the company
Southern Cathodic Protection is an innovator in the corrosion industry protecting concrete and metallic structures. A well-known and respected engineering firm, they have designed, constructed and maintained cathodic protection systems for more than 40 years.
The Problem
Gathering time and materials information from field engineers and compiling the information into invoices took 75% of a full-time admin employee’s time.
Key Challenges
They needed a centralized system that would allow employees to report time and expenses themselves, and that would generate invoices from the data at the end of the month.
Solutions Considered
QuickBooks was considered, but at the time, it did not offer staff-level accounts that could be used to enter time and materials without having access to private financial data. As such, it still would have required a separate admin to enter in the data.
Final Solution
We provided a custom database solution that worked on computers and phones that allowed a person to remotely enter time and materials. Then, invoices could be easily generated from the entries in the central database according to the project and company.
Response to Solution
Due to our longstanding relationship with Southern Cathodic Protection and the significant need for a better way to invoice, they were enthusiastic about the proposed solution.
Technical Project Objectives
- Customized webform for time and materials entry, using company-specific rate classes and options
- Billing time accountability to remind employees to enter time and notify management when billable time is less than expected for the employee
- Invoice generation that allowed for selecting which projects are ready for invoicing
- Marking time & materials entries as invoiced, so that double billing won't occur
Benefits for the Business
- Increased revenue by 35% due to better accountability for recording time & materials and being able to record time remotely
- Eliminated 30 hours a week of data entry - this time was redirected towards more profitable activities for the company
