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Courtney, Here is my experience with contingency, specifically internal contingency, not owners allowances or conditional contingency items influenced by the customer. How are you structuring contingency accounts at the job level? We have a few standard contingency cost codes on each job. We earn our gross profit in accordance with labor progression, so one is tied to labor and impacts profit recognition directly and one is not (revenue ...
We've received reports of a fraudulent email circulating that claims to be from CFMA's Membership Team, warning recipients of a past-due membership payment. This email is NOT from CFMA. CFMA will never ask you to reply to an email to make a payment or submit payment confirmation. Any legitimate communication about your membership will come from a verified @cfma.org address and will direct you to your member portal at cfma.org. If you ...
Hi Matthew, is Beiing Human billed on a per invoice basis, user basis, or set price? I'm trying to ballpark what this would cost us. Thanks for any help, John McCollister Controller Sands Wall Systems ------------------------------ John McCollister MBA Controller Sands Wall Systems Sioux Falls SD (605) 361-3177 ------------------------------
Hi Sherry! Congrats on the new position! I've done a lot of marketing for the Philadelphia chapter, and we tend to see the most engagement with video content and posts that highlight individuals in our chapter. Anything more personal-like member spotlights or candid moments from events-performs really well. We've also seen good engagement with event recaps that include photos and a few takeaways, especially when we tag members and companies. ...
Kevin, We have used two different verification systems - Lyons and EFTSure. We felt like we outgrew Lyons and just moved to EFTSure. The vendor enters their own data into a vendor portal. The system verifies name, account, and federal tax ID. We do not sure a system like Corpay. Our ERP system runs a file that we upload to the bank. The EFTSure vendor verifies the banking information before we allow it to be used by our ERP system payment. ...
Hi Greg, also full disclosure that I am an independent advisor (software agnostic), but I've worked for contractors most of my career. Here are my observations and some general guidance to help. The current focus areas that are working well are not a coincidence. It's because they all have the same profile. They are single task activities, pulling data that's already clean and accessible, and a human is reviewing the output before anything else ...
Hi Emily, which tool did you end up going with? We are interested in checking out Nobious, too! ------------------------------ Jennifer Tindal, CPA CPA CFO MSS Solutions, LLC Charlotte NC (704) 943-1722 ------------------------------
Hello CFMA! I've been spending more time looking at how construction firms using Sage Intacct are handling positive pay, and I'd really value some perspective from this group-especially Sage Intacct users, VARs, resellers, and consultants. From what I understand today, many Intacct users are still: Generating positive pay files manually inside Intacct Uploading them to their bank portals Relying on internal processes to ensure consistency ...
I've been looking at what other CFMA chapters are sharing on their social media pages-specifically at the local level, outside of regional or national content. I am the newly appointed Chair of the Social Media & Branding Committee for the Austin, TX chapter, and this is a new role for me, so I'm looking to learn from what's working across the network. What types of content are your chapters seeing the most engagement with, and what are you highlighting? ...
Following. We, too, received our notice 12 days ago--have major concerns with our DIS function between HeavyJob/HeavyBid and Computer-Ease Cloud--anyone have this tackled, or have hindsight thoughts? ------------------------------ Allison Kolling CFO Baranko Brothers, Inc. Dickinson ND (701) 713-6293 ------------------------------
Hi AmyMarie, Approximately 6 months ago we brought on Ramp. Only a handful of employees have a card and when it is used their manager receives an alert and needs to approve it on the Ramp website but in order for that to happen they must supply the receipt and explanation for the charge (project name, office supply etc..) if they don't supply the info we deduct from their pay. If an employee has to be reimbursed because they don't have their own ...
I looked into Stampli and AvidXchange, which are both viable solutions to what you are asking for. We don't have an ERP that would work with those platforms and didn't want to manage another SaaS. Once we change ERPs we will likely do something. We receive 50 invoices per day and it is a very manual process. ------------------------------ Greg Boden CFO Midwest D-Vision Solutions Salt Lake City UT (801) 505-4291 ----------------------------- ...
Our company has a couple other layers to the expense process. We have a handful of employees who use their own cards (for the points) and we reimburse. To get reimbursed, we require an expense report (Excel file) which summarizes the expenses, along with receipts for everything. We usually issue a Divvy card to employees (~150 cards) with a defined monthly budget ($200-$500), which they can use to pay for business expenses. We have built-in requirements ...
HI Courtney, Have you ever looked at a GL only program? ------------------------------ Amy Lamb AVP - Insurance Tracking & Risk Advisory CR Solutions Woodstock GA ------------------------------
Some further clarification, we already use Corpay for 98% of our payments. But occasionally we run ACH transactions through our bank to expedite payments to suppliers for deposits or other critical path issues. Corpay's ACH verification is robust but that also means there process is sometimes not as fast as we need it, especially for new vendors. I'm looking for something more sophisticated for those transactions. ------------------------------ ...
Good morning CFMA community, I am wondering how other companies handle employee expense reimbursements. A bit of backstory... The company I work for has a company credit card, but there are restrictions depending on the job title/responsibilities. For example, office project managers/estimators are limited to just fuel purchases so they have to put everything else on their personal card and have it reimbursed. When you do a reimbursement, ...
Hi Nicolle, You might want to look into Beiing Human for AP automation. They work very well with Foundation. We have been using their solution for the past 18 months and it has been very good for us. They are able to manage our incoming invoice and delivery tickets, automate our invoice entry and approval, and link the invoices to Foundation for later retrieval. ------------------------------ Matthew Robinson CPA, MBA Chief Financial Officer ...
Hey Jonathan, We use Agave to Connect our purchasing software to Foundation. it works well, there was a lot of hiccups at first, but no complaints so far. ------------------------------ Korie Breig Controller Breig Electric and Consultants Sunrise FL (954) 483-5917 ------------------------------
Hi All, For our subcontracts, we check against our compliance tracker before issuing payment. For POs and PSAs, this is more challenging to track because many times, invoices are entered and posted in Vista and approved by PMs without the compliance check. We don't have a solid process in place currently that provides a backstop for processing these types of payments before checking for outstanding insurance compliance. AP doesn't have a good way ...
Connor, I would love to hear more about this. Thanks for reaching out. ------------------------------ David Carey CFO Willis A. Smith Construction Inc. Sarasota FL (941) 366-3116 ------------------------------
Hi Nicole, We're fractional CFOs/controllers. I'll tell you what we've seen across clients - you may get some ideas there. In terms of routing the invoices, a lot of AP automation solutions will have an email address you can auto-forward to. Our clients set up a separate AP email, make sure all invoices are sent there, and then set up an auto-forwarding rule (how to do that depends on your email provider). Some AP automations will link to ...
Hi Courtney, When I was consulting, I would advise clients to keep the original estimate on all subcontracts that had a profitable buyout. We had customized our buyout report to report all gains (contingency) across the job and attach that to the project during our first cost meeting for visibility. We set up the subcontract cost type to reproject only when going over. We would release the contingency as needed to minimize a loss on another item. ...
We are using AP Wizard. All invoices sent to our AP email. AP Wizard pulls out the invoice, codes it based on historical info and gets it ready to process. Our AP people review and approve/send to Vista. No more data entry. It will also pull in WO and POs from Vista and attach them. Not sure what accounting system you use or what other systems AP works with, but probably worth a look. ------------------------------ Ryan Ladner CFO Reynolds ...
Kevin - I'd highly recommend Corpay as a third party payment platform. Outside of the rebates you can earn by using them, they take all liability off of us from a vendor ACH/bank fraud standpoint. We've been using them for about 7 years and couldn't be more pleased with the service and assistance they provide. For reference we are a roughly $600m GC in the Chicagoland area and I can't imagine having anyone be verifying and keeping those records ...
How we manage buyout and contingency depends on our actual contracts with the Project Owners. As a GC, sometimes we get to keep all savings; a portion of savings., or no savings. If there is a stated contingency and/or buyout contract line item in our contract (meaning the Owner can see those amounts), then we use dedicated cost codes for contingency and buyout changes. In reality it's usually only a contingency amount that is disclosed. If we ...
Hi Everyone, We are looking to implement either Trimble Pay or GC Pay to help us manage ACH payments along with lien waivers. Would anyone be willing to share the good, bad & the ugly with me? Our ERP is Spectrum, so Trimble Pay seems to make the most sense, but with everything Trimble has taken on, we feel like we don't always get the support we need. GC Pay really pushed their support. Thank you so much in advance! ------------------------------ ...
Courtney: Great questions - and no "right or wrong" answer(s). You say you are a little different in that you post WIP AJE's weekly. Could that, in itself, be causing some of the noise? If these were done less frequently (say monthly), some of the noise may dissipate on its own. Historically, we booked WIP AJE's monthly, after scrubbing each job thoroughly with OPS. From the onset until roughly 50% completion, the monthly ups and downs were ...
Hey David, thanks for your thoughts. To chime in with more detail, there a couple ways Miter handles labor burden: By default, Miter automatically allocates your realized indirect labor costs (e.g., employer benefit contributions, workers' comp, employer taxes) to jobs, cost codes, departments, and other dimensions based on your realized direct labor costs (wages and salaries from job-costed hours). In addition, you can optionally ...
Greg, This has been on my mind a lot lately. We have been experimenting with a few things at our company that has been incredibly effective. We've created some company dashboards that take literally 1 minute to update monthly rather than the 14-16 hours monthly. Gamechanger for us. We're experimenting with a few other things that I think will be impactful as well, both on the finance side and elsewhere in the company. I'd love to connect with ...
I'm looking for advice and examples on how others are handling contingency and buyout savings during active construction projects. One of our teams is handling longer-term projects where budgets evolve after contract award. Our current challenge: Once a job is awarded, we perform subcontractor buyout and often realize savings or losses since the job was originally bid. From a financial management perspective, those ups and downs are normal... ...
Hi all - I would like to preface this question by saying that I am not looking for solicitation on solutions to this problem rather looking for feedback from other contractors as to what they use. We are currently using Foundation software along with Hh2 to assist us in invoice entry and approval, which is going well. Where we are seeing an issue is automating the email attachments containing invoices going to one location. We are currently ...
Andrea, We implemented Miter in October 2024 when we transitioned from Sage 300 to Sage Intacct. Overall, Miter handles construction payroll well. However, Sage 300 was a fully integrated system and had been configured to support our payroll and job costing model more precisely. Under Sage 300, our billing rates were based on position , not the individual employee. For example, when an employee charged time to a superintendent cost code, the ...
I really enjoyed this session. Thank you for the networking tips. ------------------------------ Erika Carosi Account Executive Lumber Palo Alto CA (717) 449-1126 ------------------------------
Greg, this is one of the most thoughtful AI workflow audits I've seen on the Cafe - your "what works / where it falls short" framing is the right way to evaluate any of this. And the AI Champions group is the unlock most companies miss. Tools don't change behavior; people running monthly experiments on each other do. The forgetting curve is real with AI - if you don't use a new prompt within 48 hours of learning it, it's gone. Quick disclosure since ...
Chris, I have this one. I am pretty sure I got it here in the connection cafe a year or so ago. ------------------------------ James Easton Watterson Construction Anchorage AK (907) 563-7441 ------------------------------
Does anyone know where I can download a free Excel version of the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts Weekly Certified Payroll Form, or a good resource to buy one. I have the link for the fillable form but I prefer one in Excel. Thanks in advance. ------------------------------ Chris Lawing CPA Director of Finance Renu Energy Solutions, LLC Charlotte NC (704) 305-3462 ------------------------------
I am looking for input from the people in the trenches of construction financial management (CFOs, Controllers, Directors of Accounting, VP of Finance, Senior Accountants, etc.), not vendors . I want to know how you are using AI. With all the talk about AI changing the world and coming for the accounting jobs (I don't believe that part) we are putting a lot of thought and energy into AI initiatives. We have even created a group of employees in ...
Thank you to everyone who joined us for our April Social at PopStroke. It was a fantastic evening of food, drinks, conversation, and some very competitive putting. Events like this remind us how strong and connected our CFMA Las Vegas community truly is. We appreciate you taking the time to be part of it, and we look forward to seeing you at our upcoming programs and socials throughout the year. ------------------------------ Kevin Booth Chief ...
Does anyone have experience with Nomi Health Insurance? If so, would you be willing to have a conversation with me about it? We are going through our Health Insurance renewal process and one of our options is Nomi. ------------------------------ Steve Wilfong Bachelor of MBA Director of Finance Welch Tile & Marble Kent City MI (616) 498-9061 ------------------------------
We have two engaging virtual events happening - both designed to help members build relationships, gain insights, and get more value from their CFMA experience. 1:00 PM ET | Member Benefit Series Beyond the Screen: Maximizing CFMA's In-Person Networking Opportunities This interactive panel explores how CFMA members can make the most of in-person events like the Annual Conference, Regional Conferences, and local chapter gatherings. ...
Hey Jonathan - Middleware generally means one of two things in the context you're talking about: An integration platform (IPaaS, or Integration Platform as a Service), such as Agave, Workato, AgilePoint, Boomi, or Trimble App Xchange Custom applications, be it .NET console/windows applications, PowerShell, Python, etc. built for a very specific data exchange If I recall you guys are on Vista, correct? If so, then Trimble's App Xchange ...
Hi Lisa, I have not used the QB transition team yet, but am beginning to explore for a client. Here is the link to their page dedicated for this transition. They have links to connect with experts, but I honestly can't tell if 'experts' are in house or where they cross sell to 3rd party advisors. Hope this helps. https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/help-article/import-export-data-files/move-quickbooks-desktop-file-quickbooks-online/L6af3Z0Fb_US_en_US?uid=moehezq2 ...
Has anyone used QB's transition team? Do you have a contact number for them? ------------------------------ Lisa Smith Finance Manager SEAC of the Carolinas Midland NC (704) 438-2623 ------------------------------
Hi Jonathan - when you say middleware, I'm curious what you're primarily envisioning it solving. One thing I've noticed is that "middleware" can mean very different things depending on context - anywhere from enterprise integration platforms to more narrowly scoped interfaces built to protect a specific process. Is the primary goal around data movement, preserving a workflow that doesn't live cleanly in any one system, or reducing manual reconciliation ...
Has anyone implemented middleware software to connect independent applications and databases? What was your overall experience regarding implementation and value generated by doing so? ------------------------------ Jonathan Ritter Controller T. A. Loving Company Goldsboro NC (919) 922-0024 ------------------------------
Hello Brian, I believe this course is offered twice a year. (I attended last year, the last week of Oct 2025) I would keep an eye out around July/August for a fall/early winter Dated event. Regards, Zach Glocke ------------------------------ Zach Glocke Project Accountant Cobex Construction Group Sacramento CA (510) 825-0308 ------------------------------
Are you a subcontractor that currently performs both private and public work, handles payroll in house, uses Sage 100 Contractor AND has a pension and 401k plan? Do you have pension set up as an employer expense or included in gross payroll and also as an EE Deferral? We pay pension to a 3rd party as fringe in lieu of cash for 15% of total prevailing wage. If your set up allows you to calculate the gross less pension and then ...
QuickBooks also has a dedicated internal team that performs these transitions for customers at no cost. They also determine if your desktop data has not exceed the maximum capacity for converting, and if so they work with you to condense the file prior to import. ------------------------------ J. Daniel Bachrach CFO Wallcor, Inc. Gilbert AZ (480) 291-1110 ------------------------------
Hi Nikki, We've used CCSI for many successful years. CCSI | Managed IT Services & IT Solutions in Vancouver WA ------------------------------ Bonnie Bagley Controller Schommer & Sons Portland OR (503) 287-4646 ------------------------------