PASKR Funktionen, Bewertungen & Alternativen

I had never heard of Paskr (P for short) until I started at a new company. I use P for Project Management and some estimating/bidding tasks. There are a couple of things that P does well but many things it does bad or isn't user friendly AT ALL. For example:

1. The menus are all slightly different and organized different. In one menu "pay applications" are called " billing". And "meeting minutes" are called "project minutes". Who calls them that?
2. The menus are all very sensitive to rolling your mouse over/down them. I am forced to go very slowly to navigate where I want to.
3. When building an estimate I cannot arbitrarily rename a cost code if the description isn't really accurate. I also cannot use the same cost code multiple times. I might want to do that if I am breaking an estimate down into multiple phases or areas.
4. Estimating is very rigid and not user friendly for reporting how estimates evolve from conceptual through final bidding. When you do create an invited bidders' list it will invite subs for multiple cost codes unless you tell it otherwise...every single time. This is a product of our sub data base being overpopulated with subcontractors performing work associated with multiple cost codes. But, for example, to assign a subcontractor only one division 5 cost code and not all division 5 cost codes I have to remove him from all the other Div 5 codes that I may be using in the estimate.
5. When I right change orders to the subs they are not grouped together but only in sequential order. And if I write an Owner CO with the sub CO's grouped together they show up in different parts of the screen so if I'm looking for a subs' last CO I have to look in two different places
6. Meeting minutes are horrible. You cannot simply create a new/updates status for items that get tracked from meeting to meeting.
7. Generating my Owner billing can be a huge pain because it will not let you bill more than a SOV line item has left in it. What if I needed or was required to bill more in Div 6 and less in Div 12? The only way to do that would be via creating a change order and then billing the added/subtracted amounts under a CO heading.
8. Reporting is a joke. One of the easiest and most often used reports is a "committed cost report". It doesn't exist when you go to the "reports" tab. However, you can print one if you go to the Purchase Order tab and run a report through that module. Stupid.

Now for something good:

1. Reviewing and approving subcontractor billings is easy
2. Paskr will automatically pull in subcontractor billings into my Owner billing which can be handy or a pain in the ass if you want to do something different.
3. RFI's are relatively easy to create, but who can screw that up?
4. Writing subcontracts is pretty effortless. Although, writing a subcontract to a cost code that wasn't in your final estimate can be a pain in the ass to make happen. And you cannot write a subcontract/PO to a vendor who doesn't have that particular cost code associated to him already.

Overall, P is rigid and not user friendly or flexible to how different Project Managers want to set up and run our jobs. I have used Timberline in the past and although Timberline is poor when it comes to customer support I would beg, borrow, or steal to have it over Paskr. I cuss P every single day and I use it for as few things as my company will allow. My number 1 goal for next year is to try and get away from Paskr.

Our PM team has seen increase in productivity due to using Paskr. The bidding module saves time & is excellent for managing invitations & compiling sub bids. Paskr is fundamentally a solid tool for tracking the project's bottom line, housing documentation, & overseeing progress. There are endless possibilities for growth/improvement within the software with respect to document control, reporting, & accounting connectivity. Innovations can't come fast enough, as we are excited for the potential we see in Paskr.
The staff at Paskr has bent over backwards to please us & train our staff on Paskr processes. They are attentive & responsive to both us & our contacts. L1 needs more training to avoid providing misdirection. The support staff is amazing, but limited by the program itself & its functionality. More often than not our requests are left with "future enhancement" as a response.
As with any software there is a learning curve. We are slowly learning the Paskr process & developing work-arounds for its limitations. The platform is rudimentary & user-friendly but not necessarily intuitive. Therefore, it takes time to learn its idiosyncrasies (thank goodness for the chat feature).
Features & functionality are lacking from my perspective (accounting) as I rely heavily on reports. All reports are in pdf format & not customizable or interactive. Developing reports that allow you to click on figures & see what is behind them would be a huge leap in functionality for both the PM & accounting depts. Printing pdf reports & manually searching for data to audit is very time consuming for accounting & leaves the PM blindly accepting his/her entries.
The QB web connector is what drew us to the product over others, however it is very basic & requires manual massage of data to correct some glitches in the data transfer. Again a time consuming process (yet still quicker than our prior fully manual system).
Example of an area needing enhancement that would have tremendous impact: dashboard calendar. It could be a highly effective tool for PM team if it integrated task from all project for which they were assigned, allowing them to have full view from a single pane of glass.
Overall we are better with Paskr than we were before it. There is potential for Paskr to be so much more. As it improves our productivity will also improve, as will our staff's ability to convey the pulse of the business to our owner which was our primary reason for selecting Paskr software.

I've been using this management software for most of the last 6 years. Overall it is very helpful and makes me more efficient managing projects. There have been some recent changes that I feel have taken away some valuable functionality, but they have been very willing to listen and explain the reasons for the changes. They are also willing to look at my concerns and consider restoring some of the functionality that was lost.

Over the years we have been using Paskr, they continue to improve our experience. From the field, all project information is easily accessible and daily reporta are a breeze because of the mobile apps. In the office, it is a powerful solution from project conception to closeout, handling and keeping all contracts, POs, change orders, submittals, drawings and drawing changes. All of our subcontractors present their bids, submittals, execute contracts, change orders and submit pay apps and lien releases in the system. Our AE folks respond to submittals and RFIs with ease. Its all paperless and immediate.
I love that a change order can be made and executed within 5 minutes, even from the field. I love that RFIs can be made in the field and responded to by the required parties, even from a smart phone. And Paskr keeps up with all of it electronically significantly reducing clerical time.

I have been a CFO for a commercial general contractor that uses PASKR for four years now, and have realized the benefits of this system.

-PASKR streamlines the process.
-PASKR provides full disclosure of financial information for each project on a real-time basis.
-PASKR reduces mistakes and thereby increases profits.
-PASKR has enabled both the accounting department and the project management team to work more efficiently.

After PASKR is implemented and employees are appropriately trained to use the software, we had a lot more success ensuring that important deadlines were met and budgets stayed on target, greatly increasing our ROI. PASKR can't replace a dedicated or experienced project manager, but it can help make him significantly more productive and allow him to manage more projects at one time.

As head of the accounting department, I have significantly more confidence with my financial forecasts because I can access all projects on a daily basis. I also have real-time access to pending/approved change orders for our owners and subcontractors. I can also hold my project managers accountable for the post buy-out budget, and easily track overruns.

Prior to implementing PASKR, the month-end closing process consisted of tracking down each project manager and discussing every single expected future costs and change order. I had to rely on the project manager to fully disclose the financial information. With PASKR, all of that information is readily available online.

One of my favorite processes within PASKR is the subcontractor billing process. Subcontractors represent 70%-90% of a general contractor's costs. PASKR provides added audit protection because it requires a subcontractor to sign his subcontract agreement before he is allowed to submit a pay application for a project. Also, it will ONLY allow a subcontractor to bill up to the amount of his contract, plus or minus any approved change orders. Over-billing by a subcontractor doesn't exist with PASKR.

My next favorite process within PASKR is the owner billing process. The project managers build the original schedule of values, and monthly create invoices for the owners based upon the percentage of work completed. All the accounting department needs to do at that point is review the owner pay app, notarize it, and distribute it to the appropriate parties. No extra Excel spreadsheets or wasted time trying to get the information from the forever-busy project manager.

I love being able to access any document (contracts, change orders, correspondence, drawings, etc.) from any computer at any time for any project. I don't even want to think about life in the construction industry without PASKR.