About Smart Contractor

Smart Contractor Is About The Customer Relationship

Managing your customer relationships is a big challenge. It's easy to fall into disagreement about on what was said.

The only way to eliminate these problems and maintain a positive relationship with your customers is to use clear documentation and communication throughout the job process. This includes:

A Job Estimate

Smart Contractor makes it quick and easy estimate jobs on any level of detail. Starting with a clear estimate gives you a good foundation on which to build a relationship with the customer.

Proposal or Contract

Once you have an estimate, you can print a proposal or contract with the estimate merged into your customized text - complete with your company's letterhead.

More Customer Documents

Your customer needs more than just a contract. Smart Contractor can automatically generate the following documents...

Draw Schedule

A draw schedule provides a clear definition of when payment for each job phase is anticipated, based on scheduled completion.
Allowance Schedule
An allowance schedule provides the customer with their list of allowance items. The list includes the allowance amount, the date on which each item must be ordered so as to be delivered for installation in time for scheduled completion.
Allowance Variance Reporting
Smart Contractor automatically reports the variances between the amounts allowed and the actual cost of all allowance items.
Change Orders
Job changes always occur. To keep everyone happy, you have to document changes, and get the customer to sign off on them. Smart Contractor makes it quick and easy to enter change orders against original estimate items, and then print (or email) these for the customer.
Job Progress Tracking
As the job progresses, you need to keep the customer updated on your progress to let them know you are on schedule and on budget. Smart Contractor allows you to automatically post updated customer job information on your web site so that customers can have access to it around the clock. This keeps them feeling warm and fuzzy, and frees your time so you can get the work done.
Invoices or Draw Requests
Smart Contractor automatically generates and prints customer invoices, or standard (AIA G702/G703 form) draw requests for submission to banks for draws on construction loans.
Payment Tracking
Smart Contractor allows you to enter and track customer payments.
Job Accounting And Recap
Smart Contractor automatically generates and prints a job accounting and recap to track and reconcile everything that has occurred in the job, starting with the original estimate and deposit, and including all allowance variances, change orders, invoices, and payment receipts, to provide a final billing.
Job Site Photos
Smart Contractor allows you to store any number of job site photos, and email them or post them to your customer's website.
Miscellaneous Other Documents
Smart Contractor allows you to link to and track any number of other types of computer documents such as plans, sketches, Faxes, emails, etc. These can be viewed, printed, emailed, or posted to your customer's website.

Web Based Access To Job Information

You need to document all of this information, and you need to make it available to your customers when they need it. Smart Contractor can email all customer documents, or it can automatically create password controled customer websites so your customers can access them on the internet - from anywhere in the world, at any time, day or night.

Smart Contractor Is About Job Scheduling

Another huge issue in construction project management (and customer relationship management) is scheduling.

Smart Contractor automatically generates a schedule from your estimate based on a pre-defined model of work activity sequence and durations. You can then easily modify the schedule in a graphic Gantt style chart.

You can easily assign and track schedule resources, such as subcontractors, employees, work crews, and equipment.

Smart Contractor Is About Materials Purchasing

Another challenge in the contract construction business is the process of purchasing job materials.

Who has time to get prices from multiple vendors? Without a way to do this automatically, it's just not feasible. Construction materials vendors know this, and can only be expected to take advantage of it. But Smart Contractor allows you to:

Request vendor price quotes

These can be emailed, and the quoted prices returned by email, and imported automatically.
Select a preferred vendor.

This allows you to print purchase orders based on job items and quantities.
Print Materials Ordering Schedule

The Materials Ordering Schedule shows the date on which products must be ordered to be delivered by the date the item is scheduled for installation.
Print Purchase Orders

Purchase Orders automatically combine job materials to be purchased from a particular vendor, and display and total the vendor's quoted prices.

Smart Contractor Is About Subcontracting

Problems between you and your customer also happen between you and your subcontractors - for the same reasons. Again, the only way to avoid this to use throrough documentation and communication.

Smart Contractor allows you to print a subcontract Quote Request, and Purchase Order, in which all of the details of the subcontract job are clearly defined. If the sub asks for more money after the job is completed, you can refer to the Purchase Order and compare that to the work completed.

Smart Contractor Is About Employees

Smart Contractor provides you with a full suite of tools to help you get the most efficienct use of your employees time: Scheduling, Work Orders, Time Tracking, etc.

Smart Contractor Is About Cost Tracking And Profitibility

Customer relations aside, in the end of the day, the thing that really matters to your business is whether you end up with any money in your pocket when the job is done.

Smart Contractor allows you to:

Itemize job estimates, allowances, and change orders.
Track actual item costs (labor and materials).
Report the difference between estimated and actual costs - by item, or summarized by category, for one job or for all jobs.
Create new estimates by copying actual costs from previous jobs.

Smart Contractor Is About Data Integration

Smart Contractor provides all of its functionality in a single module. All data is completely integrated, so there is no duplication of data entry!

And, Smart Contractor can be fully integrated with QuickBooks so that all data is automatically shared with QuickBooks. Again, no duplication of data entry!

Smart Contractor Is About...

Managing your customer relationships
Managing your construction schedule
Managing your materials purchasing
Managing your subcontracts
Managing your employees
Managing your bottom line