QuickBooks Premier Contractor with UDA Construction

I'm using UDA Office 2004 XT.  I use UDA for estimating and sync the UDA Estimate with QB to create QB Estimates and I use the UDA QB interface to create QB POs.  I think it gives me more flexibility in estimating and I recommend UDA.

If you are interested in UDA, I recommend that you call them for a free online demo of the new 2007 Construction Suite and ask about their upgrad when the new version is released.

Please post your results.

You obviously have been using both for several years. Do you have any issues with integrating them together? Is there functionality that you do not have with both of these products that you wish could be incorporated into them? Are there areas that get the job done but may be a little quirky? I currently use Quickbooks but would like to find some construction software that helps with the scheduling and estimating? Is there a way to do "takeoffs" in UDA Construction that could be converted into estimates?

The short answer to your questions is. "yes"!

QB has shortcommings that astonish me.  For example, when printing a check for a sub-contractor the Customer:Job will not print on the check voucher and when writing a check for a subcontractor who has open POs a popup window comes up to show the POs but it doesn't display the Items, Amounts or Customers:Jobs that the POs cover.  I may have a dozen open POs for a subcontractor and no way to select the correct PO for the Customer:Job I wish to pay!  This is preposterous for a software package that purports to be a Job Cost Accounting program!

As for UDA and integration with QB, the don't really "integrate".  A better description would be that they "cooperate".  You can synchronize and you can use UDA to "trigger" actions (such as writing POs and generating Estimates) in QB but the functions and features are not "merged" into a single user interface on either side.

UDA will definitely do Scheduling and Estimating and it will do "take-offs" (you input the unit prices and quantities, etc and it does the math).

Both programs and the things they do are complex so the answers to your questions are too.  Estimating is one of the functions that it seems everyone does somewhat differenftly.  That's why I suggest the free demonstartion and taking advantage of the trial period.  Take the demo and if that seems like it will do the job buy the software when you can devote a lot of time to it to see how it works.  Then keep it or return it depending on your evaluation. 

Thank you for your information. Very helpful!

We are evaluating estimating software. WE are trying to choose between UDA and Proest. UDA is much less expensive but seem to have the same features. Does anyone have any input on which is better?

Thanks very much!

We too are evaluating those programs and I have found many differences:

1) ProEst is strictly for estimating. We currently use ProEst but do not have it integrated with QB because we do not have the manpower to input the QB items into the huge ProEst database to make it work properly. ProEst only "talks" seamlessly with QB at the G/L level which is absolutely of no use to us. To take it to the next level, one has to manually provide the cross-referencing at the Item level in the ProEst system. At least that is my understanding...

2) The partner job cost/accounting program to ProEst is The Construction Manager which we also used a few years ago (before my time). The choice was made to go back to QuickBooks. While the job costing element of QB is just barely adequate, we found, at that time, the whole QB package to be superior to CMS. However, because that was four years ago, I will be re-evaluating CMS to see what improvements they have made.

3) I am currently evaluating a trial of the UDA software and I have to say I am really impressed so far. Not only does this program do estimating but sheduling, project management, contact management and other associated goodies using extremenly sophisticated Excel spread sheets. It also has an integrated Word interface for preparing contract documents. So unlike other systems, this has a very familiar feel. It is not, however, an accounting system, which would allow us to continue using Quickbooks. And like ProEst, UDA does interface with QB. (I have yet to check that out exactly how that works.)

So, in summary this is a slick business management system with all the required components (other than acctg.) rolled into one application. And the price is very reasonable.

So those are my observations so far but I would definitely recommend obtaining trial versions of various products and investigating them yourself. I too would welcome any one else's opinions and experiences. I keep thinking I'm missing something with this item cross-referencing between systems problem. Is it really that difficult?

Lynn

We are also evaluating UDA and I am looking for information on how, and how well, UDA ConstructionSuite Pro works with QuickBooks Enterprise version 7.

I am also curious if you link the UDA estimate line items with the QuickBooks Items, Accounts or Classes (so that the current "actual" costs can be sent back to UDA and compared to the estimates)?

Since our estimators use the standard 16 Division codes to build their estimates - and our version of QB does not use those to track costs - I am wondering what the best way to integrate the two platforms might be.

Thank you!

I use UDA Construction Suite 2007 with Quickbooks Premier Contractor.

The integration is very good.

You can set it up to use Expense Accounts to track costs (bad idea) or you can set it up to use Items liked to a COGS account or even a WIP account.

To make it work like it should, you have to perfect the estimate first, and then let the integration tool create a complete list of items in Quickbooks.

I spent countless hours working on my estimate and I know how hard that can be. If anyone is making the leap and is a small spec/custom builder, I'd be willing to share a copy of my item list / estimate template.

Shannon

Shannon, I have UDA CS 2007 and would greatly appreciate a copy of the UDA item list/estimate. I am not sure how to make contact.

Matthew

Shannon,
I would really appreciate a copy of your item list and estimate template
Thanks,
David

ProEst works very well and is Gold Certified.

I was very impressed with UDA the first time I saw it, however I did not like the QuickBooks Integration. I do have a client that uses UDA for estimating and they love it. I however spent considerable time with them in 2005 correcting their accounting file after the UDA interface.. They are not currently interfacing QuickBooks with UDA.

My client would like to interface again. I talked with UDA about three months ago asking for a trial copy that would interface with QuickBooks. I never received it. They indicated that they were going to become Silver certified by July,that has not happened yet.

Ask for a detailed demo on the QuickBooks' interface, I have been told by UDA that they have corrected the problems but I have not been able to confirm.

Another product that is Gold Certified is Corecon
http://www.corecon.com/

Please don't include email addresses or your own website or phone number in the body of your message.  For one thing, it can increase your spam.  I don't know about you but I get enough already .
You can include that info in your profile and refer another user to that if necessary but do you really want to take the answer to a question out of the community?  One possibility is to add an attachment to your post if the info is long or detailed.  The only format I know you can't use is html. 
Sometimes the question comes up about promoting your own product or site.  Those posts belong in the Classified forums and you can include that info in your profile as well.  In cases like this thread where somebody's product is being discussed by users or potential users or somebody needs to mention another alternative, that's ok. 
Hope this helps clear up any questions in a nutshell,
Dennis

Hello,

I would certainly be appreciative of a copy.

TALock

I would appreciate a copy of your estimate.

Suggestion for the community: rather than post your email address and open yourself to increased spam and be outside the Terms of Service; you have at least two options.  1.  You can refer a user to that information listed on your profile or 2. attach a file to your post making the resource information available to everybody ( removing proprietary info, of course). 
Thanks for posting,
Dennis

How do I refer a user to my profile to see the email? How do I see other user's email addresses?

Good question -
For a user to see your email address - go to the Preferences/profile tab in the left hand nav bar on any page and click (you must be logged in).  You can see a field to enter your email address.  Under that uncheck the box that says you want to keep your email private. 
Referring another user to your email address - it should be enough to say something like "check my profile for my email address (or other personal info)".
To find somebody else's email address - click on the user name at the left of an individual post.  A separate popup window will display everything in that person's profile that is public.
That should do it,
Dennis

Shannon -
It is so generous of you to offer to share - I would find that exteremely helpful

Rue

Shannon,

I would like a copy please! See my email address in my preferences. Thank you!

Here is a Quick Tip in response to YOUR comment that read: "when writing a check for a subcontractor who has open POs a popup window comes up to show the POs but it doesn't display the Items, Amounts or Customers:Jobs that the POs cover.  I may have a dozen open POs for a subcontractor and no way to select the correct PO for the Customer:Job I wish to pay! "

THE TIP:  I help a lot of construction clients use the PO features in QB to help control costs, so I suggest to my clients that since they enter the Customer:Job in the PO when they create it, that they simply "copy" the job name (highlight, then CTRL C) then go to the memo field on the bottom of the PO and "Paste" (CTRL+V) the job name in the memo section.  The job name then shows up in the pop up window.

I agree that it would be nice for the customer:job to automatically display in the pop up, but there could easily be a situation where a PO contains lines for a number of different jobs, so it could be logistically difficult to display all of the possible jobs from a given PO in the current pop-up window environment.  To do what you suggest would probably require a whole new way of dealing with POs.  (which could be a good thing too).  BUT in the meantime, I hope this tip helps for the circumstances where a PO is only used for one job.

Regards,