Construction company moves finance in-house to increase efficiencies

homeautomation-300x225Milbrooke Construction, a rapidly expanding groundwork company, has selected Exchequer accounting software from Advanced Business Solutions (Advanced) to support its plans for growth. The company is targeting 15 per cent growth over the next 12 months.

The organisation, which previously outsourced much of its finance function to an accountancy firm, is also streamlining its financial processes, cutting costs and gaining tighter control over procurement spend by bringing the function in-house.

Milbrooke began using the Construction Edition of Exchequer in May 2014. The software, designed especially for use in the building trade, includes a module to track and trace spend on individual projects to help deliver jobs on time and within budget.

Milbrooke, which typically manages around 20 projects at any one time, is now able to control budgets with an instant view of overspend. The system also creates alerts for sub-contractors, highlights supplier payment deadlines and automatically chases payments.

Exchequer is providing Milbrooke with richer financial management across the business, improving the visibility of accounts information. It also ensures staff outside the finance team, such as quantity surveyors, have access to clear and accurate data on individual builds and by bringing the accounting function in-house, Milbrooke is anticipating improved control and operational savings.

Rob Harman, Milbrooke’s Finance Consultant, said: “The purpose of introducing the new Exchequer software is to provide a robust platform to support our business growth and to provide greater control over costs.

“For Milbrooke, the heart of the solution is the job costing ledgers. We are a groundwork company, taking on contracts between £1m and £1.5m in value and operating on fixed margins, so controlling costs and knowing the status of each project is vital.

“Exchequer is playing a key part in enabling us to gain control over costs and cash flow as we target growth this year of between 12 and 15 per cent. Bringing the function in-house is improving the timing of information capture and streamlining overall operational efficiencies with inevitable cost savings.”

Milbrooke is implementing the Applications and Valuations solution to calculate the income that is due at any particular time for individual jobs, based on expenditure to date against budget or as a percentage of the contract price. This removes the need for complex manual calculations and invoice generation. Milbrooke predicts this automation will save its staff significant time.

Harman adds: “The Applications and Valuations solution enables us to track anticipated income against actual income with greater ease, saving us time. Improving cost control within the business also allows us to monitor spend more effectively.”

The Construction Edition of Exchequer streamlines processes and improves cost control through instant access to real-time detailed financial information. It eradicates the manual processes associated with contract billing and invoicing, whilst efficiently managing statutory tax obligations and sub-contractors.

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