Best Software Now Shipping Timberline Office 2004

The Introduction of Timberline Office Desktop and Change Management Strengthen the Seamless Combination of Estimating, Accounting and Project Management
BEAVERTON, Ore., July 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Best Software announced today the general availability of Timberline Office 2004, which includes a host of enhanced features for accounting, estimating, project management, and service management. Timberline Office is a suite of integrated financial and operations software for the construction and real estate industries and is developed by Timberline, a Best Software company. Best Software, part of The Sage Group, plc, acquired Timberline in September 2003.

This comprehensive release introduces change management, a new Project Management feature that builds on Timberline's centralized approach to real-time data, and Timberline Office Desktop, a control panel that can be personalized to a user's needs. The new additions and enhancements are the latest advances in Timberline's goal of providing an integrated, end-to-end solution for the construction project lifecycle, from concept to occupancy.

As part of Timberline's Project Management, change management provides a simple, integrated solution that addresses the entire change management process, from identifying potential change orders on through to pricing, tracking, soliciting quotes, and issuing change order requests.

Without a proper change management process, change orders can often lead to increased project costs and prolonged schedules, in addition to creating potential litigation due to miscommunicated needs.

"After talking to hundreds of contractors, we've developed a straightforward change management system that is integrated with Timberline Office," said Curtis Peltz, Timberline president and general manager.

"With change management, not only will the project manager be able to view all aspects of a single change order, or all potential change orders in progress, but the controller can see what's coming as well. There's no longer any reason for accounting to get blind-sided by stray or 'after-the-fact' invoices."

With the new change order system, job cost budgets are automatically updated from cost budgets used for pricing change requests. The introduction of change management further bolsters Timberline's ability to directly integrate accounting, estimating, and project management, as the only integrated software system of its kind.

Also new, Timberline Office Desktop provides a personalized start page, which users can customize for a one-stop, at-a-glance look at those applications and features that are most important in their daily line of work. From a single screen, they can create a digital dashboard to view updated cost and project reports from a central database, review budgets, update a centralized Address Book, group common tasks, or launch any application.

Timberline Office 2004 also includes additions and enhancements to several other project areas. Improvements in accounting provide retainage transaction records and workflow and a more streamlined process for editing contract amounts on approved items. Several enhancements to estimating support increased flexibility in the pricing of estimates, and provide a new Electrical Database for specialty contractors. In addition, upgraded Service Management features include mobile work order capabilities and integration with @Road mobile resource management for Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking of technicians, plus an improved Dispatch Board design.

For more information about Timberline Office, visit http://www.timberline.com or call 1-800-628-6583.

About Best Software

Best Software offers leading business management products and services that give more than 2.3 million small and mid-sized customers in North America the insight for success throughout the lives of their businesses. Its parent company, The Sage Group plc (London: SGE.L), supports 4.3 million customers worldwide. For more than 25 years, Best Software has delivered easy-to-use, scalable and customizable applications through its portfolio of leading brands, including Abra, ACCPAC, ACT!, BusinessVision, CPASoftware, FAS, MAS 90, MAS 200, MAS 500, MIP, Peachtree, SalesLogix, and Timberline, among many others. For more information, please visit the Web site at http://www.bestsoftware.com/moreinfo or call 866-308-BEST.