Harty Tractor: Florida Company Calls on WennSoft to Support Record Growth
"The WennSoft solution is designed for ease of use and is very intuitive. The ability to see summarized information and then drill down for details is one of the biggest benefits."
Sandy Cunnagin
Chief Financial Officer
Harty Tractor has conducted business in Central Florida for over 20 years and operates as a multifaceted company with two major areas of expertise: The Commercial Division, which handles total site development projects of all sizes and varieties, and the Residential Division, which specializes in site preparation for individual homes.
Between 2003 and 2006, the company experienced 250 percent growth rate. The Daytona (Fla.) News Journal named them in the Top 100 Local Private Companies. Today, more than 300 pieces of equipment bearing the name Harty Tractor travel the five-county area of central Florida that they serve.
Commercial Projects Division:
The Harty Tractor Commercial Team focuses on major site development projects. All aspects of site development, including clearing, earthwork, underground utilities, concrete, base, and paving operations are provided.
The Commercial division employs state-of-the art technology throughout all processes from initial bid estimate (Hard Dollar) to cut/ fill calculations (AGTEK) through project management and scheduling (Microsoft® Project). All Survey Crews use Total Stations and Global Positioning Base systems. They employ AutoCad 2006Lt and have scanners and plotters for any size prints. Harty Tractor uses Microsoft Dynamics™ GP and WennSoft as their corporate ERP and Job Costing solution.
Residential Projects Division:
The Harty Tractor Residential Division earns its living one lot at a time. The residential division consists of highly skilled operators capable of handling jobs without extensive supervision. Many operators have been with Harty Tractor for over 15 years. These operators have commercial licenses and mobilize to the jobs daily, utilizing transports dedicated to each machine. This gives Harty Tractor the flexibility to mobilize on-demand – a capability that enabled Harty Tractor to respond to the needs of the community after Hurricanes Charlie, Frances and Jeanne.
Solution Needs
With staff manning job sites across central Florida and maintaining 300 pieces of equipment in service, Harty Tractor needed a quality Job Cost and equipment managementsolution. In late 2004, Harty decided that their business solutions provider, Timberline, could no longer meet their needs.
Sandy Cunnagin, the company’s chief financial officer, had previous experience with services provided through Great Plains accounting and business management software solution. WennSoft business solutions are based on Great Plains, and WennSoft grew from the operations department of a construction services company, which sought a software solution that would help it to manage large construction projects and its service operations.
Partnering for Success
The WennSoft Job Cost solution was a perfect fit for Harty Tractor. TimeTrack with Expense Management allowed for entering both man hours and equipment time in one program. The solution was designed to improve Harty’s bottom line by streamlining the collection of labor and related expenses through a single point of entry. The need for double entry of information was eliminated. The solution also allowed Harty to monitor and analyze labor costs, helping staff make informed and timely labor-related business decisions.
The solution gave Harty the ability to see the true cost of ownership and operation of each piece of equipment. Equipment is now listed as a job and an asset. Taxes, tags, title, insurance, etc., goes into the job, which is a piece of equipment. TimeTrack allocates that piece of equipment to a job and posts the number of hours and cost recovery rate.
The WennSoft Job Cost status screen is the biggest plus for Harty Tractors. It allows accounting to share information in a meaningful way with construction managers on the go. In the past, these conversations were held after the job was completed. Now, there are no surprises at the end.
Status screen information is available to all construction executives, providing, for the first time, a snapshot on site of where the job is in terms of materials, subcontractors, etc.. Jobs are more likely to stay on track and on budget, and potential pitfalls are recognized much earlier.
Other benefits include controlling change orders – which has previously accounted for thousands of dollars in lost revenue – and automatic lean releases to cut down administrative work.
Reporting Improvements
All of this allows Harty Tractors to maintain the same staffing level as several years ago, despite a 250 percent business growth.
On the equipment side, the Equipment Series filled another important need for Harty, as it allowed the ability to see the cost associated to a piece of equipment.
By January 2005, Harty Tractors had begun implementing the WennSoft Job Cost and Equipment Management solutions. A third component, Service Management, was considered at that time, but Harty declined. That changed in March 2006 when this third solution was added. Service Management serves as an extension of the Great Plains financial application.
Harty Tractors staff members work closely with WennSoft to continue developing the solutions to best meet Harty’s needs.