Take control of your costs to stay on track
Our new Associate Member LiveCosts outlines how its cost-tracking software works – and how Members can save money and enjoy other benefits through its exclusive SELECT portal
For today’s busy electrical business, it’s essential to have full visibility on your project costs and profitability.
As a contractor, you want to gain control of your costs with on-demand data and also automate managing labour, material and sub-contractors.
Most importantly of all, it’s vital to have full visibility on your project, so there are no nasty surprises around the corner.
So what if I was to tell you that all this is possible? And that you can enjoy it all – and more – through a tailor-made package that’s been designed exclusively for SELECT Members?
“LiveCosts now captures who placed the order, from what project and phase and what the agreed price was”
What is LiveCosts?
LiveCosts is a construction cost management software that offers a comprehensive solution to streamline your electrical project financial forecasts.
As well as making things more efficient, quite simply, it tells you if you’re making money on projects or not, capturing costs at the earliest opportunity, so at the end of each day you can get a true reading of exactly where you are. LiveCosts captures labour costs and purchase orders from site, so as you’re spending money it’s also building in costs on the dashboards.
How does it work?
With intuitive project dashboards, management can monitor budgetary allocations, expenditures and variances in real-time, ensuring proactive decision-making.
When developing LiveCosts, we put a lot of focus on the purchase order as we found that other software missed out on the construction context. We needed to know what materials were being ordered, by whom and at what agreed rate. We also needed to understand what materials were being used on each project.
LiveCosts now captures who placed the order, from what project and phase and what the agreed price was.
Once this information is captured, it applies a temporary cost to the project’s phase. It’s temporary because it then needs to know if all goods were received at delivery and if the supplier’s invoice matched the agreed amount. Delivery can be captured on the LiveCosts mobile app.
Once delivered, LiveCosts captures who ordered the goods, who received the delivery and at what time, the uploading of dockets to the office and any issues with photos and descriptions.
Invoice automation
As a fast-growing electrical business, the amount of invoices coming in by post and email can take a huge amount of time to process. Using LiveCosts, the system reads these invoices from your main suppliers. This process finds the purchase order and will send the costs to the correct project and phase. It also will find the logged delivery for the order.
Not only that, LiveCosts will extract the material details and their associated prices, which can be saved and used to re-order materials and to check the prices against your saved prices.
Lots of companies who we speak to have this process, whether in Excel or accounts, but it’s just not massively efficient and also takes time away from the business to actually do it.
Who is LiveCosts for?
LiveCosts was built for the construction sector by people who work in construction and is especially valuable for businesses that have multiple projects, materials or costs that need to be measured and controlled through simple software.
We like to think it’s perfect for busy electricians of all sizes as we know that whether you’re a sole trader or large contractor, controlling costs is key to successful and profitable project delivery.
How does the information migrate to my accountancy software?
With just one click, LiveCosts seamlessly connects your project costs to your accounting software.
With robust procurement and accounting integration with Xero, Sage and Quickbooks, our solution ensures there is seamless collaboration between teams and departments, optimising costs control across the project lifecycle.
How do I know if LiveCosts is right for my business?
That’s the easy bit! We’ve partnered with SELECT to present an exclusive, tailor-made package designed specifically for Members. This special arrangement ensures you get the best value and benefits unique to our collaboration.
Most importantly we offer a FREE four-week trial, so you can discover first-hand how LiveCosts can save you time and money while enhancing your productivity – and all through one intuitive application. Check it out today at www.livecosts.com/select
Want to streamline your project costs and get real-time reports on your electrical projects? Take a free trial or book a demo at www.livecosts.com/select or call Ian Whittle on 07729 644 747.
MEMBER BENEFITS
Dedicated SELECT portal
Discounted rates
Free one-month trial
Expert customer support
Exclusive offers
Find out more and book a demo at www.livecosts.com/select
Software was a game-changer for saving cash
SELECT recently hosted a webinar with LiveCosts, in which Lizzy Baxter revealed how the software had played a pivotal role in transforming her electrical business.
Lizzy, Head of Operations at Initial Electrical Ltd, told LiveCosts CEO Ciaran Brennan that it identified thousands of pounds’ worth of cost savings and simplified their overall purchasing experience. She said: “It’s completely changed our day-to-day operations for the better and I’m more than happy to share the transformative impact it’s had on the business.”
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