Sage Construction Suite

Pros

Integration of job bidding to job costing to accounting to payroll.....all modules talk to each other in real time. We could not have any software that did not do all these things

Cons

The weak point is the estimating module that comes with it. I don't think it has been upgraded for 20 years.....no...really. They want me to buy the upgraded estimator which I think I will do soon.

Pros

There is a lot of detail in what you can get out of this software, if you have the labor time to put into it.

Cons

Ultimately, the software is too cumbersome, difficult for staff to use, training not able to assist us in getting it working well for our organization. Functionality that used to be supported is no longer available with recent updates.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Sage Construction Suite

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Sage Construction Suite

Pros

It had the ability to customize features in the program

Cons

The service module is way behind the times and will be the ultimate reason we leave Sage at some point. Even though we haver added SSO for some time now it still does not change the fact the back office program is the problem. We need more flexibility with departments and costing to meet the real service world.
Also in order to make Sage work to meet todays requirements we have had to add third party programs such as Timberscan, Cabbage, hh2 and any even a program to get better access to your data. Sage is exactly the kind of program third part developers want and keeps them in business. Having Sage 300 Re means you will be forced to use other companies to get what you want out of the program.

I did not realize how the programs we pieces bolted on and that there not actually built together. Once I knew how the purchasing module had to use Macros to make it work and communicate to the rest of the program was extremely disappointing. The program does not easily allow you to perform the payroll function easily with Payroll companies. Basically you cant get job costing to pickup until you process a weekly payroll to get it on the jobs. You are left handcuffed to do payroll in house when smaller companies want to move that process out of their company.

The program was moved into the cloud last year in my company but it is really not cloud based. So you have to work in a remote desktop way verses a true cloud based program.

Pros

The software provides the needed accounting and payroll modules. The optional Inventory modules offers some basic tools to manage your inventory. Reporting tools are rudimentary, but adequate.

Cons

Receiving inventory items works strangely. A Sage invoice is created when receiving. At the point of vouching the supplier's invoice, the same receiving generated invoice can be updated. However, issues occur if you have used any of that inventory before getting the supplier's invoice entered. There's a work-around which involves copying and pasting, but the vouching process should not care what your current inventory level is.
The weighted average cost is problematic when working with projects. Any given transaction can result in a G/L record that doesn't match the project record, leading to variances. Need the option of last-cost, std cost, etc.

Pros

I've used it in the past when it was simply Timberline (both DOS and Windows versions) with other companies. It is easy to use

Cons

Don't care much for the yearly cost as it seems excessive.

Would like to see in lieu of monthly free webinars that cater more for new or potential buyers, webinars for how to utilize the software to its maximum potential.