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Frustrated by Your Construction Software?
Your computer system can be a blessing and a curse. We know when it is blessing because it has sped up the collection and reporting of information. This makes our analysis of those reports much timelier. Important in our risky, superheated race to completion on construction projects.
However, when it is a curse, we know that as well. The system sometimes won't produce reports that we must have. Certainly, a good report writing software on the back end helps here. To name a name, Crystal Reports has a following among contractors.
Another alternative is to use a download of your information resident in your software and report / analyze it in a spreadsheet. Machine language is also known as ASCII. ASCII Stands for American Standard for Information Interchange. It is a type of file format. All software will read these files. All contractors should know how to download data from an accounting, project management, or estimating software package into an easy to use spreadsheet such as Microsoft Excel. From here, we can analyze the data extensively.
This should untie the software knot some contractors may be experiencing.
For the rest of this chapter, read my book, Managing a Construction Firm on Just 24 Hours a Day (McGraw Hill, 2007, 406 pages). To order our book, go to any major outlet i.e. Amazon, Walden Books, Barnes and Noble, Reiter's. Brown's Stationers (UK), Borders, Booktopia (AUS) and other fine book retailers. You may order the bundle of book, 50 MS Excel Templates (featured in the book) and 55 e-classes at www.stevensci.com - click on the book image.
Posted by Matt Stevens at February 2, 2008 2:41 AM