Estimating - Part of the Viewpoint Product Suite Again

Transcription

1 March 2014 In This Issue Estimating - Part of the Viewpoint Product Suite Again Final Call for 2014 User Conference Presenters March Support Update V6 Project Management Training classes Informative April Release Webinars - Don't Miss Out! New Hires Viewpoint Business Forms Estimating - Part of the Viewpoint Product Suite Again By Rob Humphreys, Vice President of Product Management After a fifteen year hiatus, we are pleased to announce that estimating is back in our product portfolio. For many years in the 1980s and 90s estimating software was a key component in our suite of products, hence our name Bidtek during those years. However, in the late 90s we decided to focus our resources on providing the best construction accounting and operations software in the industry, making the difficult decision to discontinue offering our estimating software. With the acquisition of Maxell Systems last month, we now have two highly acclaimed estimating solutions to offer customers. For our Specialty customers that operate in the Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP) sectors, the former Maxwell Estimation product is to be rebranded as a Viewpoint solution and will be available to purchase. This is a highly capable, industry-recognized estimating tool designed specifically for MEP contractors. This MEP estimating solution is a seamless takeoff and estimating tool for contractors performing electrical, HVAC, mechanical, and plumbing work. Not only does it help estimators to bid quickly and accurately, but it also allows specialty contractors to make truly informed business decisions and gain complete control over the estimating process. It includes features like digital takeoff, multi-level breakouts, and a customizable database, and provides a seamless process that flow data from takeoff, to estimate, to bid, to changes, helping you to lower costs and win more work. For Heavy/Civil and General Contractors, ProContractor Estimating (formally known as Quest) will be made available as part of the extended Viewpoint product family. ProContractor Estimating provides Earthwork, Cross Sections, Trench work, and roadwork takeoff, along with Bid Day and proposals. It also includes a tie with Machine Control systems with the ability to export data in Trimble or Topcon format. This system offers both digital estimating -allowing you to do takeoffs on-screen from digital plans - as well as digitized take-off, using a digitizer to work with printed plans. You can look forward to enhanced integration of these estimating platforms into V6 over the coming months. These two estimating systems are already well integrated with the ProContractor product, and we will be working quickly to integrate them with V6 as well. In addition, we remain committed to our Viewpoint Development Partners who provide you additional choices for estimating products. Final Call for 2014 User Conference Presenters It's only March, but we re already looking forward to Collaboration 2014 in September and we want YOU to be a part of it!

2 We have an exciting presenter opportunity that could benefit you, your organization and the Viewpoint family. We are seeking customers to share their experiences, expertise, and best practices with other conference attendees at Viewpoint s global user conference, Collaborate 2014, Sept Whether it's your unique application and execution of V6, Construction Imaging, Mobile Field Manager or Viewpoint For Project Collaboration, we'd like to hear about it and we know other Viewpoint customers would as well - sessions with customer participation at our conference are consistently requested and well attended. Your involvement could include being a part of a panel, a roundtable discussion or a leader or co-leader of a presentation. Beyond benefiting your fellow attendees at the conference, presenting your unique use of Viewpoint software can be fulfilling in other ways. You can: Gain recognition from your industry peers. Build thought leadership and acquire insights from other users. Gain valuable presentation skills. If you are interested, please click here to complete and submit a short speaking proposal form. We ll then be in touch to discuss the opportunity and can even help you brainstorm on your specific presentation topic. Then, once you are confirmed as a speaker, we ll assign you a Viewpoint liaison to help you finalize your session title and description, as well as assist you with your session planning and presentation. Proposals are being accepted through April 11th. Other questions? Call or me! Ann Finlay PR Manager Ann.Finlay@viewpoint.com March Support Update By Bill Berendes, Director of Customer Support Upcoming webinar and new KB article: Understanding the numbers on Federal Form 941 As some of you may have noticed it is not always easy to balance the Federal Form 941 at the end of each quarter. In order to make this experience a little easier for you we are offering two new resources: A live webinar just in time for quarter end Understanding the numbers on Federal Form 941 The webinar is free to attend and will be held on March 8 am PDT. You can register now from Vantage Point. A new Knowledge Base article Understanding the numbers on Federal Form 941 The KB article includes a color coded example explaining where the different line values come from on the PR 941 Federal Form compared to the PR Employee Accumulations report. We encourage you to utilize these resources and expect to be adding more soon. The webinar will be recorded and available on request from Vantage Point, but participating in the live event will allow you to have additional questions answered at that time. Enhanced Knowledge Base s If you have ever logged a case and in return received a Knowledge Base article, you may have noticed that our Knowledge Base s have recently changed. Instead of sending you a copy of the article, we are now sending you a direct link to the article on Vantage Point. This new option allows us to automatically attach the to your case for your future reference and allows you to peruse the Vantage Point site for other possibly valuable KB articles. Although the direct link will not work when accessing your case messages on Vantage Point, the URL can be copied and pasted to your browser or the name of the KB article can be copied into the KB search filter. For those of you unfamiliar with our Knowledge Base, there are hundreds of articles covering common

3 questions and troubleshooting tips. We typically send the s in response to /web source entry cases where we believe we may already have an answer for you. But this resource is always available to you and we encourage you to visit our site to see if we may have already answered your question. Below is a sample Based on the question you have submitted, we believe the information in the following Viewpoint Knowledge Base article will help answer your questions. To view this article please click on the following link and login using your previously assigned Vantage Point credentials. Employee is set to Direct Deposit but is Printing Paper Check id=737d1053-d077-4e13-b737-f6d62e579f18 If this information does answer your questions, please let us know by to support@viewpointcs.com to have us close your case, or go to Vantage Point/My Vantage Point/Track Requests where you can close your support case. If we do not hear from you, we will contact you shortly to assist. Many users have found answers to Frequently Asked Questions by reviewing our Knowledge Base. To visit our Knowledge Base please go to: Base.aspx. Thank you, Viewpoint Construction Software Tip/Trick How to set up a Sub-Job in V6 V6 does have the ability to create sub-jobs to track costs separately per location on a single contract. When adding a new PM Project/JC Job you can assign it to the single existing Contract. If you want to be able to run reports that include all of the Sub-jobs but exclude other jobs, the numbering is important. Most JC reports contain a parameter for beginning and ending job, so use numbering that will allow you to run the reports for these jobs only as in the following example:

4 For full details of this set-up, please visit our Knowledge Base on Vantage Point to view "What is a Sub-job and how do I set one up?" V6 Project Management Training classes New to the V6 Project Management module? Have new staff members that need training on PM? Viewpoint offers a multi-part series of Project Management Training classes! Come join us to learn how to effectively and efficiently manage your projects through a streamlined workflow that is tightly integrated with V6. You ll learn to view and analyze critical data such as forecasts and unapproved change orders, allowing you to achieve greater productivity and profitability. Taught virtually by live, industry-experienced Viewpoint instructors, each class focuses on a different aspect of the V6 Project Management module. Select from one or more classes and take them in any order you choose. Classes are designed to combine observation with hands-on practice and lab exercises. The Project Management classes include: Project Setup & Buyout Duration: 6 hours. Change Orders Duration: 4 hours. Progress Entry & Cost Projections Duration: 3 hours. Learn the difference between a project and a contract by completing the steps to create your first job in V6. Once the job is created, see how you can add subcontractor and purchase agreements to the job. Simplify the job creation and commitment process to create an efficient and consistent workflow. At the end of this training experience, participants will understand the various types of change management available in V6 in order to modify a contract, project, subcontract, or purchase order. You will also learn how to modify an existing change order. Come explore the streamlined change order processes that Viewpoint provides to your team. Explore the ins and out of JC Progress Entry and Cost Projections. Learn how to use Progress Entry for Job Billing, Subcontractor Payments and Cost Projections in order to fully utilize your integrated software! Visit the Viewpoint Learning Center for the class schedule and online registration.

5 Informative April Release Webinars - Don't Miss Out! Want more information on the cool new functionality of the upcoming release? Take advantage of these informational opportunities from our Product Management team and our services teams. This release will be available in the late April / May timeframe. Don't miss out on the live webinars below highlighting the new functionality. These webinars will also be recorded and available on Vantage Point and the Viewpoint Learning Center for viewing at your convenience. Viewpoint V6 Software, Service Management Please join us to learn about the enhancements in both the Work Order Management and Service Agreements modules for the Service Management suite. There will be a Q&A session following the presentation. Please see the attached Product Enhancement Brief for details on the new features. Presenter: Scott Hegrenes, Product Manager Date and Time: Wednesday, April 16, :30 am 11:30 PST / 1:30 pm to 2:30 EST Mobile Field Manager by Viewpoint Construction Software Next up is our webinar highlighting the enhanced functionality in the Spring Release of Mobile Field Manager, a suite of applications for fast, effective data transfer from the field to the office. There will be a Q&A session following the presentation. Please see the attached Product Enhancement Brief for details on the new features. Presenter: Ben Robbins, Product Manager Date and Time: Thursday, April 17, :30 am to 12:30 PST / 2:30 pm to 3:30 EST Viewpoint V6 Software, Construction Operations (PM, PO, SL, JC) This Spring Release for Construction Operations focuses on the overall usability of Cost Projections enabling the capability to make corrections to change orders, subcontracts and purchase orders. Please join us for this informative webinar highlighting the enhanced functionality. There will be a Q&A session following the presentation. Please see the attached Product Enhancement Brief for details on the new features. Presenter: Aaron Jost, Product Manager Date and Time: Wednesday, April 30, :30 am to 11:30 PST / 1:30 to 2:30 EST Construction Imaging by Viewpoint Construction Software Please join us to learn about the key enhancements in the Spring Release for Construction Imaging, our enterprise content management solution. In addition to speed and usability improvements, the webinar will focus on the new functionality with V6 integration. There will be a Q&A session following the presentation. Please see the attached Product Enhancement Brief for details on the new features. Presenter: : Josh Wright, Product Manager Date and Time: Wednesday, April 23, :30 am to 11:30 PST / 1:30 pm to 2:30 EST

6 Viewpoint V6 Software, Accounting and Financial Manager for Australian Customers To get you up to speed quickly on the Australia specific enhancements, below is a recorded webinar highlighting the V6 accounting and payroll enhancements and numerous reporting resolutions. The presenter is Gary Gilmore, Product Manager. 12:35 New Hires Welcome new hires! Lynn Soltis Channel Marketing Manager Tanya Berry Data Conversion Specialist Skip Munk Database Specialist Alun Baker Managing Director Viewpoint Business Forms Our exclusive forms partner, Viewpoint Business Forms, serves our customers with the highest level of customer satisfaction, competitive pricing and excellent quality. Viewpoint Business Forms offer a complete line of forms and continuous or laser checks printed at one of their 5 manufacturing locations around the U.S. for reduced freight available to North American customers. Each format has been carefully designed and is exclusively guaranteed to perfectly align with Viewpoint V6 Software. Click here for more information or call customer service toll free at

7 If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter - please unselect "News & Events" via the MY VANTAGE POINT USER PROFILES COMMUNICATION PREFERENCES section of Vantage Point, the Viewpoint Customer web site.