Indiana Geothermal
Indiana Geothermal was/is an earth loop contractor installing the underground pipe as a subcontractor to heating and air conditioning companies. This work was largely new construction oriented. In late 2007, we saw the writing on the wall with the bottom falling out of the new construction market and we knew that we would need to change the focus of our business. After months of pleading with several manufactures, we were able to secure a equipment product line to add to our services. This required something that no one in our company had dealt with before and was all new to us. Inventory! Up to this point we purchased from supply houses and we needed the product. Now we are the supply house. We contacted Jonas to see what they had to offer and ended up purchasing the Counter sales module. We were pleased to find that the program handled the serial number tracking and live inventory just as we had hoped. When we hired in a customer service rep, she was quickly able to learn the programs ins and outs. With the help of Jonas, our sales are up 30% in a year that could have been a disaster.
- Kris Kyler, Indiana Geothermal -
Standard Utility Construction
In today’s challenging business climate Standard Utility Construction is creating innovative problem solving. At Standard Utility Construction, we have begun using the Equipment Module to assist us in answering one of our toughest business challenges – A Current and Active Phone List. Standard Utility has over 200 cell phone lines and air cards. We have taken all the cell phone and air card numbers and entered them into Jonas as the Equipment Unit Number. The 10 digit number happens to work out perfectly with the area code and the number. Then we have given on Jonas users the ability to run an equipment inquiry. This allows all personal to quickly run a word search on the employee’s name and have the most up to date employee cell phone number. We recently had a phone stolen and when the police need the information from the phone, Jonas was able to provide the information specific to this employee with very little assistance. This feature used in this manner was so successful that we have recently begun to include the company laptops. We have even talked about trying out this module to track and maintain an active roster of company credit cards. The Equipment Module used in the manner we have found to extremely useful.
- Angela of Standard Utility Construction -
Beaver Brothers, Inc.
My name is Dollie Cunningham and I work for Beaver Brothers Inc in Salisbury NC. We have been a Jonas customer since early 2005, going live on 4/1/05. My business challenge concerned my boss, Mike Beaver, and his desire to pay some of our vendors with his American Express card.
At first I used journal entries to account for the payments. Then I determined that a much easier way was to use Multi-Banking, setting up the American Express card as another bank account. I use a list of “check” numbers that I add to each time I make an American Express payment. The AMEX “bank account” uses a different accounts payable general ledger account (#2001) as well. When I pay the AMEX bill, the vendors that I pay with the AMEX card are coded to the other accounts payable account(#2001), thus clearing that account. By reconciling the AMEX Clearing Account (G/L #2001), I make sure that all entries were made correctly.
This not only makes it far simpler than the journal entries, it also helps me to keep up with the payments and make sure they are made on time. Mike is happy because he can use his AMEX card and I am happy because it makes the paperwork so much simpler!
--Dollie, Beaver Brothers Inc.
Titan Construction
Very often we enter into Construction Management contracts, where the owner is in contract directly with subcontractors, and therefore makes payment for all subcontracts and major materials purchases directly. The challenge for us is to be able to process the accounts payable on behalf of the owner to be able to do the following:
- Provide monthly accounts payable information, including providing list of current payables
- Record job cost and produce job cost reports
- Update change orders to owner’s contracts with subs as well as to cost budgets
- Maintain subcontract holdback control as well as subcontract payment history
- Subcontract tracking of document requirements and milestone dates
To accomplish the above, we set up all our Construction Management jobs in a ‘dummy company’ complete with a mirrored database of suppliers, accounts, etc. All items to be paid by an owner are entered into this parallel database which accomplishes all of the above. We also set up a G/L bank control account for each job so that a separate cheque # sequence for each job is maintained. We do the same month-end cash requirements, cheque run, and cheque register for each job which is then sent to the owner as a record of the cheques they are to issue (along with invoice and voucher backup). For one job we even have obtained blank cheques drawn on the owner’s bank account which we use to produce actual cheques which are then sent to the owner for signature and release. This provides clarity and ease for the owner to administer construction activity, which for many is not familiar territory, as well as increased confidence in Titan as their construction manager.
This system works well to accomplish the above. The only issue that needs to be addressed is the possibility of printing a consolidated job cost report that would combine estimates and job costs that the owner paid as well as recoverable costs (materials and labour) paid by Titan. This way a complete job report could be produced that shows all costs and estimates (regardless of who actually issued payment). This would be the finishing touch on a system that has worked very well to provide controls and reporting on costs not directly paid by Titan.
- Gerald, Titan Construction -