Eastside Community Development (ECD) has been in business since 2007 performing all tasks required for rehabilitating residential housing. ECD’s projects include roofing, windows, siding, painting and concrete work.
The company specializes in buying properties for sale or in foreclosure, and restores them for sale on the market.
The Challenge: Create a Database to Track Project Tasks & Expenses
ECD did not have a legacy database. Their business team was attempting to keep track of their projects and budgets with paper files only.
Key business information was getting difficult to locate within the office, with some paper documents even being lost.
Project cost estimates for proposed future project work were not being accurately archived. This proved to be very inefficient.
Many properties that ECD evaluates are initially estimated and purchase prices for the property may be under negotiation for an extended time. A property price reduction may make a project suddenly profitable when it was not previously. With their legacy paper filing system, ECD would have to re-estimate projects when papers were misplaced and the paper files were not complete.
The Solution: Adatasol’s Cost Management Database for Small Contractors
ECD’s cost estimates and its lists of required materials are now captured in a single system installed by Adatasol and can be quickly retrieved.
A budget for each rehab project is quickly assembled within the Adatasol database. Costs for each project are scored against the project budget so remaining funds available are quickly determined.
Material lists needed for each project are printed out. Accurate and complete materials lists can be provided to sub-contractors and vendors for purchasing.
The Adatasol system tracks ZIP codes where ECB project work is being done. Project costs per square foot can now be determined and used as a performance metric by project location.
Other software systems were not customizable by a specific job. The system provided by Adatasol allows project-specific changes to capture unique project information when necessary.
Conclusions
ECD is now better organized, and there are resulting cost savings and efficiencies for ECD’s leadership team.
ECD’s owner can now keep his key business information with him. It can be accessed via iPad, improving his office mobility makes the best use of his time away from the office.
The new system limits material ordering mistakes and ensures the work is being done within the available budget.
The new system allows ECD to look at more properties, bid more jobs and advance to the next level of sales revenue.
