mkrenk
Member
- Location
- Pleasant Dale, NE
We are a growing electrical contractor with three locations and approximately 20 employees currently. We specialize in industrial electrical. We do everything from 7 digit projects to $60 service calls. Much of our work is on the service side. One location has every employee reporting to that shop daily. The other two don't necessarily have employees starting or ending their day at a shop.
We have been trying to figure out how to proceed with a computer system that would help us manage the business. (Note, we are currently using Quickbooks) Some of the desires are:
Payroll (automated vs handwritten sheets would be nice) A way to code hours to specific jobs would be nice. NOTE-We have negotiated rates for specific customers.
Importing material lists from our vendors by PO, to creating a customer invoice from this PO (Note, we have negotiated margins per customer)
PO creation and tracking
Ability to reconcile vendor invoices to materials billed
Ability for multiple users at multiple locations to be able to view customer accounts, and input invoices at a minimum
Some means of offsite data backup
Some means to translate what our field employees are recording as material used, to an invoice via an employee in the future that may not know much about electrical work or materials.
I guess what I am looking for are people that are in a similar situation as us, and what they are using and how it is working for them. I know that we have material that we are using that is not getting billed out. I suspect it may be in the 6 digit range per year, upper 5 digit range for sure. Right now we have Quickbooks running on one PC with no offsite backup which is a disaster waiting to happen. We can't afford to do nothing.
OFFSITE BACKUP-
What are others using for offsite backup? I hear ads all the time for the Mosy's and Carbonite's of the world....but I am not sure that is what we want. I would like to do this on all of our PC's. I would also like to establish a server that we can store project files on unless there is a "cloud" version that is good.
What we need more than anything is a good IT person to help with this, instead of me.
This is my first post. I have been watching and learning for some time. There is sound advice on this forum. Thank you all in advance!
We have been trying to figure out how to proceed with a computer system that would help us manage the business. (Note, we are currently using Quickbooks) Some of the desires are:
Payroll (automated vs handwritten sheets would be nice) A way to code hours to specific jobs would be nice. NOTE-We have negotiated rates for specific customers.
Importing material lists from our vendors by PO, to creating a customer invoice from this PO (Note, we have negotiated margins per customer)
PO creation and tracking
Ability to reconcile vendor invoices to materials billed
Ability for multiple users at multiple locations to be able to view customer accounts, and input invoices at a minimum
Some means of offsite data backup
Some means to translate what our field employees are recording as material used, to an invoice via an employee in the future that may not know much about electrical work or materials.
I guess what I am looking for are people that are in a similar situation as us, and what they are using and how it is working for them. I know that we have material that we are using that is not getting billed out. I suspect it may be in the 6 digit range per year, upper 5 digit range for sure. Right now we have Quickbooks running on one PC with no offsite backup which is a disaster waiting to happen. We can't afford to do nothing.
OFFSITE BACKUP-
What are others using for offsite backup? I hear ads all the time for the Mosy's and Carbonite's of the world....but I am not sure that is what we want. I would like to do this on all of our PC's. I would also like to establish a server that we can store project files on unless there is a "cloud" version that is good.
What we need more than anything is a good IT person to help with this, instead of me.
This is my first post. I have been watching and learning for some time. There is sound advice on this forum. Thank you all in advance!