Jonas Premier Review: Features, Pricing & Alternatives 2023

Premier has various A/P-related features that help you manage your vendors easily, pay bills, and create and manage purchase orders and convert them to bills for payment. Its most notable A/P feature is SmartUi’s intelligent invoice automation system. This AI-enabled system lets you extract data from emails and scanned documents automatically and then transfer them to Premier, removing the need for manual data entry. The platform classifies the document type, such as vendor invoice, credit note, or statement, automatically, depending on the page’s content. When an invoice is validated, it will be posted automatically to Premier, awaiting approval and payment. When a vendor invoice matches a purchase order, they are posted directly for payment, eliminating the need for human action.

The program provides multiple options for bill payments, such as electronic payments, credit card payments, and manual check printing. To help you stay on top of your payables, you can generate various reports, including vendor summaries, aging reports, payment history, and purchase order reports.

A/P module in Premier (Source: Jonas Premier)

With Premier, you can create customized invoices and send them to your customers through email. You can track payments against each invoice, view outstanding balances, and alert your customers of overdue payments. You can also set credit limits for your customers to encourage them to make quick payments and remain under their limits.

Premier supports construction-specific billing methods, including cost-plus billing, progress billing, and time and material billing (explained in greater detail in the Construction Features section).

Premier lets you create more than 50 financial reports with drill-down capability. You can customize your reporting dashboards by setting up different filters and widgets. Within each module, you can access standard reports ready to run, apply filters, and drill down to microlevel items for more detailed reporting.

The job costing module is the “heart” of Premier. It allows you to track all costs related to a job, including original and forecasted estimates at completion. You can also break down each cost further by item, such as estimate, type, and how much of the budget your project uses. This gives you a detailed breakdown of each project, allowing you to track expenses in real time and accurately calculate future profitability. There is also an option to import estimates from Microsoft Excel or any other third-party tools.

The job costing dashboard shows essential details about a job, including your top KPIs, at-risk items, pending items, and approvals.

Job costing dashboard in Premier (Source: Jonas Premier)

Contractors use Premier to bill their customers based on progress, time and materials, and cost plus:

• Progress billing: Premier allows you to bill clients for completed work on a project instead of waiting until the project is fully completed. This billing method is for contractors that handle projects with multiple phases or milestones. Using AIA 702/703 and % complete forms in Premier, project managers can enter the percentage or amount completed each month and quickly create an A/R invoice to send to their customers.
• Time and material billing: Premier lets you bill your clients based on hourly labor costs and the price of materials used. You can do this by creating a time and material contract, which outlines the billing terms and conditions, including hourly rates and material costs. You can also set up billing schedules to determine when invoices will be generated. In addition to tracking the time and material used on a project, Premier will automatically update markups.
• Cost-plus billing: Cost-plus billing lets you bill your client based on the actual costs of the project plus an additional markup percentage. When you’re in the cost-plus billing module, you can enter the cost of materials, labor, and any other expenses related to a project. The program will calculate the total value automatically and add a markup percentage to determine the final amount to be billed to the client. The markup percentage typically is negotiated with the client beforehand.

Premier has robust project management features, including the ability to create, send, and track RFI, monitor your crew’s project with detailed daily logs, and create and send change orders:

• RFI Management: You can use a default RFI template or customize it with all your customer and subcontractor information. You can attach documents, add recommendations, and send the RFI to one or several contracts with one click. Your customers and subcontractors can view these RFIs easily in a mobile-friendly format. When a contact responds to your RFI, Premier will alert you via email automatically. You can also track outstanding and overdue RFIs directly from your web dashboard.

Sample RFI response in Premier (Source: Jonas Premier)

• Detailed daily logs: Project managers can monitor their crew’s projects with detailed daily logs. Using the time entry mobile app, your crew can log their work and easily snap and upload photos related to their work from their smartphone. It also allows you to track which subcontractors are on certain sites. Your team can also record weather delays or safety problems, allowing you to make a plan and take action if needed.

Mobile time entry app in Premier (Source: Jonas Premier)

If you want to request a change to your agreed-upon scope of work, you can easily create internal change orders in Premier. Complete the change order form and send it electronically to your client for approval. Additionally, you can send change orders to your contractors if they will be affected by the proposed change in the project.

Change order form in Premier (Source: Jonas Premier)

You can store and organize any type of construction document inside the platform, whether it’s a photo, PDF file, compliance document, or project plan. You can create customized folders and search documents using various filters, such as fields, dates, file types, and customers. Each document uses version control so you and your team can easily track the entire history of a document.

Document management module in Premier (Source: Jonas Premier)

If you are subcontracting some of your work, then you have to make sure that your subcontractors execute the tasks according to the contract. With Premier, you can easily create subcontract agreements using AIA forms. You can completely customize each form, such as add your signature and insert custom fields. The platform sends secure links to your subcontractors via email, where they can view, print, and sign the agreement easily even from their smartphones.

Sample subcontractor agreement using the AIA form in Premier (Source: Jonas Premier)

Premier can help you centralize and streamline all your compliance paperwork, helping you ensure that you are following regulations. It allows you to build and customize a compliance list so that you can easily track important documents, such as contract agreements, insurance, and bonds. The platform will alert you to expired or soon-to-expire documents and update statuses instantly if needed. You can manage all your documents from your dashboard.

Premier runs from a $15,000 one-time fee plus $299 per month to a $50,000 one-time fee plus $199 per month.

No, the implementation package is required. Premier’s team will be the one to set up and implement your new software for a smooth transition. It will also migrate all key data and train you and your employees to use the software effectively.

No. Premier doesn’t integrate with any third-party accounting software, including QuickBooks Online. This is not a surprise since Premier claims its software to be an all-in-one accounting and construction management solution.