From QuickBooks to AccuBuild

How One Oklahoma Contractor Doubled its Revenues without Hiring More Accounting Staff

Company Overview

PbX Corporation is a bridge repair and maintenance contractor based in Sapulpa, OK. The company’s client base includes a number of state and local agencies throughout Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas, as well as various general contractors and private facility owners.

Challenge

Monica Blackburn, owner and vice president of PbX Corporation, had a problem: the company’s QuickBooks software no longer met its accounting needs. Explosive growth was the primary reason PbX had outgrown QuickBooks. In fact, the company’s annual revenues were projected to double in just one year, from $4M in 2005 to $8M in 2006.

“We were operating QuickBooks at its maximum capacity,” explains Blackburn, “but we just couldn’t get the detail we needed to make good decisions.” Data was duplicated in spreadsheets in an effort to track information such as production rates and many staff hours were spent reconciling job cost to the general ledger. Blackburn had been researching construction accounting software for some time, but now it was time to implement a new system.

Solution

At the 2005 World of Concrete trade show, Blackburn was able to get a first hand look at several accounting software systems. For her, AccuBuild stood out from the crowd. “What attracted me to AccuBuild,” Blackburn recalls, “was the knowledge of the people in the booth and their responsiveness to my questions. Some companies didn’t even want to talk with me because they felt PbX wasn’t large enough for their products.”

Blackburn left the World of Concrete with an AccuBuild Construction Software demo CD. Back at the office, she used the CD to contemplate AccuBuild’s functionality. “The software appeared to be a good fit for how we were already managing our operations,” she says.

When her software evaluations were complete, Blackburn came to a conclusion. “We didn’t want to pay for a bunch of bells and whistles that we would never use. AccuBuild could do everything we needed it to do and was reasonably priced.” So, in late 2005, PbX purchased AccuBuild Construction Software.

Conversion

Blackburn had undergone software conversions twice at previous companies, so she was geared up for a potential nightmare. However, she was pleasantly surprised at how smooth her AccuBuild conversion went. Every step of the process was planned ahead of time and active job cost data and open A/P and A/R invoices were brought over. “Within one month of purchasing AccuBuild,” Blackburn states, “the software was up and running. I had no problems during conversion – the AccuBuild staff was very responsive.”

Measurable Results

It’s been several months since PbX converted to AccuBuild and Blackburn couldn’t be happier. “The information we get from AccuBuild has so much depth. We no longer have to worry about being out of balance. With QuickBooks, it used to take 12 hours or more to reconcile job cost to the general ledger. With AccuBuild, that same function takes a fraction of the time.”

The ability to track production hours in AccuBuild will contribute to PbX’s continued growth. “The data that is available by tracking production rates helps us streamline our bids for new jobs,” explains Blackburn. “This allows us to be more competitive and win more work.”

Having an accounting system that provides a system of checks and balances has brought peace of mind to the entire PbX staff. Double billings are no longer a threat and the human error associated with duplicate data entry is a thing of the past. “Since implementing AccuBuild, we’re more confident about the state of our jobs because we know the information is correct and current,” Blackburn states.

Gearing up for Growth

Blackburn doesn’t worry anymore about handling the accounting tasks associated with PbX’s growth. “AccuBuild has allowed us to double our revenues without hiring more accounting staff. As we continue to grow, AccuBuild will continue to handle our accounting needs.”