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Smart Solutions to Tough Business and IT Challenges
Bungled Installation Derails a Home Builder’s Data
 The Challenge
For 10 years, On the Level, Inc., a custom home building company in Chaska, MN, used bookkeeping software as a simple check register. The program worked fine, but it couldn’t meet the company’s increasing technology needs: President Chris Thompson, a member of NAHB’s Business Management & Information Technology Committee, wanted to automate On the Level’s accounting and construction management functions.
He and his staff started using electronic spreadsheets to handle budgeting, estimating, and scheduling. They used their trusty bookkeeping software, too, but the results were less than ideal.
“We found we were duplicating tasks,” says Thompson. When he prepared a budget, for example, he typed the numbers into the spreadsheet and then had to manually re-enter the data into the bookkeeping software. “It wasn’t very accurate,” says the builder. On the Level had outgrown its stand-alone software programs.
The builder spent six months researching integrated business software packages. He wanted something that could do scheduling, budgeting, estimates, take-offs, accounting—the whole shebang—and allow his back-office operations to share information and work together.
Thompson talked to a business consultant and spent lots of time examining software offerings at the 2002 International Builders’ Show. He and the business consultant narrowed their top picks to two software packages and talked to the companies’ salespeople.
One of the salespeople was a CPA and had a good take on financial matters. He demonstrated a program on Thompson’s short list and explained its capabilities. The software did all the accounting and construction management functions the builder wanted, allowed the functions to work in tandem and share data, and had additional modules for payroll, inventory, and other applications that could be added later. It even was designed to work with the NAHB Chart of Accounts, which Thompson had been using for years. He was sold.
The salesperson traveled to On the Level’s offices to install the software. Afterwards, he transferred data from the company’s stand-alone software programs into the integrated software’s database. All told, Thompson spent about $11,000 for the software and installation.
When the new program produced incorrect financial statements, Thompson figured his bookkeeper didn’t have enough of a financial background to handle it. He signed her up to take some accounting classes. She learned plenty, but still wasn’t able to whip the software—and On the Level’s financial data—into shape.
“Things were getting screwed up and going into the wrong accounts,” Thompson recalls. He contacted the software salesperson/installer, who walked him through one fix after another. Nothing seemed to work.
Thompson had the foresight to hang onto his old budgeting spreadsheets; he hadn’t gotten into the new program’s budgeting module yet. “We had a backup,” says the builder. But he was back at square one.
The Solution
The bookkeeper continued with the classes and told the instructor, Gary Sabby, about her employer’s struggles with the software. Sabby had an inkling that perhaps the program hadn’t been installed properly. The bookkeeper relayed that information to Thompson, who asked the instructor to troubleshoot his software.
Sabby heads up Sauk Rapids, MN-based Heartland Financial Strategies, a software and systems consulting firm with clients in the construction industry. Like the guy who sold Thompson the business software, Sabby is a CPA. Unlike the salesperson, Sabby had been a builder and knows the industry inside out.
 It didn’t take him long to realize that his suspicions about On the Level’s new integrated software were right. The program wasn’t working with the NAHB Chart of Accounts—or much of anything. Thompson was frustrated, but relieved. “We thought we were blowing it,” he says, “but the software hadn’t been set up right.”
Like an old house slated for an extensive remodel, the software had to be “gutted.” After uninstalling it, Sabby guided Thompson and his staff through the painstaking reinstallation process. They had to re-enter all of the data that had been transferred from their old stand-alone software and spreadsheets into the new software.
Sabby wondered about the original installer’s process. “He hadn’t sat down with the staff and asked them what they needed,” says the consultant. “That’s why none of the figures or other data seemed to balance.”
He configured the software to work with the NAHB Chart of Accounts. He also established a clear audit trail to show where On the Level’s data had “lived” in its old stand-alone systems, where it appeared in the new software’s database (and how it got there), and how one set of data impacted another (e.g., roofing take-off as part of an estimate; company assets increased by the purchase of a lot; etc.). “You need an audit trail in case an accountant asks, ‘where did this number come from?’ ” Sabby explains.
The Payoff
It took about two weeks to reinstall the integrated software, but the program finally worked as intended. Data went into the right accounts, and On the Level’s financial operations were no longer in a tailspin. “Things were a lot more accurate, which is the whole reason why we bought the software in the first place,” Thompson says.
One thing he’s found particularly useful is the program’s trade contractor module. It alerts him if he starts to write a check to a trade contractor whose liability insurance has lapsed or agreement hasn’t been signed.
Additionally, the builder can now compare construction budgets to his actual costs. “That lets us make a more money,” he says. By smoothing out On the Level’s back-office operations, improving the accuracy of its financial data, and boosting the company’s profits, the software investment paid for itself—and really paid off.
What You Can Do
If business management software (or any kind of office automation) is in your future,
- Read NAHB’s series of Tech Talk articles, which explain how to use technology to improve your home building or remodeling business. Author and IT consultant Bill Allen stresses a “systems before software” approach that can keep you from jumping the gun and automating your operations before you’re ready.
- While you’re at it, check out the other resources in the Computer & Information Technology section of www.nahb.org/biztools.
- Follow Thompson’s advice for builders who are evaluating integrated software packages:
- Make sure the people you’re dealing with (those who sell you the software and install it) know the construction industry. Check into their backgrounds. “When builders invest in software, it is important that the software rep is knowledgeable about the software, but it is more important that he or she knows the building industry,” says Thompson.
- Talk to other builders the salesperson and installer have worked with. What was their experience like?
- Ask if anything went wrong, and how the software company dealt with it.
- Make sure the software is a good fit for your company—and vice versa. Figure out your needs first; the software’s salesperson can help you with this. At the very minimum, says Sabby, the salesperson should ask:
- What do you want to change about the way your company does things?
- Why are you buying software?
- What do you want the software to do for you?
If the salesperson doesn’t ask about your company’s business needs, gives you a hard-sell pitch about the software’s capabilities, and then tells you’ll probably just need a “standard” set-up, move on.
- Use the JLC Online Computer Solutions Discussion Forum link on NAHB’s Web site to research specific software packages. You can post a question online and get feedback from tech-savvy builders and remodelers. Note: After registering to post messages, the best bet is to search for the software’s name on the forum’s existing discussion threads. Somebody may have already posted—and answered—your question.
- Get yourself and your staff trained on how to use the new software. The software company probably will provide the training, and in some cases can do it in your offices. If the training is off-site, send everyone who will be using the new program to the training classes. That’s much better than sending just one or two employees and asking them to pass on what they’ve learned to the rest of your staff. They might forget a crucial step or two.
- Have backup systems in place. Those old papers, files, and stand-alone computer programs that used to drive you crazy can be a lifesaver if your new software has a steep learning curve or—heaven forbid—malfunctions. After all, you must carry on business as usual while you and your staff get used to the new software.
| In a Bind?
Tell us about a business management or IT challenge you’re facing and we’ll ask NAHB members to suggest solutions. If you have a Smart Solution—or know someone who came up with one—we want to hear about that, too. Contact us at jtunick@nahb.com or at 800-368-5242, ext. 8461. |
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