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Reporting Software recs
Posted on 8/4/20 at 8:09 am
Posted on 8/4/20 at 8:09 am
Looking for advise on reporting Software. I'm currently using excel to create job/daily reports but it's a little sloppy as the job reports can become disorganized pretty quickly inside or excel. Many jobs can last week's to months and overwhelm excels organization pretty quickly.
I'm looking for a reporting framework that I could customize for my specific business. I just need it to be able to create daily reports under a specific job and perform some basic calculations as well as hold a daily time log of activities. I can go into more details if necessary but mainly looking for advice about where to start.
I'm looking for a reporting framework that I could customize for my specific business. I just need it to be able to create daily reports under a specific job and perform some basic calculations as well as hold a daily time log of activities. I can go into more details if necessary but mainly looking for advice about where to start.
2
Posted on 8/4/20 at 8:38 am to xrockfordf150x
Power BI is pretty powerful and fairly straight forward for SQL, Excel, and various other DB connections, you have to pay for licenses if you are sharing dashboards or the actual reports but for your own use it's free.
Posted on 8/4/20 at 9:00 am to Stexas
I don't know much about power bi but is it useful for data entry? Looks like a good way to share and visualize data, but one thing I will need is the initial data entry. For example day 1 we did x, day 2 we did y and so on.
Posted on 8/4/20 at 9:07 am to xrockfordf150x
quote:
data entry
No, but you asked for...
quote:
Reporting Software recs
Posted on 8/4/20 at 9:09 am to xrockfordf150x
Honestly, if you already have office, MS Access should do what you want. It's not an enterprise tool, but it does support data entry and reporting.
Posted on 8/4/20 at 9:13 am to Stexas
In my line of work it's kind of one in the same at the field level. Need a method of input output for workflow. Excel becomes overwhelmed pretty quickly when dealing with month long jobs, too many tabs and sheets. I need to find a way to log activities and data that can be turned into reports more efficiently. I'm not a huge tech guy so sorry if my jargon is out of line.
Posted on 8/4/20 at 9:20 am to xrockfordf150x
Hope I didn't come across as an arse, if I did, I apologize. What sort of company has month long jobs but no cost tracking or accounting software that you can use to manage them? This is what made me assume you had software you were trying to report out of. MS Access like the other poster recommended, can be used to input data much more stably than Excel, and should give you lots of options to report off of it. YouTube is your friend in setting up the database and configuring it to suit your needs. 
Posted on 8/4/20 at 9:28 am to Stexas
Thanks for the help. For the record the business is a new venture in the planning phase and trying to figure out job analytics. Financial tracking is being done seperately from the job analytics. My focus was to find an efficient, user friendly method for guys in the field to log activity and other key data points that could be turned into reports, if that makes sense.
Posted on 8/4/20 at 9:49 am to xrockfordf150x
I see...
I've had a 20 yr career in managing software such as you describe for a huge company. This sort of thing can get extremely expensive and extremely complicated very quickly if you let it. It's important to look at the big picture if you can and find software that you can model your business processes towards. There's a strong desire for folks to do stuff related to software, cheap, fast, and easy. You normally can only get 2 of the 3.
What software are you looking at to manage AP, Billing, and Payroll? If you can find something that can easily integrate with that then I'd look to utilize those. It makes so much sense to have something you can use in the field to track cost and productivity AND feed billing and payroll functions.
With mobile technology what it is today, make sure whatever you choose has mobile device capabilities, and not just a web page that can be displayed on a phone, something you can actually enter time or materials into relatively easily. Also, don't forget about who is entering the data. Are you going to rely on project management to do that or your foreman/supervisors?
I wish I could recommend specific software brands, but I'm sort of out of touch with the small business software arena. Developing your own software can be expensive. My recommendation would be (If you choose that route) for you to manage that process as closely as you manage your work. Clearly define the scope, clearly define cost, and manage extras/scope creep like you were your own customer, documenting change orders, etc.
I've had a 20 yr career in managing software such as you describe for a huge company. This sort of thing can get extremely expensive and extremely complicated very quickly if you let it. It's important to look at the big picture if you can and find software that you can model your business processes towards. There's a strong desire for folks to do stuff related to software, cheap, fast, and easy. You normally can only get 2 of the 3.
What software are you looking at to manage AP, Billing, and Payroll? If you can find something that can easily integrate with that then I'd look to utilize those. It makes so much sense to have something you can use in the field to track cost and productivity AND feed billing and payroll functions.
With mobile technology what it is today, make sure whatever you choose has mobile device capabilities, and not just a web page that can be displayed on a phone, something you can actually enter time or materials into relatively easily. Also, don't forget about who is entering the data. Are you going to rely on project management to do that or your foreman/supervisors?
I wish I could recommend specific software brands, but I'm sort of out of touch with the small business software arena. Developing your own software can be expensive. My recommendation would be (If you choose that route) for you to manage that process as closely as you manage your work. Clearly define the scope, clearly define cost, and manage extras/scope creep like you were your own customer, documenting change orders, etc.
Posted on 8/4/20 at 10:15 am to Stexas
You have much more experience than me in this department that's for sure.
As far as the financial tracking goes I'm small enough to manage everything through QuickBooks for the time being. I'm not big enough yet to justify the expense of elaborate financial enterprise programs and don't anticipate the need any time soon.
Access may be the way to go as this does not need to tie into my accounting software in anyway. I'm looking to track what is being done on the job site as well as basic inputs for measurements and readings taken throughout the day. From those inputs I'd like to be able to create daily activity report amoung other things. For the sake of this discussion we can pretend financial integration is not needed.
As far as the financial tracking goes I'm small enough to manage everything through QuickBooks for the time being. I'm not big enough yet to justify the expense of elaborate financial enterprise programs and don't anticipate the need any time soon.
Access may be the way to go as this does not need to tie into my accounting software in anyway. I'm looking to track what is being done on the job site as well as basic inputs for measurements and readings taken throughout the day. From those inputs I'd like to be able to create daily activity report amoung other things. For the sake of this discussion we can pretend financial integration is not needed.
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