In the new version of Sage 50 and 200 Construction, due for release in October this year, the sales module has been completely revamped and simplified.

In previous versions of Sage 50 and 200 Construction a customer would need to enter a valuation against a contract for the value, quantity or percentage of work complete, then when generating an application for payment, certificate or invoice, this valuation would be selected and applied to that particular document.

The new client billing module has been designed to make the whole process even simpler, without losing any of the functionality or detail available.  Now all documentation is available through a single screen, so there is no longer a need to create separate valuations and sales documents. Users can also use multiple nominal and VAT codes.

The new release of Sage 50 Construction and Sage 200 Construction is due in October.  This is the first of 3 short articles to cover the new functionality available.

The main development has gone into the client billing module, although this has always been present since Sage Construct Advanced was developed around 15 years ago, it has now had a complete overhaul, it’s easier to use, simplifies the production of all sales documents, makes the software more flexible, has improved accounts integration and includes some new features including:

• VAT on Applications for Payment
• Cumulative Billing with multiple Nominal, VAT & Stock codes
• Cumulative  and Non Cumulative billing to multiple to multiple client accounts on one contract
• Multiple numbering sequences for sales documents
• New stop functions
• Improved integration
• New Improved user interface
• Simplified navigation
• Simplified data entry

The focus has been on improving the user experience, simplifying processes and adding flexibility (to a product which was to be fair, pretty flexible to start with!)

Since Sage bought Tekton a couple of years ago, apart from a bit of re-branding the business appears to have been left to run pretty much autonomously.  Their product range covers everything which Sage Construct does, but is targeted at much larger companies, it also has specific features for companies who develop a lot of houses and oilfields.

Rumor has it that their Estimating Module, which is comparable to the likes of Crest, Causeway and Conquest may be integrated with Sage Construct in the not too distant future.  Construct alredy has it’s own Estimating module, however it’s fairly simple, so we hope this will provide an offering for companies who need a high end estimating solution but are still in the £1M – £30M turnover bracket, which is the size of our typical construction customers.

This will offer a solution for companies who have (or want to implement) Sage 50 Accounts or Sage 200, with Sage Construct for Job Costing, Retention tracking, Valuations, Applications etc, but need have complex requirements for initial Estimates.

There seems to be some confusion amongst new customers regarding the differences between Sage 50 Construction, 200 Construction, Sage Construct and Construct Advanced.

Firstly Sage Construct is an obsolete product which was removed from sale about 3 years ago, this left Sage Construct Advanced as the core Sage construction software which integrates with both Sage 50 Accounts and Sage 200.  Since then as part of the Sage re-branding exercise, Construct Advanced has become Sage 50 Construction when linked to a Sage 50 Accounts Package, or Sage 200 Construction when linked with Sage 200 Accounts.

Because Construct Advanced is essentially the same software system regardless which accounting system it is linked with, most people still refer to it as Construct Advanced as a generic name.  There are some differences, such as the stock link and how you access the software, but as far as the processing and appearance go, it’s the same product.

The Sage Construct Advanced development team have been very busy over the last few months, the result is a completely updated sales module, due for release in the next few months.

The new module will offer simplified billing for those who wish to keep the whole process of Valuations and Applications For Payment as simple as possible, whilst providing a more flexible method of billing multiple variations, for those with more complex jobs.  In addition the whole product has had a bit of a face-lift, with fresher looking screens and improved drop down menus.  As soon as we get to see it for ourselves we will publish a full review.