Five workforce expectations Sage 300 CRE can no longer support

Today’s professional construction workforce brings expectations about accessibility, usability, transparency and professional growth shaped by their experiences in their daily life, education and at previous jobs. Unfortunately, construction companies operating on legacy accounting contractor software like Sage 300 CRE often struggle to meet those expectations. 

Let’s look at five expectations shaping today’s construction workforce and examine how Sage Intacct Construction addresses them in ways Sage 300 CRE does not.

1. Seamless remote access without workarounds

Like in any other industry, professional construction employees expect flexibility. Some want to work from home occasionally. Others live in different states. Nearly everyone expects the ability to log in easily and securely from anywhere.

Sage 300 CRE can’t deliver that experience on its own. To enable remote access, teams typically rely on VPN connections or hosted environments like myCREcloud. But VPNs are, at best, a temporary fix. Their latency and security concerns make them frustrating and risky to use long-term. And while hosted environments reduce on-site hardware demands, they still depend on remote desktop sessions and require coordinated software and operating system upgrades.

Today’s workforce expects to log in through a browser as easily as they access online banking or cloud productivity tools. Sage Intacct Construction delivers that experience. Users access the system through a secure browser connection without VPNs or remote desktop layers. The platform handles updates automatically, which eliminates the need for internal teams to manage version control or schedule downtime.

2. Real-time project visibility for project managers

Construction project managers need and expect a level of visibility into their job performance that most Sage 300 environments can’t provide.

Sage 300 CRE’s licensing structure makes it cost prohibitive for most companies to provide access to PMs. Even when companies purchase additional licenses, its lack of remote usability limits what PMs can even do with it. As a result, PMs depend on accounting to generate job cost reports, often once per week. By the time accounting delivers those reports, the data is already out of date. This workflow slows decisions and creates tension between the PMs and the accounting team. 

Sage Intacct Construction changes that dynamic. Its tiered user pricing structure allows broader access at a lower cost, and with security safeguards that reduce the risk associated with adding more users into the system. PMs can log in through a browser and view real-time dashboards that reflect verified financial data without gaining full accounting privileges. Instead of waiting for static weekly reports, PMs can monitor job costs, committed costs and billing progress as transactions post. That visibility allows them to respond faster to margin pressure and cost overruns.

3. Automation instead of repetitive data entry

Accounting professionals expect automation to be built into their software. However, Sage 300 CRE still requires substantial manual effort to handle routine accounting functions.

Take accounts payable, for example. In many Sage 300 CRE environments, staff enter invoices line by line. They catch coding errors later during reconciliation. A few third-party integrations can streamline some data entry processes, but those integrations require maintenance and oversight.

This approach is time consuming and keeps accountants focused on rote processes rather than strategic analysis.

Sage Intacct Construction’s built-in AP automation can eliminate many of the most tedious data entry tasks within accounting workflows. The system can capture vendor invoices electronically, route them for approval and apply predefined coding rules. Validation controls can be configured to block incorrect job numbers or cost codes before they post to the general ledger, so there are far fewer errors to correct during reconciliation. 

By reducing manual entry, Sage Intacct Construction enables finance teams to shift their attention to forecasting, margin analysis and strategic planning — activities that the modern workforce is eager to tackle.

4. Tools that support strategic influence

In addition to expecting high levels of automation in their accounting software, today’s finance professionals want to see the impact of their work on business outcomes. They want systems that support strategic analysis, not just recordkeeping.

In Sage 300 CRE, advanced reporting often requires exporting data into Excel or building custom Crystal Reports. Teams frequently assemble work-in-progress schedules and cost value reconciliation reports manually. Gathering the data to generate these reports ends up taking so much time that there’s little time left to analyze them.

Sage Intacct Construction offers dimensional reporting that empowers users to analyze project performance without restructuring the chart of accounts or exporting data. Teams can configure dashboards to highlight trends across specific project types and cash flow indicators in real time.

When reporting becomes flexible and accessible, finance professionals can engage leadership in forward-looking discussions rather than spending all of their time explaining historical variances.

5. Transferable skills and modern technology experience

Employees also evaluate whether the tools they use help them grow professionally.

Although many construction companies still use Sage 300 CRE, the broader market is shifting toward cloud-based ERP platforms. Professionals who spend years navigating legacy systems may feel that they’re not developing skills aligned with industry direction.

Sage Intacct Construction is a modern cloud ERP system that reflects the evolution of the accounting industry overall. Gaining experience with dimensional reporting, AP automation, and customizable dashboards provides a skillset that will translate across industries. That’s an important job satisfaction factor for ambitious professionals.

Lastly, many finance professionals expect to be able to work on any type of device — PC, Mac, iPhone, or Android. Sage Intacct Construction is device- and operating system-agnostic, but Sage 300 CRE does not run natively on Mac environments. While that might not be enough to make someone look for a new job, working on an unfamiliar device or operating system can still cause friction and frustration for your team members.

Technology shapes workforce outcomes

If your organization is struggling to recruit, retain, or empower its finance and operations teams, your technology may be part of the problem. Companies that rely on Sage 300 CRE can’t offer the seamless technology experience that today’s construction professionals are looking for. Modern ERP platforms such as Sage Intacct Construction align more closely with how today’s workforce expects to operate, with effortless remote access, real-time visibility, automation, and flexible reporting that strengthen both productivity and engagement.

Talk to Baker Tilly’s Construction ERP team to explore how Sage Intacct Construction can help you meet workforce expectations while strengthening financial performance.