Success Stories
Don Chapin
Don Chapin Company is a private engineering construction firm in Salinas, Calif. The 30-year-old business performs a full range of projects from small homeowner jobs, to major new home developments and highway construction in Monterey, Santa Cruz, and San Benito counties. Their business approach is to provide customized, top-quality solutions for every customer.
“Every time you start a new project, it’s almost like starting from scratch. Each customer prefers things a little differently. StreetSmarts lets us be flexible enough to accommodate that, and improve our time efficiency in the process.”
–Terry Nelson, Controller, Don Chapin Company
Challenges
Don Chapin was using a simple Unix-based software program to manage its job costing, payroll, and accounting. But the process was time-consuming, and the software created hard-to-read invoices. Plus, it took the company a week to complete payroll.
Solution
Don Chapin implemented Maxwell Systems’ StreetSmarts® solution, which automates all of the job costing, payroll, and accounting processes. It also creates easy-to-read invoices formatted to each customer’s preferences.
Benefits
Don Chapin can now:
- Increase time efficiency.
- Process payroll faster.
- Effortlessly accommodate customers’ billing preferences.
- Create easy-to-read invoices.
- View job statuses in real time.
- Identify problems early.
- Continue to provide customized service to clients.
- Scale up to implement future management procedures.
The Situation
Don Chapin Company was using a simple, Unix-based software program to manage its job costing, payroll, and accounting. It was a time- consuming process to manually set up all projects and pay tables in the system. The company also took a week to process 250 payroll checks. Plus, the invoices created were confusing and hard to read. Don Chapin needed a flexible, timeefficient software solution to manage these tasks. Controller Terry Nelson found Maxwell Systems’ StreetSmarts solution at the 2003 CONEXPO-CON/AGG in Las Vegas. He decided to try it because it appeared easy to use, and built to handle Don Chapin’s cost and accounting management.
Maxwell Systems Provides Heavy-Grade Business Flexibility
Don Chapin Company installed StreetSmarts on 12 workstations, and the staff at Don Chapin was trained on how to use the system. Maxwell Systems also helped Don Chapin integrate the technology into their business operations. The software now manages the company’s job costing, accounting, and payroll. Don Chapin sets up projects, corresponding cost and revenue budgets, and pay rates automatically. The company also uses the inquiry feature to drill down into project costs and revenue, which allows the company to quickly analyze the performance of each project. In addition, Don Chapin creates easy-to-read customer invoices that divide contract and extra work into separate line items on the same bill, or on a completely separate bill, depending on customer needs.
Benefits to Don Chapin Company
StreetSmarts lets Don Chapin be flexible enough to accommodate customers’ unique requests, while also improving time efficiency. Don Chapin saves a tremendous amount of time and legwork when setting up projects. Upper management can view job statuses in real-time and handle problems before they become crises. The company now effortlessly accommodates customers’ billing preferences with easy-to-read invoices. This helps Don Chapin uphold its mission of providing customized service to its clients. Plus, the company processes payroll faster and adjusts more quickly to change as needed. Finally, StreetSmarts provides Don Chapin scalability for implementing future accounting management procedures. For example, the company plans to implement electronic time cards from the field, which StreetSmarts supports.

