Managing Database Companies

Article Index

Framework has the ability to manage different companies, divisions, offices, teams, etc. within one database. This is achieved through the concepts of enterprise, regions, divisions, region/divisions, teams, and context identification.

Benefits Of Managing Database Companies

From a business perspective, managing all companies in the one database has the following benefits:

• Ease of reporting.

• Use of security to allow users access to different companies without having to log in and out of different systems.

• Shared entities for consistent resource allocation and maintenance.

• Region/division and teams can be used when searching for clients and jobs.

From a technical perspective, managing all companies in the one database has the following benefits:

• Minimal setup costs as database can be stored on one system.

• Efficiencies in maintenance of the software.

• Cost effectiveness of maintenance of hardware.

What To Do

Requirements

Consideration must be given to the following when making the decision regarding the management of database companies:

• Company reporting requirements and accounting standards.

• Statutory reporting requirements and accounting standards (if applicable).

• Shareholder reporting requirements (if applicable).

• Location of accounting and estimating databases.

Careful analysis of the above will assist with the next step, the planning stage. It is recommended that the Directors, Financial Controller, Operations Manager and IT Manager discuss the above, together with their individual business requirements, when deciding on which path is most suitable for the company as a whole.

Planning

Once the decision has been made on the setup of the company and its entities in Framework, it is important to ensure the following:

• A project plan is implemented by a Project Manager nominated by the business (internal or external to the company) to manage the deployment of Framework.

• The required resources are allocated to rolling out the system.

Implementation

The implementation requires an understanding of the following organisation structure setup in Framework which is important for reporting, accounting and search purposes.

Enterprise

The parent company is set up as the enterprise within Framework, i.e., the overall business entity, Build Pty Ltd.

Division

The division relates to the business divisions within the overall enterprise, i.e., two divisions of the enterprise, Build Homes Pty Ltd and Build Projects Pty Ltd.

Region

Regions covered by the enterprise. For example, Build Homes VIC, Build Projects VIC, Build Homes NSW, Build Projects NSW, etc.

Region/Divisions

Combinations of regions and divisions which represent business units, i.e., Build Homes Metro, Build Homes Regional, Build Projects Metro.

Open

Teams

Teams within a region/division are linked to the construction manager entity. Teams can be used to further classify personnel and activities to geographic areas, especially for construction build areas. For example, North, East, South and West teams.

Context Identification

A region/division may have a series of special House & Land projects being built across areas covered by multiple teams, therefore, if the context is set to identify these, they can be easily included/excluded from reporting.

Accounts Company (Against Client, File, Land, Job)

Assigning an accounts company entity to a client, file, land or job allows for a reference to be added that refers to a specific group or process in the enterprise’s accounting system.

Ongoing Management

The elements considered when first implementing Framework must be periodically reviewed to ensure that they are being met. To recap, these are:

• Company reporting requirements and accounting standards.

• Statutory reporting requirements and accounting standards (if applicable).

• Shareholder reporting requirements (if applicable).

• Location of the accounting and estimating databases.

Further to the periodic review of reporting and accounting requirements, if there are new divisions, projects or procedures to be introduced, decisions must consider the enterprise structure within Framework.