Premier - Avis

Cost Transparency
Cost Tracking
Organization

Training - in person training would be better than the webinars

So far, the individual approvals for invoices, subcontracts, COs are all really great and have already streamlined a lot of clunky process we had in the past. It's hard to evaluate job costing and budget management since we don't have a ton of historical data in there for jobs yet.

It's very difficult to get it to integrate with our current estimating software. We're in the process of changing over, so I know it's only temporary

The amount of positive reviews online make it look like a quality "next generation" product for the changing construction industry.

Customer Service is very slow to respond to requests. Monthly, if not weekly server issues that cause our staff an inability to do their job for hours at a time. Closed Financial reports will change on Jonas side without knowledge to their team for why. When confronted with these issues the Jonas team is not responsive or understanding.

The budgeting and subcontract is something we need greatly. This tool is helping us get our budgets in line and mange our subcontracts better.

Did not like having to setup the journals. You had to set up General Journal, Sales and purchase. These are pretty standard so not sure why these need to be set up

1. Full service software
Jonas is a full service software that includes original estimates, subcontract creation, change orders, progress billing, T&M billing, RFIs, data management, and much more. Everything is included under one roof so instead of having to bounce back and forth between multiple programs we can access almost everything we need in one place.

2. 6 weeks of amazing training!
The training and implementation aspect of this software was excellent. The team is friendly, professional, helpful, and always willing to answer questions (and I asked a TON of questions) and help us figure out how to make Jonas work for our company. I really appreciated that they helped train us in best practices and showed us ways to improve upon our current processes. We loved having people to hold our hands and guide us through the process.

3. Organization
I really love the flow of the software and how well it organizes our jobs in an easy to use system. It's quite robust and takes time to learn, but once we're up and running I know we will be so grateful to be able to perform so many operations with the click of a button. No more hunting down important info in emails, printed documents, or computer files. We'll be able to access so much information in a short amount of time.

Learning anything new takes time and effort. There was definitely a lot to learn but Jonas emails us all of the training videos so we can access them at any time and there's a ton of support once we Go Live. We're a small team, so it felt like a lot of work, but that's normal with any new software implementation. If you have a small amount of employees, you'll really need to manage your work hours well so you can continue running your business and handle all of the training and implementation. We did it, and you can too!

To prioritize the pros of this software as compared to the traditional out of the box type softwares in its category, I have to say the overwhelming advantage of Jonas is the people who handle your transition into the implementation of this software tool to your company or companies.
I mean, who cares how extensive and exhaustive the features are if you don't have a personalized team to help you get up and running.
I personally don't quite understand how they are able to offer this type of personalized customer service for each client. They learn your business and how to best organize it and even tailor the software to meet your needs. I've never experienced this before. They listen to what you need and then come back with modifications or a different approach to continually streamline your day to day operation. You are assigned a team from the beginning, actual human beings that you interact with on a first name basis. They are on top of things, and that's really comforting for someone who is a habitual procrastinator.
They make your daily tasks a breeze with minimal effort.
I like that it is an online application. I can access it from any device. Really handy when looking up stuff on a phone while I'm on site - a suppllier invoice, contract, plan, sketch, etc...
The user interface is very simple, everything is right there on one screen and not buried under a hidden tree of drop-down menus.
You can create your on short list of favorites on the fly.
The document manager is like having your own unlimited DropBox portal but with the advantage that the search capabilities are infinitely more powerful and logical, as the software stores all of your documents that you upload, attach or link for you to find through multiple queries as opposed to DropBox where if you forget the name of the file, good luck finding it.
Very handy in my business as a builder is the tracking of subcontractor compliances that can be set up to block payment or at least warn on payment of a sub if he's late on a particular compliance. This was a real problem before. Who has time to constantly check and harass these guys for compliances. Just don't pay them and see how quick they email you that compliance .

Only complaint is that the software initially seems to be more set up for sub-contractors rather than general contractors and developers. I also buy land and build independantly so the accounting is quite a bit different as I have to capitalize expenses and revenue at completion of projects and jobs if I want to maintain a positive cash flow.
The consequence of this is that the customer service team has to re-adjust to first understand the very different accounting that I need to have in place and from that point make adjustments and tailor the software so it suits my needs.

We are currently in the training phase and are about half way through. I love that during training we have live webinars with the trainers and are able to ask questions and follow along in our test environment. Trainers are very knowledgeable and patient and the webinars are designed to be easy to follow along! The provided recordings of the webinars are a big help in going back and working in the test environment on your own afterwards. The webinars are followed up by one on one calls to discuss your company's specific needs and to dig deeper into specific areas; these sessions have been incredibly helpful and I highly recommend taking advantage of them. Coming from an environment that has done all of its project management manually, this is a huge conversion for us and based on everything we are experiencing during training, we made the right decision to go with Jonas!

So far in training, there isn't anything I don't like about the software, as we are still digging in and learning our way. Some modules are easier to follow along than others, although I think that has a lot to do with personal preference (I enjoy the PM training sessions much more than the accounting). I think for me my biggest frustration with the training is the scheduling of the webinars. As the person leading the conversion, but also having to accomplish my regular work on a daily basis, two back to back hours of webinars twice a week is sometimes difficult to manage and I find myself having to skip or leave early at times. If i could change anything it would be maybe to have a morning and afternoon session instead of back to back.

Speed, versatility, customer support, and friendly staff. When work/construction was scarce for our company, you took the time to help us come up with a payment plan. The reporting is amazing! You have made a lot of changes in regards to being “user friendly” AKA the ability to delete. Keep this going! Pending AP Invoice Report is also a great addition. I am grateful for your monthly webinars followed by the taped session to refer back to. Dashboard is fresh…love it!

On reporting such as the financial statement report we see -#’s different then we are accustom to. When the number is negative it shows in positive and when positive it shows in negative (with bracket). Can that be reversed? Since the new update I have posted some items and they don’t show up on other tabs unless I logout and back in (even after refresh) this has happened 3 times. When a change order is rejected its unable to be modified. I would like more opportunity to drill down into reports.

Our trainer truly took the time to understand our business and individual requirements for each of our PMs & Accountants. We are a very detailed organization, and he was able to ask the right questions and get into the details that matter. Coming from AccuBuild – it was difficult to process CORs and link them to the subcontract. In Premier, everything is so automated!! It provides great visibility in your profitability and makes it easy for project managers & estimators to drill down into information real-time. Having this transparency is important to help us make more informed decisions. Best of all, it’s easy to use – even the PMs & Senior estimators love it and have adopted it. This is one solution that makes it easy to better manage your people and projects.

At this moment there isn't any thing we feel is missing from the software.

The interface is very easy to use. Our implementation specialist was very helpful and made the set up process very easy and always answered any questions we may have.

The software is quite complex so it will take a while to get used to.

We enjoy the scalability and functionality of Jonas. As a small business, it allows us to function at a much larger scale with less woman-power.

Previous to using Jonas, we were doing most business functions manually, such as AP, AR, and Subcontracts. In the last year, we have been able to integrate these processes into Jonas which has improved workflow tremendously! We love the reporting options we have and how we can get real-time​ information without having to search through a bunch of emails and hard files.

The release of the Sub Pay App has been heaven sent for us! It has eliminated all confusion on contract amounts, approved change orders, and our subcontractors submitting various different invoice formats at various different times in the month. Our subs find the process easy to use and our admins get all the information they need with one click. ​

We have noticed in working in certain areas that even after saving and refreshing the tabs, we will have to completely log out and log back in to see changes.

It is also very difficult to correct/delete certain things after they have been processed. We understand this is to protect the integrity of our data, however,​ there have been times when we would have liked to override/remove items for our own ease of use. ​

Jonas Premier has surpassed our expectations. Premier has reduced the overall time we spend on accounting procedures every month, allowing us to focus more of our attention on our customers needs, estimating, and selling jobs. There are many reports to make sure we stay on top of our AP and AR. Although we haven't started to use the Subcontract portion of the software yet, we are hopeful that it will streamline our subcontract agreement process. The Accounts Payable section is extremely easy to use, and with the Jonas Premier add-in for Excel, entering new information is a breeze.

There are still a few small things that need to be worked out, mostly ease of use features. Sometimes it can be a bit difficult to remember to post your work; for example, we pay bi-weekly, timecards must be posted each week, and then again at the end of the pay period. So, for a two week time period, I have entered and posted timecards on two occasions, but then after the second week is posted, you have to post the whole payroll period in a separate location.

Onboard training was excellent. Support for questions or issues after implementation is excellent. Web-based software so employees and owners can view and add information from where ever they are working. Plus backup is current and ME rollover is smooth and doesn't require lots of processing to accomplish. Lots of reporting options and owners find the information easy to locate and readily available for review as needed. Very intuitive to use once for day to day activities.

Lien waivers need improvement - difficult to use. Premier is in the process of updating this feature and we are excited for that to be rolled out.

This software is the first of its kind to give us real time financial information on our projects and company as a whole. The Job Dashboard and Job Forecast screens are everyone's favorite. It shows you everything you need to know on the financial health of your project/budget at any given time and you can drill down into pretty much anything for more detail. Commitments and compliances are easily trackable and things like double entries are avoidable because payments are done directly out of the software. Premier's customer support is extremely responsive, helpful and knowledgeable and always offers solutions on how to best customize the software for our company's unique goals and objectives.

The software is not the easiest on the eyes and initially intimidates our project managers because it really looks and behaves like an accounting software. However, once the Project Managers learn the true capabilities of Premier, they are truly blown away. Would also be an added bonus if the software had more project management tools that are not related to the finances of the project.

I especially like that there seems to be a function for everything I could imagine or want. Most of it I haven't begun to use yet but slowly I am learning more of it. The Premier help team is critically important in helping me learn the skills I want and need when I want them.

I also really like how Premier won't allow information to be entered without all the required information. Makes it very easy to not miss critical details.

I found the learning curve steep, especially with respect to how the program "thinks". The trickiest part was understanding how information flows through the system.

The newly released Premier is very responsive; crisp and quick, with drill down capability throughout. We have yet to fully use the capabilities of the software.

Although all of the data is accessible via Odata and can be formatted and reported in unlimited ways, I'd like a few additional canned reports.

The ability to drill down to trace transactions. How it is intuitive to project managers to manage their budgets and cost controls seamlessly with the accounting team.

I really wish that there was a notification function as it relates to new AP and POs to be approved.

I like that it's an all-in-one accounting and project management software, making information collected via data management, AR/AP, and PM integrated and centralized. They also provide excellent onboarding and ongoing customer support. I'm new to construction as well as to bookkeeping and their team has had endless amount of patience and for my equally endless number of questions. No problem is too big, small, or ridiculous for them to tackle.

I made the somewhat unfortunate decision to request a Macbook instead of a PC for work. While the add-ons are mainly used only in the setup portion, the only thing that isn't ideal is that some of the MS Office Applications Add-Ons do not work with the applications for MS Office for Mac. The team, however, is super great about making the necessary adjustments on their computers so that it's not remotely the end of the world.

The system is pretty user friendly and I can access everything I need to do my role within the company.

I wish I was able to run more reports straight from Jonas vs having to use Excel Add-In. I don't like that the newest version of the Aged Receivable Report where the Job # and Job name are combined together in one field. This makes it difficult to sort/combine reports in Excel. Also, on the AR Customer Deposits Report, I wish there was an option to check so that it wouldn't include the lines with a 0.00 remaining balance.

1. Logical sequencing of menu items
2. End to End consistent user interface
3. Excel training program
4. Committed and customer focused client support
5. A robust document management system

I would love to see:
1. Complete glossary of all field headings used in all forms and reports
2. A user driven Report Builder that allows the user to pick and choose various fields, make choices for filtering, grouping, sorting and totalling data, enabling them to design their own reports

The software meets all our needs. We run 13 companies each with different needs. This is a construction software, but we do other companies involving investments, property management, and it meets all our needs and more. One of our favorite features is the document manager. It is super easy to grab documents and attach that document to any transaction. It frees up our computer space and organizes it much better than we could have by ourselves. This software really is for everyone that wants to take the time to learn. It is a tedious process to get started, but well worth it and will save you a lot of time in the long run.

My only con would be that the training videos are a little long. I think the videos could be a quick overview of the item that is being trained on, then we are required to go and try and figure it out ourselves. The great thing with Jonas is that you can mess up in your test company and nothing carries over once you go live. So mess up as much as you want, it will help you learn. If the videos had a little revamp and shortened with more interaction, there would be not a single con to this software.

It is a very trouble free system to use most of the time, Jonas support team as been helpful during our difficult times with the system.

Having trouble with reports and providing what my supervisor needs on some reports and not having descriptions on those reports. Also, when needing to change the distribution of an invoice is not simple and easy as it should be, we need to reserve the invoice completely and re enter it with the correct distribution.

The reports in Premier are amazing and very easy to use/understand. It's so easy to access information by vendors, by project, by account! They have drill down features on their reports as well which makes it easy to keep track of where you are with a project. I also really love the Job Dashboard. This dashboard allows me to keep track of compliances, retainage and AP for my job.

We initially did struggle to bring over some of our information per project. It would be nice to be able to easily adjust opening invoices.

As we go through the learning process I realize the software can do a lot we just have to learn how to use all the modules. it can save us a lot of time on from the way we were previously doing things.

some of the reporting features are not there.

WEB BASE SOLUTION, DRILING ACCOUNT OPTIONS, GETTING INFORMATIONS AND NAVIGATE THROUGH OUT VERIOUS MODULS, REPORTING

PAYROLL MODULE DOES NOT FULLY SATISFIED ME. I have been