For contractors managing large, complex projects, maintaining consistency across financial systems can be a challenge.
Vendor records, budget structures, cost codes, and project financial data all need to stay aligned across teams and systems. When that information becomes disconnected, manual processes increase, visibility decreases, and teams spend valuable time reconciling data instead of managing projects.
In this installment of our ERP Integration Series, we explore how Cost Management in Forma Build and CMiC work together through Agave.
Designed to support the needs of larger contractors, CMiC often serves as the financial backbone for organizations with complex accounting processes and multi-entity operations. You'll see how Agave helps connect CMiC and Cost Management, enabling teams to maintain consistent vendor and budget data, reduce manual effort, and establish a stronger foundation for project financial management.
Watch the video below to see Cost Management and CMiC connected through Agave, including examples of vendor synchronization, budget segment mapping, and budget workflows.
Before diving into specific workflows, it's important to understand how information typically moves between CMiC and Cost Management in Forma Build.
In many organizations, CMiC serves as the system of record for core financial and master data. Information such as vendors, cost codes, categories, and budgets often originates in CMiC and flows into Cost Management.
At the same time, project teams working in Cost Management generate records that may need to flow back into the ERP. Some examples include subcontract change orders, payment applications, and other project-level financial activities.
One of the best things about Agave Sync is its flexibility. Rather than forcing all data to move in a single direction, each record type can be configured independently, so teams can align the integration with their existing processes.
Vendor synchronization is one of the foundational workflows supported by the integration.
By syncing vendors from CMiC into Cost Management in Forma Build, project teams gain access to an up-to-date list of approved vendors directly within their project environment. This helps ensure that project managers are working with vetted, pay-ready vendors without needing to reference multiple systems.
Because vendor compliance documentation, tax information, and payment records are typically managed within CMiC, many organizations have CMiC as the source of truth for vendor data.
Agave can automatically create new vendor records in Cost Management or match existing records between systems using configurable criteria such as vendor IDs, names, and other attributes. This helps prevent duplicate records and keeps vendor information consistent across platforms.
While users can manually initiate syncs when needed, most organizations prefer to automate the process.
Agave allows teams to configure synchronization schedules that run in the background, ensuring Cost Management stays aligned with CMiC without requiring manual intervention.
This automation reduces administrative effort while giving project teams access to current vendor information.
Once vendors are aligned, the next step is establishing the project cost structure.
Agave supports synchronization of key budget segments from CMiC into Cost Management in Forma Build. These segments form the foundation of project budgeting and cost tracking.
By default, the integration supports:
Many CMiC customers also use subjobs as an additional layer of financial organization. Agave supports this workflow by allowing subjobs to be configured as a separate budget segment within Cost Management.
That way, teams can mirror the structure they use in CMiC and maintain consistency between project and accounting systems.
One challenge organizations often face is managing large cost code catalogs that span many projects.
Instead of bringing every cost code into Cost Management, you can configure Agave to sync only the codes that are actually budgeted for a specific project. This helps reduce clutter and ensures project teams work with relevant information.
Because subjobs, cost codes, and categories are managed as separate record types, organizations can apply different settings, filters, and synchronization schedules to each data set.
This level of control allows teams to tailor the integration to their operational requirements.
With budget segments established, teams can begin synchronizing budget data.
In many implementations, budgets originate in CMiC and flow into Cost Management. However, Agave supports either direction, allowing organizations to configure workflows based on their preferred source of truth.
When budgets are synced, Cost Management can receive detailed information, including:
This creates a complete budget structure that project teams can immediately use for cost tracking, forecasting, commitments, and change management activities.
And since the integration is configurable, organizations can align budget workflows with their existing accounting and project management processes rather than changing processes to fit the software.
Many CMiC customers operate multiple companies, divisions, or business units within a single ERP environment.
Agave supports these multi-entity configurations through separate saved integration configurations, allowing users to move between companies while maintaining appropriate data separation and controls.
This makes it possible to support complex organizational structures without sacrificing consistency across projects and teams.
How often can data sync automatically?
Agave supports multiple synchronization cadences, including hourly, every few hours, daily, and other configurable intervals.
If information needs to be updated immediately, users can also perform a manual sync directly from Agave Sync.
Are multi-entity CMiC environments supported?
Yes. Agave supports multi-entity CMiC configurations through separate saved integration configurations, making it easy to manage multiple companies or business units.
How are subjobs handled?
Subjobs are supported through dedicated budget segments within Cost Management in Forma Build.
This allows teams to replicate the subjob structure used in CMiC and incorporate it directly into their budget coding framework.
For CMiC customers, integration is more than moving data between systems.
It's about creating a consistent financial foundation that connects project and accounting teams, improves visibility into project performance, and reduces the manual effort required to maintain information across multiple platforms.
By connecting Cost Management in Forma Build and CMiC through Agave, organizations can establish more reliable financial workflows, support complex operational structures, and create greater confidence in project financial data.
Now that we've explored integrations with Sage 300, Viewpoint Vista, and CMiC, the next and final installment of our ERP Integration Series will focus on implementation best practices.
To learn more about how our latest releases can benefit your teams, reach out and schedule a demo to learn more.
