terms, and other details as per the loans requirements and restrictions. This includes the ability to setup loan types such as (but not limited to) VA, FHA, Piggyback, and Interest Only.
Pre-qualifying Reports
Track valuable information about the quality of each prospect by providing amortization schedules and mortgage worksheets for the different programs you offer and show the affordability.
Traffic Tracking & Demographic Analysis
Using a simple traffic screen you are able to enter the traffic information by day and traffic source for each of your communities. Analyze the demographics of your prospects and even buyers by setting up your questionnaires and inputting the responses to generate a comparison of the responses given.
Options Sales Automation
Pre-select options and upgrades for your prospect or buyers from within the sales module. Options can be selected by option category and with the appropriate security options past cutoff cannot be ordered. Enter deposits or payment and print buyer options agreements ready to submit to your purchasing department. As an additional option, Webview uploads the options available in IBSWIN to the internet to allow buyers to pre-select options from home using full color catalogue linked to your website.
Sales Agreement Preparation
Sales and purchase agreements are generated instantly using your established documents using the mail merge feature automatically filling in all the details pertaining to the purchase as entered in to IBSWIN.
Contingency and Escrow Tracking
Sales status tracking is made easy through the escrow status and contingency screens which monitor key dates and activities through the sale process, close of escrow, and buyer move in. Print reports of this key information instantly without the need for time consuming report creation in Excel.
Extensive Sales Management Reporting
All of your weekly and monthly sales reports can be printed at the touch of a button. With real-time updating of information everybody has access to the most current information and with over 40 reports available almost any information can be derived from our database. No more Monday morning fire drills.
Sales Manager Plus is designed to make your sales and marketing department more productive by reducing the amount of redundant data entry, automating a lot of time consuming procedures, and providing all your sales reports with a "push of a button.
Sample Reports
- Conforming Mortgage Worksheet
- Prospect Listing
- Traffic Report
- Weekly Sales and Traffic Report
- Weekly Sales and Inventory Report
- Escrow Summary
Customer Service Plus
Customer Service Plus gives your Customer Service Department the resources necessary to respond to problems quickly and provides the necessary tools to monitor all tasks to completion. It also insures customer satisfaction by enhancing the "Quality Image" of your homebuilding company by providing timely reports, and inquiries, while running on your existing Windows based computer systems.
Homeowner Lot Information
All pertinent homeowner/lot information is stored in one master record for easy access and for future reference to key data.
Walkthrough / Service Requests
All Homeowner Service Requests are entered into the system for accurate records and to ensure important homeowner problems are properly tracked.
Tracks multiple types of service calls to pinpoint quality control problems and improve customer satisfaction.
Homeowner Outstanding / Work Order Report
List all open work orders and tracks by subcontractor/service representatives for work not completed.
Prints all work orders by homeowner.
Work Orders
Prints work orders for subcontractors and service representatives. This eliminates the manual typing effort involved with work orders, which speeds up customer service response time.
Work Order Aging Report
Lists outstanding work orders by subcontractor or service representative and indicates elapsed time since issue date. This provides management with efficiency reporting.
Tracks work orders with the touch of a button, providing a quick update of every customer problem and its status.
Work Order Report
Eliminates need to maintain manual control log.
Subcontractors
Tracks subcontractor performance, through analysis of the number of call backs, work order completion, and gives you the ability to isolate problem subcontractors.
Subcontractor Reports
Subcontractor performance analysis gives you the information needed to negotiate more effectively with your subcontractors.
Service Representatives
Track work orders by service representatives.
Performance reporting by service representatives with elapsed time to completion of each work order.
Identify potential problems through analysis of Work Order Aging Report.
Sample Reports
- Workorder Form
- Service Inspection Form
- Buyer Detail Report
- Inventory Summary Report
- Service Request Status Report
- Subcontractor Aging Summary
- Subcontractor Workorder Summary
Scheduler Plus
Scheduler Plus is designed to keep scheduling simple. Unlike generic scheduling software, it was specifically created for residential home builders. As a result, much of the complex set-up procedures have been eliminated. The reports were designed by and for construction managers to provide simple and concise information about each home under construction. What makes it even more valuable is its integration with the other modules and its ability to automatically manage and update your option cutoff dates.
Plotting of each lot and plan/elevation
Provides fast and easy set-up of your lot information. Supports both predetermined construction sequence set-up, as well as lot by lot scheduling.
Calendar Set-up
Easy calendar set-up allows you to determine your non-working days. Provides for both standard (Saturday/Sunday) non-working days and other holidays.
Master Schedules
Provides easy one time setup of your construction tasks and the ability tailor it for each construction phase.
Unlimited Task Definition
Depending on the complexity of the product type you are building, you can set up as many tasks as required. Certain tasks can be flagged as "milestone" tasks for management reporting purposes.
Easy Working Schedule Generation
Initial generation of the "working schedule" is fast and easy. Just tell the system the lots you want to schedule, the master schedule you want to use, and the day you want to start construction.
Simplified schedule updates
As you update your schedule on a daily or weekly basis actual the system automatically provides a revised schedule with newly updated dates for the remaining tasks for each lot.
Field Updating via TracTime®
Scheduler Plus even provides updating in the field via TracTime® using pocket PC’s.
Reporting the way you want to see it
The Scheduler Plus system provides many reporting options. You can "condition" the output to print only what you want to see. For example, print only the tasks that affect the plumbing contractor for all the lots.
Scheduler Plus provides your construction department with a valuable tool to communicate the status of construction for management purposes in a fast efficient manner. In addition, by interfacing with the other IBSWIN Modules, option cut-off problems can be greatly reduced.
Sample Reports
Design Studio Plus
Design Studio Plus assists your designers from the moment they sit down with the homebuyer on the initial discussion through the final flooring selections. This system completely automates the consuming paper process from start to finish by generating accurate flooring, options and window orders. The database is comprised of pricing, suppliers, installer information, allowances, and other vital data used to generate orders.
Automated Ordering
Auto-generation eliminates Purchase Order typing, and the loss of revenue due to outdated or incorrect pricing or mistakes in calculating.
Plans
Room descriptions, square footage, and builders allowances for each floor plan are maintained on the system eliminating the need for your designer to do calculations since this program interfaces with the price book and does the price extension automatically.
Price Book
All current flooring, window and option prices are maintained on the database – improving pricing accuracy.
Prices
Auto mark up feature makes price changes easy and speeds up initial cost and price set up.
Purchase Orders
Provides automatic generation of Purchase Orders from original input flooring orders and window orders with a push of a button.
Buyer Flooring Contract
System produces a hard copy Buyer Flooring Contract for customer to sign.
Allows multiple "What if" scenarios for the customers regarding the combination of the different flooring selections. Maintains on file, the multiple "What ifs" until the customer finalizes order.
Costing Worksheet
Produces all appropriate information in a final report for the accounting department.
New Add-on Modules
New Window Designer and Floorplan Magic add-on modules provide expanded capabilities for your designers.
Management Reports
- Lot Analysis Report by Lot.
- Superintendents Report.
- Ordered Flooring Listing Report.
- Product Price Lists – Measurements and Takeoffs Report.
Designer Plus greatly increases your staff’s productivity and output. Orders, whether they are customer flooring orders or supplier purchase orders, are generated in minutes not hours.
The Designer Plus system allows your designers to spend more time with the home buyers and less time with their calculators – in fact, they won’t even need a calculator anymore.
Sage Software for Construction Accounting
Sage 100 Contractor (formerly MasterBuilder) and Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate (fomerly Timberline) were built for homebuilders of all types with one goal in mind; they should work the way your company works. The result is one single-source solution that connects all your key business functions and gives you flexibility to meet your unique needs. Plus, with these Sage Software products you’re able to personalize your computer for easy access to the information most important to you. Please go to www.sagecre.com to get more information.
Flexibility to Choose
Sage 100 Contractor and Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate are fully integrated financial and operations software that links every facet of your business, eliminating redundancies and speeding the flow of information between departments. The software’s modular design means you’re getting just the software you need with the advantage of knowing it can flex and expand. Sage provides you with the right solution for your business.
Accounting
Manage subcontracts, job costing, profit analysis, and variance tracking.
Estimating
Create quick and complete estimates and budgets.
Procurement
Automatically turns estimates into RFQs.
Project Management
Link on-site managers to the home office for key up-to-the-minute information.
Reporting and Other Tools
Customize and cut through the clutter. Run real-time reports the way you want to see them.
Homebuilder Specific Modules
The Integrated Builder Series from Pharaoh Information Services, Inc. integrates with these Sage Software products for homebuilders and provides sales tracking and reporting, options and upgrade ordering, budgeting and bidding control, customer service/warranty, and construction scheduling.
IBSWIN is recommended by the following Sage Timberline Dealers:
- Accordant Company, LLC – serving the East Coast with a main office location in New Jersey — Ph. 973-887-8900 — www.accordantco.com
- Alliance Solutions Group – serving Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, California, Northern Nevada, and the Caribbean Islands — Ph. 888-559-9540 x 2002, www.alliance-SG.com
- Bangert Computer Systems – serving the central US States – Ph. 800-458-7369, www.bangertcomputer.com
- CFO On The Go -serving California’s Inland Empire and beyond – Ph. 951-699-6900, www.cfosonthego.net
- Ledgerwood Associates, Inc – serving the states of AZ, CO, ID, MT, NM, NV, UT and WY – Ph. 480-432-423-8300, www.ledgerwoodassociatesusa.com
- Marketing Computer Service Ltd. — serving all of Eastern Canada – Ph. 416-232-9780 — www.mcscanada.com
- Realware – serving Northern California – Ph. 510-382-9045 ext 40, www.realwareinc.com
- Skyline Business Systems – serving the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii – Ph. 877-373-0717, www.sky-line.com
Version 12.04
1) Autopay – we have added a new module (for a fee) that provides superintendents the ability to approve the contract pay points and purchase orders in IBSWIN which then creates invoice pay records for accounting. It looks like this feature will only available for Sage Timberline for now since we can’t get any help from BudgeTrac. It will require a little more testing and fine tuning for the first users. (Download AutoPay information sheet for further instructions).
2) Option Extras – created new option to attach an option "Extra" to existing option in that specific order. Will attach the PO and cost to the selected option throughout all the option reports. Used to add additional cost / PO to an option that has already been ordered.
3) Prospect Call Follow Up Report – improvements to the call follow up report that will allow filtering by sales agent and opening (uncalled) items. Other general improvements to call follow up.
4) Management Sales Price Screen – created feature that now allows key sales dates (i.e.; release date, sales date, close date, etc,) by lot to be changed here. This will allow sales management to more easily change sales prices on sold lots by removing the date, making the change, and then replacing the sales date all in the same screen.
5) Broker Improvements – added the ability to print report of brokers by project or phase and print mailing labels for follow up campaigns.
6) Prospect Media Quality Report – new traffic report that recaps traffic that has been entered as a prospect and link to one of the media traffic sources to provide "quality" source report.
**The following changes are recent ones made for specific customers that need to be included in the 12.04 release**
1) Contract Roll – created feature that allows user to select revisions (change orders) to be included in the roll from one phase to the next.
2) New Option Copy Function – added copy function to copy all options for a specific plan from one phase to another. **USE WITH CAUTION*
3) Plan Sq. Ft. – was added to selected purchasing reports (purchase orders, start order, option bid sheet, options available by sub).