Your ERP Is Only as Good as Your Field Data

What’s the Point of an ERP If the Data’s Wrong?

You invested in a serious ERP—Sage 300 CRE, Vista, Foundation—because you wanted control, visibility, and confidence in your numbers.

But here’s the question most contractors eventually face:

If the data going into your ERP is late, incomplete, or wrong… what’s it actually worth?

An ERP is only as powerful as the data feeding it.
And in construction, most of that data comes from one place: the field.

• If timecards come in days late…

• If invoices sit in trucks or inboxes…

• If field reports are inconsistent or missing…

Then your job cost reports, billing, payroll, and financials are already out of sync—before you even run the numbers.

And let’s be clear: this isn’t about replacing your ERP. It’s about connecting it—so your systems work as hard as your crews do.

In this article, we’ll break down:

• Why ERP integration is more than just a tech buzzword

• How disconnected field data hurts your business

• What seamless field-to-office integration really looks like

• And how hh2 can help you get more value from the ERP you already use

Let’s close the gap—and finally make your systems talk.

The Real Disconnect: Field Data vs. Office Systems

Your ERP is designed to be the hub for everything—labor, cost codes, billing, compliance, forecasting. But most ERPs weren’t built for the field. And most field teams weren’t built to navigate an ERP.

That disconnect shows up in the smallest, most frustrating ways.

🕒 Timecards Are Late or Inaccurate

Crews track hours on paper or text them in. The super hands them off on Friday—or forgets altogether. Payroll doesn’t get the data until Monday. And now someone has to:

• Re-enter hours by hand

• Match them to cost codes

• Chase down corrections

Meanwhile, job costing is already behind.

🧾 Invoices Don’t Flow with the Job

A vendor drops off an invoice on site. It sits in someone’s truck, then gets scanned and emailed—maybe. Or AP prints it out and waits for a physical signature. You lose:

• Early-pay discounts

• Visibility into committed costs

• Confidence in your budget accuracy

📋 Daily Reports Are Inconsistent

Some supers use email. Others use paper. Some skip them entirely. That means your ERP is missing critical context:

• Weather delays

• Equipment downtime

• Scope changes that never make it to a change order

🔁 Office Teams Re-Enter Everything

Even when the field submits data, someone in the office still has to retype it into the ERP—creating:

• Double entry

• Typos

• Bottlenecks during busy cycles (like payroll or billing)

Bottom line?
Your ERP can’t give you real insight if the data feeding it is delayed, disconnected, or dirty.

What Happens When Your ERP Isn’t Fed Real-Time Data

You can have the best ERP in the industry. But if your data is late or incomplete, your ERP becomes a very expensive filing cabinet.

And when field-to-office data isn’t flowing in real time, it doesn’t just slow things down—it causes ripple effects across every critical workflow in your company.

📉 You Lose Trust in the Numbers

If time, costs, or production data are missing—or worse, incorrect—PMs, executives, and accounting teams stop trusting what they see.

Result:

• Forecasts get padded “just in case”

• Billing gets delayed while numbers are verified

• You spend more time explaining reports than using them

💰 You Miss the Window to Adjust

By the time a cost overrun shows up in the system, the job’s already in trouble. Without real-time labor or material tracking, PMs and supers are flying blind.

Result:

• Change orders go unsubmitted

• Labor keeps running over

• You discover problems during closeout, not while they’re fixable

⌛ You Waste Time on Manual Processes

If your back office has to re-enter timecards, match invoices manually, or track down missing daily reports, you’re burning hours on admin instead of strategy.

Result:

• Payroll and billing take longer

• Errors creep in

• Office staff gets overwhelmed—or worse, burned out

🧾 Compliance Gets Risky

Union payroll, certified jobs, prevailing wage—you need precision. And if data is incomplete or late, you’re not just inefficient… you’re exposed.

Result:

• Missed reporting deadlines

• Audits that take weeks to resolve

• Risk of penalties or delayed payments

🚧 Integration Isn’t Optional—It’s Foundational

Disconnected data makes your ERP reactive. Integrated data makes it a proactive decision-making engine.

5 Signs You Have an Integration Problem

(Even If You Already Use an ERP)

You’ve got an ERP. You’re tracking time, costs, invoices, and budgets. On paper, things should be running smoothly.

But here’s the thing: having an ERP doesn’t mean you’re fully integrated.

If data isn’t flowing cleanly from the field to your system in real time, you’ve got an integration gap—and it’s probably costing you more than you realize.

Here’s how to know:

🔴 1. You’re Still Collecting Time on Paper (or in Excel)

If field crews are writing hours on clipboards or sending them in spreadsheets, someone in the office is re-entering that data. That’s not integration—it’s duplication.

Pain it causes:

• Late payroll

• Cost code errors

• Job cost reports lag behind the work

🔴 2. PMs Don’t Trust the Job Cost Report

If project managers are running their own side spreadsheets because they don’t believe what’s in the system, your integration isn’t delivering usable insight.

Pain it causes:

• Fragmented decision-making

• Budget surprises at closeout

• Inefficient resource planning

🔴 3. Invoices Get Lost, Delayed, or Paid Twice

When AP has to chase down approvals or manually match invoices to jobs, it’s a sign your field and finance workflows aren’t connected.

Pain it causes:

• Late fees

• Duplicate payments

• Untracked committed costs

🔴 4. You Hear “I Didn’t Know” More Than You’d Like

When supers, PMs, or back-office staff are blindsided by jobsite updates, delays, or costs—it’s not a people problem. It’s a visibility problem.

Pain it causes:

• Rework

• Missed billing

• Internal finger-pointing

🔴 5. You Spend More Time Fixing Data Than Using It

If your team spends hours each week cleaning up time entries, reconciling job costs, or reformatting reports, you’re stuck in “catch-up mode.”

Pain it causes:

• Low morale

• High admin overhead

• Poor scalability as you grow

If any of these hit home, you’re not alone. Most GCs feel the gap between the field and the ERP—but few realize how easy it is to fix.

What True Field-to-ERP Integration Looks Like

Integration doesn’t mean complexity. It means clarity.
When your field data flows straight into your ERP in real time, your job costing, payroll, AP, and forecasting all get sharper—without adding admin work or slowing crews down.

Here’s what that actually looks like for modern contractors:

✅ 1. Field Teams Log Time Digitally—Daily

Instead of filling out paper timesheets or emailing spreadsheets, crews log hours by job and cost code from their phone or tablet. Supervisors approve on the spot.

Result:

• Time hits payroll and job costing in real time

• No re-entry, no lag, no surprises

✅ 2. Invoices Get Coded and Routed Automatically

Vendors email invoices directly into a system like hh2 Document Flow, where they’re tagged to a job, routed to the right approver, and synced back to the ERP.

Result:

• AP has visibility from day one

• PMs stay accountable

• Costs hit jobs the moment they’re committed

✅ 3. Daily Field Reports Feed Live Progress Updates

Supers enter standardized daily reports—production, weather, notes, and photos—that go straight to the office without delay or reformatting.

Result:

• PMs can track progress and risks in real time

• Executives get live reporting they can trust

• Everyone works from the same page

✅ 4. All Data Syncs to Your ERP Without Manual Entry

With tools like hh2, timecards, invoices, reports, and approvals sync directly into Sage 300 CRE, Vista, Foundation, and more.

Result:

• One source of truth

• Zero duplication

• Faster payroll, billing, and reporting

This is what true integration looks like:
No rekeying. No delays. No “just checking in.”
Just accurate, timely data flowing where it needs to go.

How hh2 Bridges the Gap Between the Field and Your ERP

You don’t need to rip out your ERP.
You just need to make it smarter—with clean, real-time field data that flows directly into your system without delay or duplication.

That’s what hh2 was built for.

hh2 acts as the field-connected layer between your crews and your ERP, capturing labor, invoices, and field activity at the source—then syncing everything to your back office automatically.

Here’s how it works:

📱 Remote Payroll: Field-Driven Time Entry That Feeds Job Costing

Crews log hours on mobile devices. Supervisors approve. Everything is coded by job and cost code—then synced directly to payroll and job cost reports in your ERP.

Why it works:

• Real-time labor tracking

• No re-entry or paper timecards

• Certified and union payroll support included

👉 Explore hh2 Remote Payroll

📄 Document Flow: AP Routing and Cost Coding Without the Paper Chase

Invoices are uploaded, tagged, routed, approved, and synced back to the ERP—all from one simple, searchable dashboard.

Why it works:

• Speeds up approvals

• Keeps costs tied to the right job

• Eliminates lost invoices and double payments

👉 Automate AP with hh2 Document Flow

📋 Field Reporting: Daily Logs That Actually Make It to the Office

Superintendents enter consistent daily reports on mobile devices, even offline. Reports sync instantly when reconnected—giving PMs and executives real-time insight.

Why it works:

• Field visibility without chasing updates

• Searchable history for disputes, billing, and forecasting

• Helps flag delays and risks early

👉 Streamline Field Communication

ERP Integration: Seamless Sync with Sage, Vista, Foundation & More

hh2 integrates with the systems you already use—no replacements needed.
You get clean, real-time data flowing into:

• Sage 100 Contractor

• Sage 300 CRE

• Viewpoint Vista

• Foundation

• And more

👉 See ERP Integrations

With hh2, your ERP becomes a real-time source of truth—not a lagging indicator.
You stop chasing data—and start using it.

Ready to Make Your ERP Actually Work for You?

You already invested in a powerful ERP—now it’s time to unlock its full potential.

If your field data is delayed, inconsistent, or stuck in manual processes, your ERP will always be reactive. But with hh2, you can turn it into a real-time command center for job costing, payroll, AP, and forecasting.

✅ Sync field data instantly—no re-entry
✅ Capture daily time, costs, and reports on any device
✅ Keep PMs, finance, and field crews aligned
✅ Integrate seamlessly with Sage, Vista, Foundation & more

You don’t need to change your ERP. You just need to connect it.

👉 Talk to hh2
👉 Schedule Your Free Demo

The data’s already out there on your jobsites—let’s put it to work.

Frequently Asked Questions About ERP and Field Integration

Why does ERP integration matter in construction?

Because most critical project data—like timecards, invoices, and daily reports—originates in the field. Without integration, that data is delayed, manually re-entered, or lost entirely. Integration ensures your ERP receives accurate, timely updates that improve job costing, payroll, billing, and compliance.

What happens if field data isn’t connected to my ERP?

You get delayed reports, inaccurate job costs, payroll errors, and lost visibility. PMs and executives can’t make real-time decisions, and finance teams are stuck in reactive mode. Over time, this erodes both margin and trust.

Do I need a new ERP to improve integration?

No. Tools like hh2 integrate directly with your existing ERP, including Sage 100/300 CRE, Vista, and Foundation. You don’t need to rip and replace—just connect what you already use with smarter, field-ready tools.

What field data should sync to my ERP?

At a minimum:

• Daily timecards by cost code

• Approved vendor invoices

• Field reports on production, delays, and crew size
  hh2 captures this data in the field and syncs it directly to your ERP—no double entry needed.

Can I really get real-time job costing from field integration?

Yes. When time, AP, and field activity are entered daily and synced instantly, your job cost reports update in real time. That means you can adjust, bill, and forecast based on what’s happening now—not what happened last week.

How hard is it to implement ERP integration with hh2?

It’s easier than you think. You can start with one workflow—like time entry or AP routing—and roll it out to a single crew or job. hh2’s cloud-based tools are intuitive, mobile-friendly, and designed specifically for construction teams.

What ERPs does hh2 integrate with?

hh2 integrates with:

• Sage 100 Contractor

• Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate (CRE)

• Viewpoint Vista

• Foundation
  …and other leading construction ERP platforms. View the full list here.