Crate Night

I am working on him getting used to the cats and the cats used to him. I had read the best way is to crate him in the house and let them all get used to seeing each other.He's such a good boy and has been rewarded for his effort. It says to do this for a week or so and the move to the next step. Never have been a big fan of crating but its working out pretty good( so far) . So my plan is to crate him at night and then during the day he has full access to my screened back porch. Any suggestions of any other way to do this would be great.