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Mechanical Contractor Gets A Handle on Costs With Sage Timberline Office

For more than 30 years, Denron Plumbing and HVAC, LLC had been delivering high quality plumbing and HVAC services to commercial customers throughout the Northeast. Denron Plumbing and HVAC has maintained its position as one of New England's largest HVAC, plumbing, and piping contractors with a reputation for quality and excellence in design. Since 2002, the company has consistently appeared in CONTRACTOR magazine's "Book of Giants," the annual review of the top 100 mechanical contractors nationwide.

Industry-Specific Solution
Throughout the era of utility deregulation (beginning in the late 1990's and continuing into the next decade), the company experienced a period of rapid change through various mergers and acquisitions. And, it was during this time the management team at Denron Plumbing and HVAC realized they needed software specifically designed for their industry to help them take control of their costs.

After research, Denron Plumbing and HVAC selected Sage Timberline Office accounting, project management, and service management software as the best fit for its needs. "The tight integration between project management and accounting was a key factor in the decision," says Glenn Berube, Senior Project Manager at Denron Plumbing and HVAC.

Berube is responsible for keeping the company's projects on track, and has a team of five project managers whose sole responsibility is to keep projects on time and within budget. Before Sage Timberline Office Project Management, a contract change order required the project manager to fill out a paper orm, get it approved, and submit it to accounting. "Each project manager can receive up to 10 change order requests a day, so a couple of hours each day was spent filling out forms," Berube reports. Then it would take time for the change order to be approved and processed by accounting before the project manager could see the effect the change had on the job. Today, the project managers enter their own change orders directly into the Project Management module and can instantly see the additional costs and revenues, and how the project schedule and budget is affected.

Project Costs Under Control
The Project Management module has helped in many other ways as well. The company works on a fixed contract basis, so cost controls are essential. Berube's team can view costs and budgets on their projects in real time, allowing them to detect potential issues with cost overruns early enough to take remedial action. The project managers also keep a close eye on cost postings, and if any have been accidentally posted to the wrong project, they can notify accounting to see that it gets reallocated. This helps with accurate estimating on future projects. "Our estimators will often use final costs from projects when bidding on a similar job—the same style hotel, for example," Berube says. "They can see the original budgets as well, so if fixture costs went over they will know to bid that component higher for the new project."

Berube's team goes out to the field about once a week to compare notes on completion percentages with the field supervisors. The rest of the time, they track projects directly in the Sage Timberline Office software, which provides a centralized location containing all the information they need. "There is a lot more information in one place—RFIs, change requests, and the like—and you can print a log and see where you stand, 20 change requests, 10 approved, 10 outstanding, for example," Berube says.

Service Management Is A Breeze
Denron Plumbing and HVAC also services its installations, and the Service Management module has made a big difference in the company's overall productivity. Megan Michelakos, Service Coordinator, loves the dispatch board, where she can visually see the location and status of each service technician. "It lets me see who the best person is to send based on where they are; so by cutting out wasted travel time we can do more jobs in a day," Michelakos reports.

She can also easily research customer history on work orders to see if Denron Plumbing and HVAC has serviced a particular piece of equipment before. She can quickly determine whether the equipment is still under warranty, and prior service history notes can help solve problems more quickly. "I also like the fact that it is linked directly to work order and accounting," Michelakos says, "I can make sure the customer is current with payments before sending someone out on another service call."

"Everyone has access to the information they need to make informed choices," Berube says. "Sage Timberline Office has made us more effective in doing our jobs."

With Sage Timberline Office, Denron Plumbing and HVAC,LLC has an integrated, efficient, and powerful tool to help maintain its reputation as a quality organization and service leader in the Mechanical Contracting industry.

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