Construction versus Sage Intacct terminology

The Construction industry uses specific terminology that can differ from Sage Intacct terminology. Understand how Sage Intacct terms align with Construction industry terms.

You can then change Sage Intacct terminology to match Construction industry terms. For example, you can change Project to Job.

Construction term Sage Intacct term Sage Intacct definition Learn more
change management change management Change management is a process that captures and records planned and unexpected Construction project changes and tracks how those changes affect and revise project estimates and billing totals throughout the Construction project's life cycle. Change management overview
change orders project change orders Project change orders summarize the total price and costs of multiple change requests, simplifying the billing process for multiple change requests for a single Construction project. Project change order overview
change requests change requests Change requests track how changes impact original costs and pricing throughout a project's life cycle.  A change request specifies the change to the project's estimated costs and to the contract price. When the project estimate is integrated with a General Ledger budget, changes can also update the budget. Change request overview
commitments purchase order, subcontracts, or primary documents

Commitments (also known committed costs) are payment obligations for known costs, even if you have not a received a bill yet. Track commitments to identify what you have already spent and the impact to your remaining budget.

Set up purchase orders and subcontracts as orders and convert them into invoices in Purchasing.

Purchasing invoices automatically create Accounts Payable bills that you use to pay your vendors.

 How PO commitments work
commitments or subcontracts primary document

Within a Purchasing transaction life cycle, a primary document is the originating order document that's converted to other documents during the document life cycle. Only 1 primary document is allowed within a transaction life cycle. The order transaction's document number is carried forward to all converted downstream transactions (including change orders), establishing the relationship between the primary document transaction and its downstream transactions.

The primary document workflow supports:

  • The ability to view commitments on the project setup (on the Purchasing commitments tab)

  • Generation of automatic lien waiver compliance records

  • Commitment-related compliance records

  • Construction report packages

 

 Enable primary documents on transaction definitions
compliance vendor compliance

Vendor compliance rules are company requirements that ensure all vendors your company does business with adhere to your company's specific requirements for doing business. Your company sets up and tracks your vendor compliance requirements.

In Sage Intacct Construction, the vendor's insurance and miscellaneous compliance records are only associated with vendors or commitments.
Lien waiver compliance records are associated with a primary document purchase order (PO), and an AP bill for the order or an AP payment for the bill.

 Vendor compliance overview
contracts Construction project contract Construction project contract and its corresponding project contract lines capture a mix of billable details and include those details into your construction project billing. Construction project contract overview
cost codes task A task is a unit of work to be performed for a project. You can create task dependencies so that 1 task does not start until another finishes Add tasks
jobs project Construction projects help you manage the tasks to construct a building or structure on time and under budget. Projects overview
joint cheque
secondary supplier		 joint cheque secondary supplier

In the Construction industry, general contractors often hire subcontractors to handle portions of their projects. These subcontractors may further engage secondary vendors to augment their workforce or to perform specialized tasks. For compliance purposes, general contractors must track all personnel working on their projects. Additionally, there are instances where the general contractor must issue joint payments to subcontractors and their secondary vendors.

You can now enter secondary vendors directly on your primary documents. These secondary vendors will appear on the Joint Payees tab in Accounts Payable (AP) Bills, allowing you to process joint payments efficiently.

 Joint check basics—Construction
retainage, retention, or hold back retainage

Retainage (also known as retention) is a portion of the agreed upon contract price intentionally withheld until the work is substantially complete to assure that the customer or vendor (for projects and grants) or contractor or subcontractor (for Construction) satisfies their obligations and completes a project.

Retainage overview