The Power of Combining Procurement Software with Accounting Systems

The first wave of construction technology began in the 1990s with the accounting system era. The accounting system is probably the first piece of technology your company bought. And it still does its job well, faithfully tracking financial data and producing reports week after week. Good accounting software is critical to managing business finances. It enables office teams to do everything from job costing to running payroll and managing financial reporting.

But accounting systems are general business tools, and they aren’t built for the specific needs of construction. Accounting systems are stuck in the office and it takes time for information to show up there. Meanwhile, construction is happening in the field. Project teams must be able to share information quickly, and document events as they unfold.

Luckily, everyone on the job site now has a computer in their pocket. This has unlocked a powerful new wave of construction technology that captures updates in real time. Communication is streamlined across the field, office, accounting, and warehouse teams. The result is direct efficiency gains, plus better visibility and control. This is especially critical for processes that involve lots of people, communication, and change, such as material procurement.

The reality is you still have to get final cost data into the accounting system. To keep your systems working in harmony without adding new inefficiencies, you need your accounting software to work seamlessly with your procurement software. Good procurement software is critical to managing materials and inventory. Procurement technology like Kojo is powerful, enabling you to get the right materials on site when you need them, at the best price, while avoiding billing errors. See for yourself and schedule a demonstration today.

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Connecting your most important systems

Kojo’s direct integrations connect these complementary systems. They allow key cost information around what was purchased to flow seamlessly into accounting systems, and for critical information around job locations, numbers, and names, along with vendor contacts, tax codes, phase codes, and GL codes to be pushed into Kojo. This automation saves Office teams  75% of their manual data entry work, unlocking a new level of transparency and control for contractors.

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Procurement systems let you get more from your accounting systems

Kojo allows you to connect your Office, Field, and Warehouse teams on one streamlined system that instantly syncs with your accounting system. It makes it easier for your teams to collaborate and gives them one source of truth about what was ordered when. 

Field teams can now select materials from an extensive catalog as soon as they identify they need something on site. Using an Amazon-like app, they can convert those items into an RFQ or a PO with one click. Office teams can issue RFQs to multiple vendors and automatically stack up line item pricing and availability. Teams can see delivery notifications on their phones with instant answers about order statuses. Field teams can capture real-time proof of delivery including photos of issues. And, crucially, all of this can be done without the need for time-consuming data re-entry each time the order moves from field to office to vendor.

With Kojo’s integrations into accounting systems, this critical activity is logged in your accounting system - your records are kept up to date without spending any Office time. With this data so easily on hand, you can have a better picture of how your committed costs in real time. No more waiting until 6 months after the project is done to know how well you did. 

“With Kojo, we’re better at knowing when to pay something. Checks and balances didn’t exist prior to Kojo. Accounting wouldn’t know if the supply house was charging us the right amount of money. You would think you were ahead of the game, and two months after the jobs closed out, you’re still receiving bills. “How did the job end?” you’d get asked, and you’d say, “I think we made money.” -Tom Wieglenda, a former Project Manager at RC Power.

You need both, and you need them to integrate

Using an accounting system alone can’t solve the collaboration and communication needs of the Field, Office, and Warehouse. Accounting systems don’t allow you to speed up creating requisitions, create RFQs, or check in deliveries. 

That’s because accounting systems aren’t built for that: they’re designed to be systems for financial record keeping. Integrating them with procurement software that’s easy for Office, Field, Warehouse, and Accounting teams to use allows you to dramatically expand what your accounting system can do for you. It allows you to save time on projects, money on materials, and gain control over the whole process.  

“Kojo’s integration with [our accounting system] is a huge time saver and it removes a lot of steps. PMs and purchasing can use Kojo for everything, and they don’t have to separately enter orders into [the accounting system] anymore. They just send the info over, and it shows up faster than you can even get there to check. And AP’s process didn’t have to change, it’s just faster now. The integration takes the guesswork out of processing orders, everyone has the tools and information they need.” -Jeff Mills, Project Manager at Carol Electric.

Interested in learning more? Check out how Kojo’s solutions can save you time and help you get more from your accounting system.

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