MultiCAT 2010 Snippets and Updates
MultiCAT 2010

MultiCAT 2010 will be released in late April. Over the next 4 weeks we will be providing you with information about the new version. This is a really exciting development, MultiCAT is better than ever and has taken a real step forward in technology. There is a focus on you being able to use and manipulate your own data, defined by your own criteria. More intuitive searching functions makes data retrieval fast and friendly.  

Naturally you will want to have a look, so we will be running a series of 15-30 minute webinars on specific modules which you are invited to attend selectively from the comfort of your own desk.  If you are interested in participating please contact multicat@catgroup.biz so we can add you to the participant invitation list.  We strive to continuously improve MultiCAT so it continues to be the best for purpose and the most affordable consolidated job and business management solution for mid tier construction Main Contractors in Australasia.

SNIPPETS

Trade Letting

Trade Letting has been stream lined to allow flexibility to suit different styles of operation and job types. So whether you use an on line document management system, do things traditionally or a mixture of both, MultiCAT can rise to the occasion and streamline this process and the email interface is excellent.  There are also some great tender tools such as Pre-Letting Minutes, Check Sheets, Schedules, Modifiable Invitation and Acceptance Letters to name a few. Once the estimator identifies the preferred price from each trade the price and your allowances will be added to the estimate. Upon acceptance the subcontractor will be set up.

Data Management

Reports can now be filtered and sorted so you can view and print data to suit your own criteria. This is incredibly powerful and offers outstanding flexibility.

Consultant Communication

This module has always been great for managing the ever increasing volume of RFI’s, additional features have been added for logging response documents on the fly and providing a hyperlink to documents so you can look up documents quickly.  Putting a time claim together has never been so easy as all information is available at the click of a button.

Email

Emailing of documents and communication is now really fast and has so much more flexibility with copies to and bulk documents such as general project notices.

Adding Contacts

Add a new contact from project master or project team

Multiple Trades Subcontractors can now be assigned to several trades
Multiple Relationships Contacts can now have multiple relationships (ie: service provider and subcontractor)
Cost Codes Grouping of cost codes provides much more flexibility with estimating, budgets and cost reports
Estimating Cross Check Lead Management now has a forecasting tool which also serves as an estimate cross check
Insurance Tracking Insurance tracking is now available from contacts and can be viewed individually or all, this is great.
Annual Contracts Annual contracts tracking module has been added
Address Update postal address from street address plus all post codes have been automated
Plant Costs Plant and Equipment can now be charged to jobs in a very administratively friendly way. Any plant transferred to a job will be charged at the relevant  day rate until it is transferred to another job or back to the yard. Managing plant charges is always difficult and often creates an administration nightmare also there is a need for jobs to off hire / return what they are not using, so being charged is a great incentive to being more efficient. There are some excellent reports on recharge and recovery. 
Purchasing Concrete and Hire equipment are now separated from purchasing and are treated as stand orders and their are schedules provided within project documentation for both these functions.
Subcontractor Administration This module has always been excellent for managing subcontractor communication, variations, progress claims and compliance documentation.  We have made the progress claims more user friendly and variation reporting is better than ever. All communication locks after one day. For those of you who do not do Recipient Billing you can now enter an invoice number against the payment claim.
Departments Departments are now available and the handling of coding is great and the departments can have a different logo for external communication if required. We have kept this really simple and the only time an operations person needs to consider a department is at the time of job set up and thereafter every transaction will be automatically against the relevant department.
System Administration Flexibility for titling of documents has been added such as Progress Claim Wording and Compliance wording. You can even add a follow on logo for schedules and reports.
Standing Orders We have never been a great fan of standing orders as invariably there are too many "surprises" but popular consensus is that it is a required function.  So standing orders are in. To provide job cost integrity an addition of a budget value based on agreed rates with a forecast quantity and a validity period is included. This way the job cost forecast has some integrity, site staff can phone order against a standing order with agreed rates and accounts can process quickly. So this function is great and adds value all round.
Committed Cost Schedule This function is now in datasheet view and has more flexibility for grouping and sorting, there is also a summarised committed cost schedule which is sorted by code group.
Approvals of Creditor Invoices
Finally a solution that negates the need for invoices to be physically sent to operations staff for approval, no more invoices going on tour or left lying on some ones desk, all approval is electronic and this function is fully tracked and it is crystal clear on who did what and when. This process is great and really speeds up the process and ensure approval before the invoice is considered for payment.
Drawing Revision and Distribution This process has been simplified and if you are using an on line system to distribute drawings then the revision management only can be dealt with if preferred by just emailing a notification.