2008 November Edition

A Message from Doris: Timing is Everything

Probably some of the best advice anyone ever gave to me and coincidentally it was at a family gathering was: "You are always a dollar short and a day late" and "One is always getting ready to get ready". Really?

I would ask myself far too often; why “we” can’t have the home of our dreams, have all “A” class clients or perhaps even travel the world? Those things are important from both a business and a personal level, at least for me and perhaps for you too. Your success as individuals or as a firm may be different but just as important.

"So, why can’t I realize my dreams?” Maybe because often I am a dollar short and a day late; in some ways it is a stark reality. To succeed and combat the odds, at some point you must take a risk. Risky decisions are part of change, and if you do them properly, risky moves create opportunities. Risk is relative to change and timing. If you are not the decision maker but you influence the decision maker, this still applies.

I stand for that advice in many areas of my own practice; with calculated risk we definitely have generated more successes than disappointments. Knowing you must risk making changes in order to succeed helps your decision process (timing). Obviously luck plays a factor, but diligence and risk-taking outweigh any luck rolling the dice. For clients and perhaps yourself, successes do not have to be earth shattering, but in fact need to be meaningful to you.

To continue with this analogy, I would compare the shortness of dollars equal to change and the day late equal to the value of time… meaning "tomorrow, next week, next year". What we really mean is we are afraid because it is too much and we may get no future reward.

Part of risk is accepting that technology change will take time, time is valuable or treasured. If you’re thinking to upgrade, improve processes or convert your accounting this will take time. So the risk is two fold, the time it will take to complete the process, and the time to learn/train on the new process.

Below is a list of points you should consider when timing your upgrade/implementation:

• Know your decision making process (who decides).
• Do you have a REAL need or PAIN to change?
• Establish a comprehensive budget (it is not only the cost of software).
• Understand a budget involves the cost of the software.
• Professionally review your software contract and cost associated with it (are you getting what you need?).
• Assess your infrastructure requirement to deploy the software.
• Measure the internal need for resources.
• Hire professionals to implement; it’s very unlikely you can do it yourself.
• Recognize that implementing takes time – often three to six months.
• Be flexible to accommodate the curve balls new software often presents.

Delaying and over-thinking the above list lengthens your timeline and increases costs, while decreasing results. From my experience no change means no movement, thus no reward whatsoever. One never gets that day off, or worst, fails to achieve what matters most.

My phone rings a lot about accounting software technology change. The discussions range from anger with software companies in forcing changes, to” I am happy and have no time for this”. I get local, national, government and vendor calls working on solutions. There are answers, there are solutions!

We at DMC are about not giving up, but making the change and taking the risk it takes to even have the chance to get the win.

[ return to top ]

Truism Isn’t True - Real World Case Studies by BillQuick

Truism: Only an accounting system can handle job costing, budgets, time entry and billing.

Firms followed this truism for many years. Today, many twist and wedge features in QuickBooks and other accounting applications to make it do what it was not designed to do. Flexibility only goes so far. Other firms use vertical accounting software like Deltek Advantage, Deltek FMS, Wind2, Sema4 and others. Because it is a vertical package designed for engineering and architectural firms, it must be right.

Except it isn’t. The truism is not true, at least not as a general rule.

Many firms have learned that general and vertical accounting solutions carry high administrative burdens. They require more extensive training because they are accounting solutions, not business management and project management solutions. Of course, accounting functionality and information is vital, but owners, principals, project managers and others should not need to jump through hoops to get the right information at the right time. There is no reason today to put up with lost billable hours, over-budget projects, bruised client relationships, and other inhibitors common with accounting solutions.

Case Study: Olson Lewis Dioli & Doktor

Judy Ashley is the Office Manager of this architectural firm. Judy said that their old Wind2, a one-size-fits-all accounting solution, handled accounts payable, banking and other accounting functions adequately, but it fell short in two key areas: Time tracking and Project Management.

Judy reports that Wind2’s time tracking was rudimentary and could not be deployed to her staff. This forced them to revert to paper time cards. Judy and managers spent 30 minutes per time card entering, reviewing, approving and editing, costing the firm of 25 employees about $19,500 per year.

Judy also tried to deploy Wind2 to project managers and principals. Its project management capabilities were not as good as the accounting features. A lot of data was kept in Excel and on paper, and project notes were kept in multiple managers’ folders. Judy had to run all the reports, often compiling data from Wind2, Excel and other sources. The dispersed information and Judy became bottlenecks for information, resulting in reports only a few times a month. If Judy was not at her desk or took a day off, information stopped. The result was bleeding budgets and fire-fighting. Profits took a hit.

Judy and the managers at Olson Lewis Dioli & Doktor checked out BillQuick and implemented it. Now the firm uses BillQuick as the front-end to QuickBooks. Judy manages banking, accounts payable, payroll, general ledger and financial statements in QuickBooks. She also controls the flow of invoices, payments and other information from BillQuick into QuickBooks and vice versa.

Everyone in the company uses BillQuick. They enter their time cards, submit them to the right manager, then BillQuick’s automated workflow notifies the managers to review and approve them. Project managers are on top of their project this way and through real-time reports automatically to them by BillQuick. Precise security ensures everyone accesses only what is necessary to do their job.

For Olson Lewis Dioli & Doktor, BillQuick translated into savings of thousands of dollars of Judy’s and managers’ time. Business managers and projects managers are on top of their responsibilities. Now they see smoke long before there is flame.

Judy says it best:

“BillQuick has an intuitive user interface and workflow. Its direct file link to QuickBooks makes for a full service accounting system that is easy to learn. The user support is above any that I have experienced in the industry. I recommend anybody who is considering a more expensive, complicated system to take a look at this software before you think you need to spend tens of thousands to get the tools you need to track and bill within the professional services industry.”

Case Study: Project Engineering Consultants Ltd.

Project Engineering Consultants is an engineering firm and former Deltek FMS user. Joe South, CFO, says that Deltek FMS proved to be problematic. For example, as the firm grew to 100 employees and four offices, Joe wanted staff and managers to enter their own time cards. Deploying Deltek across multiple offices required expensive custom programming because time entry was rudimentary and security was inadequate. Also, any update from Deltek might crash the custom capabilities. Thus, the firm dedicated a full time person to manage time entry at a fully loaded cost of $62,000 per year. Too often the process resulted in untimely information and incomplete and delayed bills, costing the firm more.

Joe also says that billing was a problem. Billing was done from the home office, however, project managers in each office were part of the process. Coordination via faxes, emails and phone calls ate up time. On average billings were delayed by a month.

Joe deployed BillQuick and Web Suite, a browser-based add-on, to all offices. Everyone works with BillQuick and Web Suite. Granular security made it easy to grant permissions for just what a staff member or manager needed to do their jobs. Joe says the firm saved $40,000 a year just with the one admin. Using the built-in workflow in BillQuick and Web Suite, project managers know when they have items to review. With anytime, anywhere access to information, billing coordination is simpler and faster. Bills are out on time. In short, thousands of dollars in working capital and other costs were eliminated.

Joe says: “I looked at a similar multi-office solution from Deltek, letting each office do time entry and billing. Deltek wanted to custom program this for us at eight times more than BillQuick and Web Suite. And we still would not have had the same functionality as BillQuick and Web Suite. That’s the funny thing about BillQuick. It cost us less than Deltek and actually does more!”

These are only two of over 300 engineering and architectural firms who have chosen BillQuick in the past six months. BQE Software, makers of BillQuick, maintains a large reference list of professional firms with 2 to 3,200 users.

We encourage you to run the numbers and check your potential return on investment at http://www.billquick.com/ROI_Calculator.asp. Afterward, call DMC Accounting + Technology.

[ return to top ]

Upgrade, Replace or Do Nothing - The Decision Hinges on Data Conversion by BillQuick

Many design and engineering firms today face a hard decision: Replacing their software.

The straightforward choices are:

* Upgrade to an expensive solution
* Replace their solution with another
* Do nothing and accept the risk of unsupported software and/or incomplete tools sapping productivity and profits.

This decision haunts senior management of firms using Deltek Advantage, Deltek FMS, Sema4 and Wind2, despite assurances from accounting and admin staff that there is nothing better or that they have it under control. Other users who deployed QuickBooks and other general accounting packages wonder if the right investment in another solution will help during their economic situation.

The biggest barrier (after substantial upgrade cost) is data conversion – electronically moving data from your current software to the new solution. BQE Software, makers of BillQuick Time Billing and Project Management, has understood that worry for years. Its focus on listening and sitting with customers and first-hand experience of many managers in professional services has grown its users to over 140,000.

BillQuick’s electronic data conversion services include free built-in conversion wizards for Wind2 and Timeslips. After answering a few questions, master lists, time, expenses, invoices, payments and more transfer into the BillQuick database. BillQuick can also pull in data from QuickBooks, Peachtree and Microsoft Office Accounting as part of its tight, two-way integration with these packages.

In addition, BillQuick Consultants can custom convert data from many packages, including:

ArchiOffice
Axium
Deltek Advantage
Deltek FMS
Dovico
Journyx
Replicon
Sema4
Tenrox

In every conversion, the consultant transfer data to the full extent available: master lists, invoices, payments, time and expenses.

Is the conversion cost prohibitive? BillQuick custom conversions range $2,800 to $3,600. Volume and other factors may increase it some. Of course, the alternative, manual setup, can be very painful to firm (industry averages are tens of thousands of dollars in time, productivity and profits).

It is critical that you consider what is best for your firm. Hiding from it, hoping that current software won’t break or cause client, project or profit issues, is not a realistic course of action. In addition, it is also critical that you be skeptical of all claims by vendors. Even before you invest time in features review, prove to yourself that BillQuick delivers the best return on investment. Check out their ROI Calculator at http://www.billquick.com/ROI_Calculator.asp then call DMC Accounting + Technology.

[ return to top ]