The management team of Klenck Company understood that to be truly established and grow they needed to automate their entire construction process from bid to cash.
Growing to $8 million in its first four years and employing up to 35 people at any given time, this demolition and site work contractor turned to ProContractor by Viewpoint to have a complete business management software solution – with estimating, accounting, and project management working together in one system.
That’s exactly what prompted Klenck to search for a way to replace their disjointed methods. The contractor had been handling many of their processes, including estimating, using pen and paper and relied on QuickBooks for their accounting. They had no mechanism or system to help manage projects, and the team was mostly reactive to issues, which was time-consuming and lead to oversights and mistakes. Plus, reports were an issue by not providing the information management needed to make confident financial decisions.
Saving Tons of Estimating Time
Prior to moving to ProContractor, Matt Elfreich, Klenck’s estimator and project manager, utilized spreadsheets to perform the utility and site work estimates – and there could easily be 60 spreadsheets feeding into the master spreadsheet, each with its own formulas. “If one formula was off, it could make a huge difference; especially on bid day, when you’re running around like your head is cut off,” says Elfreich. “One wrong number could significantly impact a $500,000 job.”
Now Klenck has a comprehensive solution for performing takeoff, completing estimates, sending out bids, and tracking wins and losses and other valuable data. Plus, the contractor uses the solution’s comprehensive database of historical pricing and cost items for materials, equipment, and labor.
“I would say it has cut my time in half moving away from the spreadsheets.”
With quick access to accurate data, the estimators can be up and running on a project quickly because the features are easy to use. “It has made a huge difference,” says Elfreich. “I would say it has cut my time in half moving away from the spreadsheets.”
Plus having historical data, Klenck is able to save significant time bidding on similar jobs in the future and can determine what changes need to be made on future bids based on the true numbers from completed jobs.
Executing Well on What You Win
Contractors know that winning the work is just the beginning of what is can be a plate-spinning exercise for project execution. At Klenck, for years they didn’t use any system to efficiently manage projects. Elfreich said that once a month he would meet with Amy Lillich, the firm’s accounting coordinator, and they would go through the active jobs and see what needed to be billed. If Elfreich wanted to do any cost reporting, he would have to ask Lillich to print the information from QuickBooks. It was a reactive and time-consuming chore that could be laden with oversights and unbillable mistakes.
Now using ProContractor for project management, Elfreich explains: “I can go right in and see costs, payables, receivables, and much more. It is so much easier than having to make phone calls and wait for others to be free to look up the data I need. Now, I have access at any time.”
The contractor leverages the mobile functionality in ProContractor to communicate and share information between those in the office and those on job sites. Anyone involved can access timely project information at all times from an iPad mobile device. “We are trying to go as paperless as possible,” Elfreich says. “We are receiving all paperwork from the field and processing it electronically. Our guys really like it and it is a huge improvement as far as getting information from the field to the office.”
Also, Elfreich appreciates how they can use the software to give the team in the field access to certain numbers, such as budget amounts for cost codes, so they know where they stand on the job at any point and know whether they need to speed up their work or if they are actually making good production.
No Fudging on Financials
Control of finances is essential to bidding work successfully, executing projects with maximum productivity, and maintaining a profitable construction business. As Klenck Company grew and their jobs got larger, Lillich found it was becoming more difficult to manage the accounting effectively using QuickBooks and their manual processes.
She says, “Management reports were an issue for us. We did not have the information we needed for management to make confident financial decisions.” Other challenges included the lack of detailed cost reports and codes, not having budgets set up for the estimates; and manually processing timecards, Work-in-Progress reports, and cash flow reports. Additionally, QuickBooks limited their ability to use proper construction industry accounting processes.
Lillich explains their choice of ProContractor as logical choice to replace disjointed methods: “Most of us knew what we needed to handle each area, and we also wanted to bring together estimating, project management, and accounting all in one place.”
Now with ProContractor by Viewpoint, Lillich appreciates that it’s not just saving time on data entry, but it cuts down on mistakes across processing payroll, handling Work-in-Progress reports, managing accounts receivable and payable, and more. Personally she also is a fan of the software’s company dashboard, saying, “It gives me everything I need in one place, from payables and receivables to profit and loss and balance sheet information. I look at it several times a day from a financial reporting standpoint.”
It’s all in ProContractor and it has created a smarter workflow. We can’t put a dollar value on that.”
The added confidence and peace of mind is valuable as well, as Lillich describes, “From a management perspective, ProContractor gives me comfort that we are costing correctly to the right jobs and that the project manager is able to see the data and make the decisions instead of the accounting team making decisions related to job costs.”
Growing with All-in-One
Although Klenck grew rapidly since it was founded, the company is now focused less on growing big and more keenly focused on providing high quality services and running more efficiently than ever before, which is key to profitability.
ProContractor by Viewpoint is increasing the contractor’s accuracy, efficiency, and saving them money. “With our jobs in ProContractor being managed from point A to point Z – the entire process – the biggest cost savings will be in the increased productivity of our staff. ProContractor is allowing us to have better profit margins on jobs by identifying red flags ahead of time,” said Lillich.
“Having all the information in one place is a huge benefit,” she added. “It’s all in ProContractor and it has created a smarter workflow. We can’t put a dollar value on that.”
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