Blogs

When Estimating Wins a Project, the Field CAN’T Build

By Gerard Aliberti posted 13 hours ago
The Challenge You just got the call. Your team won the bid. Everyone's celebrating in the office, high-fiving, talking about the big win. But three months into the job, your superintendent is calling you stressed out because the numbers don't match reality. The scope that looked perfect on paper is falling apart in the field. Your crew is working overtime trying to figure out what the estimator actually meant. And now you're staring down a project that's bleeding money instead of making it. This disconnect between what gets sold and what actually gets built is tearing construction companies apart from the inside. Your estimating team lives in spreadsheets ...

Free CPE Course | Key Compliance Updates Every Construction Payroll Team Must Know in 2026

By Erika Carosi posted 2 days ago
Lumber is hosting a free compliance course covering key Certified Payroll Reporting updates and best practices for 2026. Register here: https://www.lumberfi.com/webinar/key-compliance-updates-every-construction-payroll-team-must-know-in-2026 About the webinar Earn1 CPE Credit 2026 brings new compliance demands for construction payroll teams, and staying informed is critical. Gain insight into key federal and select state updates, IRS and payroll tax implications, common audit triggers, and the growing role of AI and digital tools in reducing compliance risk. Walk away with practical guidance and a 2026 compliance readiness checklist to help ...

CFMA’s Newest Elite Partner: Miter

By Connor Watumull posted 2 days ago
We're proud to announce that Miter is now a CFMA Elite Partner. Construction financial leaders are being asked to do more than ever — modernize operations, manage complex compliance, and guide their companies through growth, often with systems that weren't built for it. This partnership is about changing that. Miter brings payroll, HR, time tracking, and expenses into a single platform built for construction — so finance teams can spend less time wrestling with disconnected systems and more time on what matters most: driving strategic decisions and strengthening their organizations. Together, CFMA and Miter are committed to investing ...

Digital Credentials Boost Construction Efficiency

By Erika Carosi posted 5 days ago
The $12 Billion Paper Trail: Why Digital Credentials Are the New Gold Standard In the world of construction finance and HR, we often talk about "hidden costs." We track fuel surcharges, fluctuating material prices, and overtime. However, there is a massive, invisible drain on our bottom line: manual credential management. Industry data suggests that labor inefficiencies, largely driven by delays in verifying certifications and managing compliance gaps, cost the construction industry billions annually. For the average contractor, this looks like a foreman spending hours chasing down OSHA cards or a project stalling because a specialized operator’s certification ...

The "Excel Tax": Why Manual Payroll is the Riskiest Debt on Your Books

By Erika Carosi posted 7 days ago
In the construction finance world, we talk a lot about "technical debt", the cost of choosing an easy, manual solution now instead of a better tool that scales. For many of us, that debt lives in our payroll process. We’ve all seen it: a complex web of Excel workbooks, VLOOKUPs, and manual "shadow" calculations used to bridge the gap between field time-tracking and our general payroll provider. While it feels like we’re saving on software seat licenses, we are often unknowingly paying a much higher "tax" in risk and lost efficiency. 1. The Fragility of the "Spreadsheet Single Point of Failure" Excel is a masterpiece of flexibility, but it lacks Internal ...

1099 Reporting in Construction: What Finance Teams Need to Know for 2026

By Erika Carosi posted 8 days ago
For construction companies, 1099 reporting is more than a year-end administrative task—it’s a critical compliance function. With subcontractors making up a significant portion of the workforce, construction finance teams must ensure payments are properly tracked, classified, and reported. As reporting requirements evolve, 2026 is an important year for finance leaders to revisit their processes and ensure their systems and controls are aligned. What Is 1099 Reporting—and Why It Matters in Construction Form 1099-NEC is used to report payments made to independent contractors and subcontractors. Unlike employees, these workers are not issued W-2s, so 1099 reporting ...

Plexxis Webinar recording?

By Nikki Elkins posted 11 days ago
Hi! Does anyone know if the Plexxis Webinar was recorded from earlier this week? Thanks!

⚠️ Pay-When-Paid Aging Blindness

By Rishi Srivastava posted 27 days ago
There’s a quiet failure mode in construction accounting that almost every finance leader recognizes—but very few systems actually model well. It doesn’t usually show up as an error. It shows up as confusion . What this looks like in real life Most of us have lived some version of this: An invoice shows as “current” in AP Cash forecast looks fine Day 61: the vendor calls asking why they haven’t been paid AP responds: “We’re still waiting on the owner” No system clearly shows this tension. It usually lives in someone’s head—or a spreadsheet. Why this happens Most accounting systems track invoice age , not conditional ...

Software Roundtables Powered by BBI & CFMA

By Jennifer Tarantino posted 29 days ago
Looking to make sense of today’s construction technology options? Join our Software Roundtables Powered by BBI & CFMA — a collaborative virtual series designed to help construction financial, technology, and HR professionals evaluate tools with confidence. Each 60-minute session features live demos, expert insights, and open Q&A in a sales-free, learning-first environment — all at no cost , thanks to the support of CFMA and BBI. Discover new solutions, ask your toughest questions, and leave empowered to make smarter software decisions. Register today for the upcoming events in CFMA's estore! February 10 at 11 AM ET: Software ...

How a Top Florida GC Consolidated Back Office Systems

By Connor Watumull posted 01-16-2026
Kaufman Lynn Construction, one of Florida's largest general contractors, has averaged 25% annual growth over the last decade. While their strong client relationships drove their success, key functions like payroll, job costing, and HR were fragmented across tools that didn’t talk to each other. Teams were relying on manual processes and duplicating work, so as they continued to expand, it became apparent they needed a new system that could keep pace with their growth. After making the switch to Miter, they have: Reduced payroll processing time from 3 days to minutes Eliminated months of manual work on ESOP census reporting Streamlined ...

Data Governance as a Profit Strategy

By Emanuel Falaguerra posted 01-15-2026
How Aligning Technology, Process, and Documents Unlocks Friction‑Free Throughput for Construction Contractors In construction, profit isn’t just won in the field—it’s won in how work flows through the business. Estimates become jobs, jobs become invoices, invoices become cash. When that flow is smooth, companies grow. When it’s fragmented, margins quietly disappear. For many small and mid-sized construction contractors, the challenge isn’t a lack of software—it’s misalignment . Systems don’t reflect how work actually happens. Data and documents live in silos. Teams duplicate effort, re-enter the same information, and make decisions using partial or outdated ...

WIP Isn’t Just a Report—It’s a Conversation: Make Forecasts Reflect the Way You Build

By Emanuel Falaguerra posted 01-08-2026
Manny Falaguerra is a software engineer and construction WIP practitioner. He works with teams to standardize WIP forecasting through practical patterns—what he calls WIPComplete—and uses a lightweight interface approach to keep logic consistent while adapting to each firm’s environment. He lives and works in Milford, CT. When construction teams talk about WIP (Work in Progress), the discussion often gravitates toward the report: percent complete, cost‑to‑complete, over/under billings, margin fade. After years working with WIP, building software interfaces, and helping teams tune their processes, I’ve come to see WIP differently: WIP isn’t just a financial ...

How automating payroll fueled a specialty contractor’s growth

By Connor Watumull posted 12-08-2025
Green Mechanical, one of the Southeast's premier specialty contractors, wanted to move away from manual processes and modernize their HR, payroll, and time entry systems. As a rapidly expanding business managing complex multi-state requirements and prevailing wage compliance, they needed a solution to automate their back-office processes and give them the confidence to expand into new regions. After partnering with Miter, they have: Eliminated paper time cards and moved to electronic time entry Substantially reduced time spent on payroll processing Gained the ability to hire talent and take on jobs in multiple states with confidence ...

Closing 2025 Payroll

By Catherine Wendt posted 12-01-2025
The upcoming holidays remind us that it’s a time of celebration. It is also time to plan for the 2025 Payroll Close and get ready to open up 2026 successfully. What are the steps to plan for a successful yearend? So glad you asked! For those who want to be ‘in the know,’ we’re offering a webinar where we’ll show you how to close the year in Sage 100 Contractor, step by step, including an update on the recent changes Sage has made. Our comprehensive webinar covers: · What to request from your CPA before the end of the year for owner-related payroll entries · How to figure out exactly what version of S100C you’re ...

Software Roundtables Powered by BBI & CFMA

By Jennifer Tarantino posted 11-25-2025
Looking to make sense of today’s construction technology options? Join our Software Roundtables Powered by BBI & CFMA — a collaborative virtual series designed to help construction financial, technology, and HR professionals evaluate tools with confidence. Each 60-minute session features live demos, expert insights, and open Q&A in a sales-free, learning-first environment — all at no cost , thanks to the support of CFMA and BBI. Discover new solutions, ask your toughest questions, and leave empowered to make smarter software decisions. Register today for the upcoming events in CFMA's estore, and keep checking back as more events are ...

Make Sense of Construction Technology—Join Our No-Cost Software Roundtables

By Jennifer Tarantino posted 11-10-2025
Looking to make sense of today’s construction technology options? Join our Software Roundtables Powered by BBi & CFMA — a collaborative virtual series designed to help construction financial, technology, and HR professionals evaluate tools with confidence. Each 60-minute session features live demos, expert insights, and open Q&A in a sales-free, learning-first environment — all at no cost , thanks to the support of CFMA & BBi. Discover new solutions, ask your toughest questions, and leave empowered to make smarter software decisions. Register today for the upcoming events in CFMA's estore, and keep checking back as more events are being ...

Recouping Fleet Costs

By McKenna Green posted 11-06-2025
We are a mechanical contracting company based out of Upstate, SC and we recently added a fleet of trucks for our supervisors. We are coming up on a year of having that and I decided to complete a cost analysis of it. When we first brought this on, we decided on $100/day "Rental Charge" for the fleet trucks per supervisor charged to the job they are working on. During my analysis we found this to be extremely low. We've talked to others around the area who agreed that it's low and said theirs were almost double that. I wanted to reach out to you all and see how your company may handle this. Do you all calculate it based off of mileage, or a flat fee like ...

AI tools for AP processing Trimble

By Charlie Suarez posted 11-04-2025
Hello! Can anyone recommend an AI tool that we can use for reading AP vendor emails w/ Vendor invoices and uploading them to Trimble/Vista? I know their are some out there. thanks!

Beiing Human is Now Live on the Trimble Marketplace!

By Rishi Srivastava posted 10-21-2025
Construction finance teams using Trimble Vista can now easily discover, integrate, and benefit from Beiing Human — the AI-powered accounts payable (AP) automation platform purpose-built for construction. For years, AP teams have been buried under piles of invoices, spreadsheets, and manual data entry. Even with strong ERP systems like Vista , many processes still require repetitive keystrokes, manual coding, and double-checking between field and finance. That’s exactly the bottleneck Beiing Human was built to remove. What This Means for Vista Users With Beiing Human now available on the Trimble Marketplace , finance teams can ...

From payroll headaches to efficiency: How CVE saved 2,600+ hours annually

By Connor Watumull posted 08-29-2025
CVE , California’s largest abatement and demolition speciality contractor, faced challenges with outgrowing their software systems and a failed implementation with a legacy payroll provider. As a growing business managing multiple entities, unions, and public works projects, they needed a solution to streamline their back-office operations and create a strong foundation for future growth. After making the switch to Miter, they have: Saved 2,600+ hours annually across the company Improved accuracy by eliminating manual data entry into multiple systems Streamlined union, prevailing wage, and multi-entity reporting and management ...