Thor Construction is the largest African-American-owned construction company in the upper Midwest, specializing in general contracting, site development, construction management, design-build and selfperformed cast-in-place concrete, carpentry, and specialized demolition.
As recently as 1999, the company was earning about $4 million in business a year. It was happy with Peachtree by Sage as its financial software. "We couldn't have foreseen how quickly we'd reach $20 million, but realized we were on the verge of major expansion," says Bob Scott, controller. "So we upgraded within the Sage Software family of products to Sage Timberline Office, a product designed to handle specific construction-industry tasks."
Business Is Booming
When Thor began growing at about 50 percent a year, it became essential to track all job data electronically, break down job costs by more detailed cost codes, and manage union data. Sage Timberline Office is now used to run all business at Thor, including the general ledger, receivables, payables, payroll, job costing, project management, and equipment accounts.
"Sage Timberline Office centralizes all of our data into one seamless system, eliminating duplicate efforts. It cuts checks, produces our unemployment reports, and generates entries for payroll reports required for public projects. We previously had one person doing payroll full time, and with Sage Timberline Office those duties are reduced to one day a week, an 80 percent improvement," notes Scott.
Modules Maximize Efficiency
One of the most heavily used modules at Thor is Accounts Payable. The Sage Timberline Office module reports whenever a discount is lost through a late payment, and permits management by exception so the company can earn more discounts for timely payments.
"We also rely heavily on the commitment feature in Sage Timberline Office," Scott says. "Most accounting packages provide accounts payable capabilities, but few let us manage commitments to ensure that we don't overpay our contractors. Fully integrated reports in Sage Timberline Office show us original contract amounts, change orders, and totals already paid—all broken out by individual contractor. This has proved to be extremely important for maintaining ongoing control, and turning around projects before they become too expensive."
Thor started self-performing concrete work in 2000, and discovered it needed more detailed job hour tracking. "Sage Timberline Office lets us break down jobs by hours for concrete versus hours for other construction work," Scott notes. "The potential for disaster is always huge with self-performing work. Sage Timberline Office helps us minimize risk and be successful in this new area."
Powerful Project Management
The Project Management module keeps all project data in a single location. "It's great to have contract details stored in the system, so we don't have to go back to
paper contracts," says Scott.
"When Sage Software started offering Project Management, a Sage Timberline Office application, we adopted it right away. Now we use the module to set up contracts, enter estimates, record change orders originating from either owners or subcontractors, forecast work in progress, and calculate estimated-to-actual hours and completion rates. Reports in the software make it easy to produce reports whenever they're needed by project managers. By sendng reports through e-mail, we cut our total paperwork in half," explains Scott.
"Accurate forecasting with Sage Timberline Office has really improved our cash flow," Scott continues. "I can compare work done against the budget and allocate variances. Project managers can prepare projections in an afternoon instead of two or three days. By creating efficiencies throughout the company, Sage Timberline Office contributes to our bottom line. I'm extremely happy with the software and would not even consider leaving it."
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