Data on local desktops
Sage 50 kept financial and project data on individual computers.
Acumatica Construction Case Study
How Roberts Glass & Service replaced Sage 50 and desktop-bound project data with Acumatica Construction Edition and ExakTime.
About Roberts Glass
Roberts Glass & Service designs, manufactures and installs glass curtain walls and systems for commercial buildings. Its customers are contractors putting up hospitals, hotels, offices and other commercial and industrial spaces. In the three years after Matt Dodson and Jeff Hamilton bought the company, revenue doubled and profit margins held.
The Challenge
The company's only financial software was Sage 50, a client-server application that stored data on local desktops. Project details sat on each project manager's computer, and paper spreadsheets were scattered around the office. Executives could not see a project's stage, costs or gross margin until months after it ended.
Labor costs came in through ADP, and job site names often did not match the project names in Sage, so staff matched them by hand. Work did not slow during the pandemic, and the first half of 2020 was a record. The aging system could not support that pace for long.
Roberts Glass needed construction and accounting software with mobile access and project tracking, on a platform that could carry its growth.
Sage 50 kept financial and project data on individual computers.
Executives could not see a project's stage, costs or gross margin.
Hours were entered by hand, and labor cost data arrived six months later.
Job site names often differed from Sage project names, so jobs were matched by hand.
The Solution
Jeff Hamilton, the company's president, judged that a Sage upgrade would not add the mobile, project and construction features Roberts Glass needed. He chose Acumatica Construction Edition for its project management features, and the company's accounting firm, Somerset CPAs, knew the software and confirmed the choice.
The client-server silos are gone. Executives see where each active project stands on cost, how profitable it is, and which customers the company does best with. Project managers see work completed year to date, the types of projects they run, and the pipeline. Financial data that took months to compile is available in real time.
ExakTime, a time and attendance application, connects through Acumatica's open API. Time and pay rates flow into Acumatica, which shows the exact labor cost on every project. Project profitability shows up instantly instead of six months later.
Jobs are set up in Acumatica under the names customers use, and field employees pick the right one with one click. ExakTime's GPS finds the job from the site address and matches it to the Acumatica job. Records of hours worked and where crews worked are more accurate.
Glaziers may spend half a day on a job, or a crew may report to one site every day for six or seven months. Acumatica's mobile app puts each project's field notes, architectural drawings and attachments on an iPad. Field teams have mobile access to project data for the first time.
Much of the financial data used to sit on the controller's computer, with access restricted. Acumatica's access levels and security settings now give each employee the information their job needs, and personal dashboards show KPIs, revenue and projects bid on. The controller no longer stops to look up figures for remote staff.
The Result
Hamilton starts each morning with the backlog, active projects and key indicators of business health. He credits Acumatica Construction Edition with helping revenue grow, because the team manages projects more efficiently. If the company ever buys another business, he expects to bring it onto the cloud system quickly.
Backlog, active projects and business health every morning.
Fewer interruptions, since staff pull their own figures.
Year-to-date work, project mix and pipeline in one view.
Job selection, hours and project files on mobile devices.