Fire Sprinkler Systems
"I can go into a job history and immediately know my profit margin. I amoperating with facts and not guessing at all."
Harold Rodgers
President, Fire Sprinkler Systems, Inc.
Fire Sprinkler Systems, Inc. (www.fireinc.net) is one of the largest residential fire sprinkler subcontractors in California, installing sprinkler systems for nearly every large residential tract
builder in the state. With 85 employees, Fire Sprinkler has provided services to some of the largest builders on the West Coast for more than 15 years.
In the late 1990s, Fire Sprinkler found itself having outgrown the business software provider they had worked with since opening their doors. “The age of the software, along with difficulty in navigation, meant it was not as user friendly as we needed,” said Harold Rodgers, Fire Sprinkler’s president.
Rodger’s decided to migrate to an industry-specific solution not related to Microsoft® Dynamics™ GP or WennSoft. Even though he’d made a decision, he agreed to a product demonstration by Laura Peters of International Software Systems. The robust functionality and solutions to challenges specific to his industry changed his mind.
Fire Sprinkler launched with WennSoft Aug. 1, 2000.
“We completed normal daily processing that first day, including invoicing, cash receipts and printing out checks,” Peters said.
Carrying Negative Inventories
A key component of Fire Sprinkler’s success with their new solution is the ability to carry negative inventories.
“We purchase and inventory on a just-in-time basis as if we were a manufacturing company manufacturing a product,” Rodgers said.
“Through sales order processing we create a bill of materials that is required for a specific job. This process automatically creates the purchase orders for the required materials, the
sends the costs to job costing for percentage of completion calculations.
“Materials go to a job, but the actual billing is on the job cost side,” Rodgers continued. “There is no impact on the customer record but it impacts inventory and goes through job cost.”
The specifics of the residential building market also provided challenges for Fire Sprinkler that WennSoft solutions helped overcome.
“Invoicing is extremely complicated. We do not operate with standard terms like other businesses,” Rodgers said. “Every builder dictates their own terms and payment schedules. One may say, ‘You will bill $400 when you rough it in, but subtract $40 for this or bill an additional $8 for that.’ Ultimately whatever is left is the retention billing.”
To manage Fire Sprinkler’s billing process, the WennSoft Job Cost solution allows Fire Sprinkler’s staff to set all of the bill codes in advance.
“I can see everything listed from start to finish,” Rodgers said. “If I see 80% or a rough retention for a bill, I can quickly generate an invoice.”
Rodgers readily admits that it took some time before Fire Sprinkler began using WennSoft solutions to its full advantage, through no fault of WennSoft. Once that was rectified internally, the positive impact was more pronounced.
“We failed to use the software the way it was intended by not breaking out the details on figures posted in each job,” Rodgers said. “Our accounting team would input ‘Lot 1, $800’ with no breakout. But it is easier for the customer to read – and expedites payment to us – when the information is broken out, as the solution allows for.”
Accounting Staff Trimmed by 56%
Through this increased efficiency, Fire Sprinkler was able to reduce the accounting staff from nine members to four, while completing weekly invoicing in just 90 minutes.
“This is not a very difficult system to operate,” Rodgers said. “Everything in the system is geared to job set up. It that is done correctly, everything flows through the system as it should.”
An easy-to-operate system is crucial to Rodgers. Fire Sprinkler has 700-800 jobs open at a time and Percentage of Job Completion reports can run 44 printed pages.
Fire Sprinkler has taken advantage of WennSoft maintenance and service agreements to ensure they receive total value and maximum return on their investment.
“The financial person who was here said he investigated Microsoft Dynamics GP and they had nothing to track service,” Rodgers said. “I took his word and we bought a specific software plan for an alarm company “At the end of each month we would take the invoicing from that machine and re-input to Microsoft Dynamics GP. This made no sense. The install went through Job Cost, but none of the perpetual recurring revenue through GP.
“I spoke to International Software solutions, became more involved and we recently ordered WennSoft Service Management. I am happy with what I see from it so far.”
The improved access to information impacts Fire Sprinkler Systems in a most noticeable area…the bottom line.
“If we are asked to re-bid a project we have already begun,” he said. “I can go into the history and immediately know my profit margin on the job at that point. I am operating with facts and not guessing at all.”
With an eye toward the future, the WennSoft Service Management Series has been added by the company. They look forward to continued success as they expand into fire alarm systems market.