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D. MILLER ASSOCIATES Year-end 2011                                                                      www.DMillerAssociates.com    info@DMillerAssociates.com                                                                      Newsletter
TCM JOB VIEW OFFERS PROJECT MANAGERS, OTHER PERSONNEL, ENHANCED JOB COST REPORTING AND PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS   If you’re using The Construction Manager for your job cost management and accounting functions, and aren’t yet using Job View, you’re missing out on a real opportunity.  Consider the information available whenever you set up a new job:  for example, Customer, Category, Contract Type, Project Manager, etc.  Job Estimates also contain valuable information:  Contract Amount, Estimate Amounts (original and revised), Change Orders, Subcontractor, Actual Cost/Hours/ Quantities, and much more.  What if there was a way to quickly and easily extract, filter and create reports using the valuable information stored in your database?  Wouldn’t this help you better manage your workload, plan for future work, and reduce the amount of time wasted re-entering information into spreadsheets?  TCM Job View provides you with these capabilities, and much much more.  TCM Job View is an application designed primarily for Project Managers and other personnel responsible for managing jobs, and reporting their results.  TCM Job View looks at the job cost information, and allows the user to setup custom “views” displaying this information in user-defined formats.  For each of six “views,” you can decide which fields (Original Estimate, Project Manager, Approved Change Orders, etc.) should appear on the screen, and in what order.    The first tab you see when you launch Job View is the Status Screen.  This is where you can view your “Work in Progress” by Category, Customer, Status, etc. … a “Filter” button lets you look at all the jobs assigned to a certain Project Manager, started (or starting, or completed) in a given date range, over or under a certain value, and various other information.	The second Job View tab is the Contracts Tab.  From there, you can see—again, filtered/sorted/subtotaled by Category, Project Manager, or other information important to you—the value and status of your Work in Progress.  You can analyze the profitability of work by Project Manager or Job Type (Category); add the value of Approved and Pending Change Orders to your backlog reports; and forecast future profitability and cash flow.  Other “views” focus on Labor, Cost Detail, Commitments (Purchase Orders and Subcontracts), Cash Flow and Billings/ Receivables.  Once you’ve customized a view to meet your needs, a “Save Layout” button saves your preferences so you won’t have to reset the layout every time you launch Job View.  A single mouse click opens up the screen in Microsoft Excel, so you can easily graph, project and analyze your cost data as your needs dictate, and drill-downs show you the detailed information for each transaction.  In addition to TCM Job View, TCM Document Manager is now available.  With TCM Document Manager, you can scan and “route” documents and invoices within your organization.  Invoices can be approved and coded to the proper job and cost breakdown, and automatically entered into TCM.  The “drill down” functionality in TCM Job View will let you view and annotate the scanned image.  Although everyone may not be ready for the “paperless office,” scanning, routing and coding your invoices through Document Manager can provide tremendous benefits for your company.  The productivity improvements these programs can offer your company offers are easy to achieve.  If you’d like more information, contact (301) 261-5989, or Info@DMillerAssociates.com.
PAYROLL TAX UPDATES  In 2011, the Employee Social Security tax was reduced from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent.  An employee who earned $60,000 paid $1,200 less in 2011 FICA tax than he did in 2010, which equates to a $100 monthly increase in take-home pay.  The Employer’s required contribution, however, remained at 6.2 percent.   This “Payroll Tax Cut” may or may not remain in effect in 2012.  It’s certain, however, that Employers will have to continue paying $7.65 in matching FICA/Medicare on every $100 of their employees’ earnings (up to applicable limits).   Although employers didn’t receive a break on FICA contributions, they have been granted a small decrease in Federal Unemployment contributions, effective for wages paid after June 1, 2011.  Currently employers pay a maximum of $56 per year per employee for FUTA. For 2012 and beyond, the savings will amount to $14.00 per employee. For 2011 earnings, employers will need to separately track FUTA taxable wages paid before July 1, 2011 and those paid after June 30, 2011. IRS Form 940, Employer's Annual Federal Unemployment (FUTA) Tax Return, will need to be revised to accommodate the two different FUTA rates for calendar year 2011.    ON-LINE BACKUPS Many of our clients are taking advantage of our on-line backup service, managed and administered by D. Miller Associates.  On-line backups store your information safely and securely encrypted on off-site Servers in Atlanta and Utah. Keep in mind that on-line backups aren’t suitable for “Disaster Recovery,” or for backing up your entire File Server.  Our on-line backup service is designed for quick and easy backups and restores of  just your “mission-critical” data, like your TCM database, your “My Documents” Folder, or your Outlook Email data file.	Because your TCM database is stored as part of Microsoft SQL Server, not all backup programs will be able to reliably backup your TCM database.  If you are not using our on-line backup service, it’s important that you perform a “test restore” of your database at least once a month.  UPCOMING EVENTS D. Miller Associates is offering a Year End TCM for Windows class on Tuesday, December 13th from 9:00 to 4:00 at our Deale,MD office.  The cost of the class is $299.00, and includes lunch and a continental breakfast.  Additional employees receive a 50% discount.    Construction Manager Clients will learn: Year End Procedures for GL, AP and Payroll GEMM Quarterly and Year-end Reporting TCM Import Functionality TCM SQL Maintenance and Backup TCM Job View Reporting  Please call (301) 261-5989 if you need additional information, or wish to register.   HOLIDAY INFORMATION We will be closed for the Christmas holiday on December 26 and 27, and for New Years on January 2, 2012.  We hope that all of you and your families have a happy Holiday Season, and a prosperous New Year.  ABOUT US D. Miller Associates has been providing computer hardware, software and services to construction-related businesses more than for 25 years.  Call 1-800-895-1698 for more information, or visit us at: www.DMillerAssociates.com