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Building Success Story

Our "Building Success Stories" profile how FOUNDATION for Windows construction accounting software has helped contractors to improve their accounting, job costing and overall financial management.

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Customer

Electrical Contractor Accounting Software

Corporate Profile

Headquarters
Columbus, OH

Type of Business
Electrical Contractor

Number of Employees
6-12

Annual Revenue
650,000- 1 Million

Client Since 1994

System Profile

Foundation Software
Modules In Operation

Accounts Receivable
Accounts Payable
General Ledger
Job Costing
Payroll
Equipment
Inventory
Time and Material

The Benefits

Flexibility to track job progress using many variables such as man hours, material costs or receivables.

Improved control of all financial and project aspects of the business.

Quicker payroll processing for various IBEW locals with different wage and benefit rates.

Friendly support dedicated to a user's success.

Charles Brown Electric automates accounting

Charles Brown Electric streamlines accounting processes to minimize workload

Charles Brown at the project site for Riverside Heart Hospital

Some days an owner's work is never done. Unfortunately this was becoming more of the norm than an isolated occurrence for Charles Brown, owner of Charles Brown Electric in Columbus, Ohio.

Since the business started, Charles Brown had been intimately involved in every aspect of developing his electrical construction company, with projects ranging from direct digital control to electrical control of systems.

As any entrepreneur, Mr. Brown enjoyed his involvement in multiple areas. Many times this included taking care of the estimating, payables, receivables and general management. However, substantial growth prompted him to search for better ways to run his business. An area of formidable concern was their accounting practices, which were done manually. The processes that worked for a small company would no longer fit a growing business. Mr. Brown needed to find a more efficient way to track his financial progress while keeping tight control on costs.

"I was doing too much," Brown said. "I needed to direct my business but was way too involved with every aspect of the company. It was just too consuming for any single individual to handle, including me."

Brown knew he could have easily moved away from his spreadsheets and into a generic accounting software package. However he felt that this move would only be a temporary fix that they would quickly outgrow. Brown was looking for a long-term solution, not a band-aid.

"Many other companies told me it would be in my best interest to buy a package like QuickBooks or Peachtree, but I wanted something that could grow with us, not something I might have to replace in a few years," Brown said. "I knew if I was going to spend the time and money to make a change, I wanted to find a package geared to my needs. I found what I was looking for in FOUNDATION."

The Challenge

"I could have literally wallpapered a small office with the spreadsheets that I regularly used for our accounting and job analysis," commented Mr. Brown. This was Charles Brown Electric's main reason for looking at integrated construction accounting software.

Mr. Brown continues: "I could not bring together all of the areas with spreadsheets alone. Manually tracking estimating, invoicing, accounts payable and all other segments of the company proved too cumbersome."

Additionally, Mr. Brown found it extremely difficult to tie all of the details together to produce an accurate picture of how the business was truly performing. As Mr. Brown readily admitted, "I needed to take control of my business!"

The Solution

The Foundation Accounting System provided the structure that Mr. Brown was looking for. "Now I can track job progress in man hours, material costs and receivables. What peace of mind."

In early 2001, Mr. Brown upgraded to Foundation's Windows-based product, FOUNDATION for Windows. The transition from DOS to Windows was extremely easy and Mr. Brown now enjoys the additional functionality available in FOUNDATION for Windows.

"Our conversion to Windows went very well, as I knew it would. Foundation has always been there for us, and this time was no exception. And when a question does arise, I simply make a call to client services. Response time is always quick, and their entire staff is very knowledgeable and supportive."

Mr. Brown summarizes his experiences with a final thought: "If I could go back in time and do one thing differently, it would be to start using FOUNDATION earlier in our company's growth process. I believe my business would be a lot further along today had we done so."

Want to see how Foundation construction accounting software can work for you? See a demo now!

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Building Success Story Our "Building Success Stories" profile how FOUNDATION for Windows construction accounting software has helped contractors to improve their accounting, job costing and overall financial management.