When Bruce Giffin and Geoff Crane recognized they could build custom and remodel fine homes much better by working together than apart, they co-founded Giffin & Crane General Contractors, Inc. in 1986.
Since that time, the company has grown a positive reputation for professionalism and quality. Everyone on the Giffin & Crane team is committed to a creative and collaborative process with clients from concept to completion. This is accomplished through timely communication and the highest quality craftsmanship.
Challenges
The accounting team was not working efficiently with archaic spreadsheet methods. Duplicate entry, limited reporting tools, and an expanding payroll process prompted the contractor to leverage the full capabilities of construction accounting software to improve productivity and prepare for company growth.
Solution
Giffin & Crane utilize the many capabilities of Maxwell Systems American Contractor for job costing, payroll, general accounting, and more. The once chore of reporting is now a simple click on the computer. Redundant data entry is a thing of the past and timely access to a wealth of information improves communication among team members, which helps enhance client relationships.
Results
The company has grown to operate multiple companies with revenues of $30 million. Levering the flexibility of their American Contractor solution, Giffin & Crane has eliminated duplicate data entry and improved productivity, and continues to save time and money across many accounting practices. They run payroll in mere hours versus days, produce a myriad of custom reports, and access detailed job cost information.
“We take our reputation very seriously and do our best to earn it every day,” said Denise Petrushkin, Controller, Giffin & Crane. “To help us keep accurate job records, which is critical to client satisfaction, we rely on leading technology tools, like Maxwell Systems American Contractor. We have multiple companies running the software – one operating at $28 million and another at $2 million – and American Contractor is a great fit for either size.”
Petrushkin added: “When I joined the company in February 1995, I was trained on American Contractor, which was already being used by accounting, however in limited form. The billing and timecards were done in Excel because only part of the American Contractor system was utilized when it was set up by the employee before me in 1994. So our processes required double entry and took too much time, and we had no accurate job costing. In short, our accounting was not as efficient as we wanted to be, and lacked the day-to-day functionality we needed. Our construction projects were mostly custom remodels and we grossed $2-3 million each year, but we were growing and knew we needed to leverage the solution fully to reap its value and see true benefit.”
As of 2008, Giffin & Crane reports $30 million in revenue with two more companies using the software. “I have been using American Contractor for 14 years now and still appreciate it very much. We do utilize the full accounting system with many, many custom reports that we have created thanks to a very knowledgeable and helpful Maxwell Systems support representative – I call him our report genius – and receiving training for lists and report modifications. And over the years, their help and support has improved incredibly. That value could be overlooked, but we appreciate it.”
Since implementing American Contractor, Giffin & Crane has realized big improvements. “The ease of working with the various modules is great,” explained Petrushkin. “We also accomplish all aspects of doing payroll in the system, which is so easy and saves us a significant amount of time. What originally took two days, now takes just three hours. And the data goes directly to job costing and utilizes tracking codes properly. Being this streamlined allows us to work more quickly and accurately. Furthermore, because we can track and build a detailed historic trail for GL, reports, payroll, and general accounting, year-end is easy!”
Giffin & Crane also leverages the power of American Contractor for the size and scope of its team of 45 employees. Petrushkin adds: “We can have multiple users of the software across our multi-company operation, which works efficiently. We have accounting staff working 250 miles away from the office or working from home – a bookkeeper is offsite and our president can access from home – and can say that American Contractor is a flexible solution that works the way we do. We don’t need to overhaul our processes or duplicate entry.”
Petrushkin is eager to recommend and advise other contractors about American Contractor business management software: “I would highly recommend Maxwell Systems American Contractor to other residential builders and firmly suggest that anyone purchasing this program purchase all necessary modules and use them right from the beginning, you will find it will save you time and money. Even if you are small you will be able to save large amounts of staff time if you set everything up right from the beginning, especially integrating accounting, payroll, and job costing. And to Maxwell Systems I just want to say thank you for continuing to provide a great program for General Contractor accounting.”
