Project Tracking & Accounting Software

Project Tracking & Accounting Software

Mankato, MN · Member since 2016 · 45 posts · 18 votes

I have been investing in real estate for the past 7 years. I hire a property management company to take care of all the management side of our properties. 

We recently started our own construction company that does mostly our work on our properties but also subs out here and there. 

We use quickbooks online to track our time, payroll, and income and expense tracking. 

However - I feel like it misses the boat for what we are trying to do. We want to be able to create an estimate for a project and then track everything back against that estimate (Labor and Materials) to see how we are performing on each project. Though QB does an okay job of this it just lacks some of the finer details of this we are looking for. When you try to look at a project at an overview it only shows you totals and doesnt give you the granular information we would love to see. Would love to be able to see how each category is performing in real time. The other thing it doesnt allow you to do is go over on your estimates. Once you go over it forces you to add or update your columns. Which is fine - but we want to know what columns we went over budget on to try and stop from doing it again.

I dont love the idea of having a separate software's - one that tracks finances and one that tracks the cost. Its fine - but when we enter in expenses into financials we have to also come back and put them in the project managements tool. Fine if you are doing one or two but when you have 10 going its hard to keep up. Also dont like the overhead of paying for two softwares with all the extra work.

Any one else out there that has this same problem? How are you solving it?

Thanks in advance.

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  • Michael SmytheBusiness Member
    Real Estate Agent · Metro Detroit · Member since 2023 · 4k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    2y
    Logical Property Management4.9446 Reviews
  • Mankato, MN · Member since 2016 · 45 posts · 18 votes
    2y

    @Michael Smythe do you use any of these yourself by chance?

  • Michael SmytheBusiness Member
    Real Estate Agent · Metro Detroit · Member since 2023 · 4k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    2y

    Have looked into them only

    Logical Property Management4.9446 Reviews
  • Jay ComptonPro Member
    Member since 2018 · 19 posts · 20 votes
    2y

    You can talk to any restoration company in the US, and we've all been using Xactimate to estimate jobs for at least the past 25 years that I know of. The insurance companies force us to use it, so we pretty much have no choice in the matter. We service around 200 claims a month, and every one of them gets written in Xactimate. Once the estimate is approved and we start swinging hammers, the jobs are tracked via three other software platforms. I won't bore you with the details of the restoration business, but I just wanted to jump in here and tell you that Xactimate is probably not what you're looking for.

    I do flips and rentals on the side, and I'm looking for a simple software to track those too. Right now I'm using Avail and Stessa. Is there anything out there that combines the benefits of those two?

  • Eagan Minnesota · Member since 2021 · 1 post · 0 votes
    2y

    I have been looking at asana and podio. Didnt reach  conclusion  yet any thoughts?

  • Member since 2024 · 1 post · 0 votes
    2y
    Quote from @Grant Pope:

    I have been investing in real estate for the past 7 years. I hire a property management company to take care of all the management side of our properties. 

    We recently started our own construction company that does mostly our work on our properties but also subs out here and there. 

    We use quickbooks online to track our time, payroll, and income and expense tracking. 

    However - I feel like it misses the boat for what we are trying to do. We want to be able to create an estimate for a project and then track everything back against that estimate (Labor and Materials) to see how we are performing on each project. Though QB does an okay job of this it just lacks some of the finer details of this we are looking for. When you try to look at a project at an overview it only shows you totals and doesnt give you the granular information we would love to see. Would love to be able to see how each category is performing in real time. The other thing it doesnt allow you to do is go over on your estimates. Once you go over it forces you to add or update your columns. Which is fine - but we want to know what columns we went over budget on to try and stop from doing it again.

    I dont love the idea of having a separate software's - one that tracks finances and one that tracks the cost. Its fine - but when we enter in expenses into financials we have to also come back and put them in the project managements tool. Fine if you are doing one or two but when you have 10 going its hard to keep up. Also dont like the overhead of paying for two softwares with all the extra work.

    Any one else out there that has this same problem? How are you solving it?

    Thanks in advance.


     There's a construction software called Precise Builder that does exactly what you are looking for. Estimating, time tracking, material tracking etc. Syncs with QB too so no need for double entry.

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