By BUILDER Magazine Staff. By using BuildTrak, a cost management software program from True Systems (
www.true.com), managers at Arcadia Building Co. in Purcellville, Va., spend less time tracking down invoices and more time running the business.
Neil Reinhard, president of Arcadia, says BuildTrak also offers a sales module called Sales Office & Design Center. Both the sales module and the cost management system integrate with standard accounting packages such as Timberline and QuickBooks.
Here's how Arcadia uses BuildTrak: During the initial planning stages of a new subdivision, all the cost and pricing information is inputted into the back-end cost management system. This module lets builders set pricing and gross margins for each option. Once a subdivision is ready to be sold, a salesperson works out the options and selections and enters the information into the sales module. The salesperson prints out a contract, final revisions are made, the customer signs it, and then it is finalized and signed by a manager.
Once the contract is signed the sales information is imported into BuildTrak, which prints out P.O.s. The P.O.s are snail-mailed to the subcontractors and work begins. The BuildTrak information is then imported into Timberline, which sets a budget for the job and pays subcontractors.