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Introduction

Objectives​

BusinessCraft is an Australian fully integrated software developed by BusinessCraft Pty Ltd that includes functionality to address the specific requirements of the residential building industry.

This process guide provides a walkthrough of BusinessCraft processing covering typical residential building business operations utilising a sample data set.

The objectives of this guide are:

  • To provide prospective customers with the ability to test drive BusinessCraft as part of their assessment process to determine the best system to address their business requirements.
  • To provide existing customers with the ability to review their existing processes
  • To provide existing customers with a training tool for new staff.

Prospective customers can be provided with a secure cloud instance of the BC homes dataset for their exclusive use for trial purposes only. A customer specific username and password will be provided with details on how to access the dataset.

Existing customers should log a Service Request with us and we will provide the required dataset for installation into their existing BusinessCraft environment.

Using BusinessCraft in the Residential Building Industry​

The use of BusinessCraft in the Residential Building industry revolves primarily around the use of the Contracts module which allows the user to monitor the project workflow through the events that occur during the life of a contract.

BusinessCraft has been designed to monitor all events from Contract Creation through to Completion and Warranty. Workflow control is provided by forecasting key events, which are based on user-defined dependencies that can use fixed or variable values.

The Contracts module enables the creation of the contract from the client’s details, receive the deposit, record all verbal and written correspondence and generate required documents.

Contract details can be accessed from a single screen including account details (invoices and payments), progress billing stages, variations, names and addresses, solicitor details and land details.

The Contracts module contains a fully integrated Service Request capability to address the post project handover requirements such as 3-month warranty management.

BusinessCraft includes Sales Estimating that allows the production of detailed tender documents that result in the calculation of a proposed contract value. This is generally based on the standard house price from a detailed price list maintenance system combined with standard variations to the model as well as client required variations. The Sales Estimating system can produce sufficient paperwork for the presentation of tenders and variations to the client for signing.

BusinessCraft also includes Production Estimating which is used to determine the expected costs for a specific build, with consideration of the variations specified in the Sales Estimate.

Production Estimating requires sufficient detail to generate purchase orders for materials and labour to complete the construction. Production Estimates are normally broken down into Cost Centres (typically Trades). The Materials and Labour can be derived from one or more Standard Bills of Quantities that are made up of various standard components.

The contracts cycle can be divided into 5 stages but are user-definable:

  • Pre-Sales Events
  • Pre-Construction Events
  • Construction Events
  • Post Construction Events
  • Miscellaneous Events