A general contractor may have a very large number and variety of services and items that can be involved in a construction project, and may find it time consuming to enter a record for each item and/or service. However, investing the time setting up inventory records for the items and services you sell will provide you with many benefits:
Save time entering invoices for regularly scheduled activities
Once your inventory and service records are set up, issuing invoices for frequently sold items or activities becomes more efficient. For example, if you are a lawn and garden service provider, you may offer several different services (spring clean up, weeding and aerating, regular mowing services). By storing these activities in inventory, you can quickly select from different prices for regular customers, repeat customers, or even seasonal sale prices.
Streamline the estimating and bidding process:
You can set up a service item for each category of service that can appear on a bid or estimate for a job - such as plans and permits, excavation, concrete, masonry, framing, roofing, plumbing, electrical, insulation, etc. To re-use a project bid activity list, simply save and store the order as a recurring entry. Each time you need to create a new project bid, simply retrieve the recurring entry, make any adjustments (depending on your project scope or client needs), and print the order.
Assess your sales performance with Inventory analysis reports Sales Analysis report: Which items has my company sold, and what are the gross sales per item? Which method of payment do my customers use most often?
Product Analysis report: What are my company’s best-selling products in terms of quantity and gross sales revenue, and who is buying these products? Which products are the most profitable?
Customer Analysis Detail report: Which customers bring in the most revenue and profit? This report provides a detailed list of items sold to each customer
Keep track of when it's time to reorder
If you are an electrical, plumbing, or roofing contractor, you can use Sage 50 Accounting to store inventory records for electrical wiring, plumbing supplies, or roofing materials, with reorder quantities. As you process invoices, the levels are adjusted, and once the minimum level is reached, you are reminded to reorder.
If you use Sage 50 Premium Accounting, you can set up item categories to make it even easier to select items for an order.