By Chris Lee

When Sylvain Cheff founded Cheff Construction in 1996, he and his wife, Nathalie Cheff, managed their entire agricultural and commercial construction business on paper. This included project management, placing orders for materials, accounting, pricing, and estimating jobs. As the company grew to include three of their children and about 15 other employees, they realized it would be impossible to continue expanding the business using manual processes and pen and paper. 

Samuel Cheff, lead estimator at Cheff Construction and one of Sylvain and Nathalie’s children, explained that the company had to turn down some significant projects because it didn’t have adequate technology. 

“We were at a point where we reached the maximum potential of our business with our current systems in accounting, project management, and office-to-field communication,” he said. “The main reason for our push to integrate more technology in the business is that with the right processes, it could alleviate some of the workload and let us focus on more important things such as business development.”

Cheff added that hiring employees in rural areas, where the company’s projects are located, has been especially challenging amidst labor shortages. 

“Technology could be the solution for us in the long term. It could help us increase efficiency in the office and the field,” he said. “Farming facilities are becoming much more technologically advanced to improve efficiency for both farmers and consumers. Farming has evolved, while construction technology is still a novelty.”

One of the family’s first investments was in digital software that would automate and simplify some of their processes when estimating project costs, which has helped them set accurate project budgets. However, they still needed a better way to track real-time financials to ensure they stayed on budget throughout each project. 

Measuring a job’s actual costs against the estimated costs is vital to ensure the job hits its estimated profitability. Every construction company, regardless of size, needs this information to build a profitable, financially healthy business. Unfortunately, most contractors wait until after the project is completed to compare these numbers, leading to the inability to proactively course correct. 

In addition to improving performance on current jobs, comparing estimated vs. actual costs empowers contractors to improve future estimating and pricing strategies. With the right systems, a bidding, building, and learning feedback loop helps business owners improve with every job they take. 

Many contractors try to force this information out of generic accounting software and spend too much time and money creating workarounds and customizing the software. They turn to point solutions, build spreadsheets, and hire costly external help to bubble up the needed data.

Fortunately, there is a better way. Modern construction accounting software is built to give growing businesses industry-specific accounting and financial management tools that equip construction professionals to control costs in real time, improve profits, and reduce overhead.

Modern construction accounting software: 

• Is cloud-native. On-premise solutions (limited to the office) make it difficult to access and update your data. With a cloud-based solution, data is available anywhere, anytime, on the job site or in the office. 

• Provides visibility into project margins, out-of-the-box systems for controlling job costs, and workflows specific to contractors.

• Includes built-in change order management, job progress and WIP reporting, progress billing, cost types and cost codes, and retainage tracking specific to construction.

“Construction accounting is a different ball game than traditional accounting,” said Yancy Lassiter, an experienced CFO in the construction industry and co-founder of CrewCost. “Understanding how each job is performing and how they impact your profitability as a company is imperative because it helps you improve or avoid the types of jobs that aren’t performing well and dragging your overall profitability down.”

“Having specialized construction software will save time for family-owned businesses like ours and increase efficiency and confidence in decision-making,” said Cheff. “Business owners can make informed decisions and have more peace of mind, knowing how their business is doing at any moment of the day.” RB

About the Author: 

Chris Lee, CrewCost co-founder and former construction business owner, combines his experience in tech and construction to build products that help small and midsize construction contractors improve and streamline their business operations. His vision with CrewCost is to level the financial playing field for small and medium-sized contractors by building modern and affordable accounting products that help them build profitably.