Tailored to the Needs of Mechanical

The mechanical contractor is unique from other players on a construction team. Only the general contractor and mechanical contractor tend to have responsibilities from beginning to end of a project. As the mechanical contractor, your work may begin with the underground piping and not end until systems are in operation for occupancy. In fact, with a design/build contract, the mechanical contractor gets involved with the project even before ground is broken.

Furthermore, your company likely provides expertise that includes numerous specialty trades and is responsible for all or most of the mechanical systems of a building, with capabilities spanning engineering, installation, and operation. You must employ skilled craftsmen to perform work that may include not only plumbing and heating but also process piping, sheet metal, temperature control, insulation, testing and balancing, sprinkling, energy management, service and maintenance, and more. On certain types of projects you may serve as the prime contractor overseeing excavation and backfill, rigging, electrical, instrumentation, concrete, and all other trades as well.

For all those reasons and more, your business requires a software solution thats tailored to your industry, so you can streamline processes to accurately estimate costs for contracts, review plans and specifications, schedule crews, manage inventory, and buy equipment to ensure that you fulfill each contract according to schedule.

To be successful in business, you must:

• Quickly and accurately quantify, price, and bid projects
• Easily view various costs for a project to make decisions
• Efficiently schedule time and workforce and track important documents
• Conveniently view technician workload and customer details to quickly assess scheduled maintenance requirements and dispatch effectively
• Properly manage the buying process for projects to ensure you purchase at the best possible prices
• Manage complex Human Resources, including Payroll, Workers' Compensation, Union, Certified Payroll, EEOC, and more
• Control job costs and proper recognition of revenue, whether from a project or service agreement

To help you accomplish all that and much more, Maxwell Systems offers construction software solutions that address the critical issues that impact managing a mechanical contracting business.

• Takeoff, Estimating, and Proposal Management [+]
  • Choose digital or digitized takeoff to save time, improve accuracy, and cut costs on paperwork
  • Easily determine materials, equipment, and variable labor needs for any job using pre-built and customizable database that's tailored to Mechanical and based on industry standard labor units
  • Store an unlimited number of cost items and details per bid
  • Estimate accurately and negotiate effectively especially critical when competing on fixed-price contracts
  • Easily create proposals from a bid and track them by estimator, lead source, client, and so forth
  • Attach pertinent documents for future reference, such as customer requests and Microsoft Outlook e-mails
  • Automatically create project records, job budgets, and change orders in accounting from the original bid file
• Project Management [+]
  • Easily track to-date job costs against budgeted costs, including committed costs for material purchases
  • Track the progress of existing jobs with tools to verify job performance, identify potential problems, manage business metrics, and more, which is critical to performing work on schedule
  • Alerts indicate when items are overdue and require attention
  • Efficiently track project documents such as RFIs, Submittals, and Change Requests, which helps your project manager know what documents have been created and the status of the document
  • Various tools help to schedule crews and equipment to ensure that a contract is fulfilled according to schedule
• Financial Management [+]
  • Accounts receivable and payable are specifically tailored for contractors, including retention and discount capabilities
  • Accounts Payable, General Ledger, Project Costing, Payroll, and Purchase Orders in a seamless system ensures that commitments and payments are processed efficiently and accurately
  • Control the flow of financial information and track critical documents related to General Ledger, AP, and AR
  • Specific construction billing formats include T&M, AIA, Progress, Cost Plus, Retention Only, and more
  • WIP and Bonding reports are automatically created, which is important to show evidence of adequate surety bonding
  • Owners and accounting staff can easily access real-time financial information and drill down to the detailed transaction level
  • Historical detail is maintained, allowing peace of mind with data integrity and reliable audit trails
• Employee Management [+]
  • Daily timecard entry is simple, and job reporting can include unposted payroll for up-to-the-minute labor tracking
  • Handle complex Human Resources, including Workers' Compensation, Union, Merit Shop, Certified Payroll, EEOC, and more
  • Scan and store important documents such as I-9 verifications, drug tests, and certificates of completion
  • Easily process and report construction payrolls, as well as record work and calculate earnings, benefits, fringes, insurance liabilities, and taxes
• Service Management [+]
  • Efficiently generate and assign work orders that are quickly and easily converted into professional invoices
  • Central call and dispatch management provides details related to customers, technicians, purchasing, and accounting, which permits accurate work assessments, effective dispatching, and timely responses to customer calls
  • Easily communicate work order details to technicians in the field, ensuring that they have details needed to efficiently complete their work
  • Field technology helps reduce labor hours and paperwork, as well as enhance customer confidence and enable expansion of the field technical force
  • Contract management provides details to complete work and billing under the guidelines of the contractual agreement
  • Easily access historical customer information and create multiple invoices for a particular job, allowing you complete control over invoicing
• Procurement Management [+]
  • Contractors can improve profitability by finding the lowest-cost materials that meet contract specifications, and monitor fluctuating prices for commodity products to stay on budget especially critical when your work entails expensive and critical equipment
  • Identify low price and quantity availability to simplify decision-making and then identify the source of materials for any size project
  • Automatically create a purchase order or inventory requisition; and easily account for materials received, invoiced, backordered, produced, and used
  • Buyout tools allow you to control costs and manage the buying process with an easy view of all sources to provide materials Request for Quote, vendor pricing agreement, and inventory
  • Efficiently produce and track purchase orders and requisitions, manage materials and back orders, and export price and cost data to multiple systems
  • Conveniently access your entire purchasing history to assess expenses and how to better control costs
  • Seamless workflow across estimating, purchasing, and accounting applications helps to maximize efficiencies and lower processing costs

And because you face unique challenges in technology and communications in the office and in the field, Maxwell Systems construction software solutions help you improve operational efficiencies and share relevant information:

• Seamless takeoff and estimating software that reduces data entry and increases speed and accuracy
• Mobile technology for two-way data transfer between those in the back office and those in the field, as well as bar code technology and dispatch board integration
• Job cost accounting capabilities that are critical to running construction projects profitably
• Comprehensive reporting features, including key performance indicators, customizable alerts, work order automation, and management by exception

With such easy-to-use yet robust software solutions, construction owners can gain full control of their business and insight into each projects performance and profitability.

Maxwell Systems industry-specific construction software solutions are shaped by decades of leadership and innovation, expert professionals with direct experience in the construction industry, and critically valuable feedback from customers. And we continue to demonstrate our commitment to and build our understanding of the mechanical contracting industry by: contributing to trade publications as authors and advertisers, serving on association committees, and participating in trade shows including Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) EdCon & Expo and Mechanical Contractors Association of America (MCAA) Convention.