The Stevens Group is a third-generation family business, which was founded as B.D. Stevens Limited in the 1930s by Burnett David Stevens. Today, the Stevens family continues to grow their legacy with 72 business entities in the company.
Originally established as a general contracting, project management and design/build company, the company has expanded their portfolio to include a specialty in tilt-up construction, a ready-mix operation, stone quarries, manufacturing of doors, frames, and cabinets, aquaculture, and real estate development.
In this case study:
- The Challenge: Managing The Stevens Group Multi-Company Accounting & Payroll Needs
- The Solution: Integrated Accounting Software with Multi-Company Functionality
- The Impact: Integrated Multi-Company Accounting Operations with Clean Audits
- About Jonas Construction Software
The Challenge: Managing The Stevens Group Multi-Company Accounting & Payroll Needs
With multiple payrolls and business financials to manage, one of the primary concerns The Stevens Group and Group Controller Gordon Haley always have is if their construction accounting solution can accurately handle multi-company transactions and payroll, while also streamlining their accounting workflows from the field to the back office.
In addition to addressing these concerns, Haley also needs to ensure their accounting software can provide financial data integrity, as well as produce timely and accurate financial and cost reporting.
“Jonas would be our core accounting program and the one that we rely on the most…It saves us a lot of time and makes our statements more accurate.” – Gordon Haley, The Stevens Group Controller
The Solution: Integrated Accounting Software with Multi-Company Functionality
By utilizing Jonas’ integrated accounting, project management, and service management solution, The Stevens Group and Haley can streamline their approach to multi-company management, while also enhancing operational efficiency for their entire business enterprise, and visibility into their costs and operations. With Jonas Construction Software, The Stevens Group has access to:
Integrated Accounting and Construction Management Software
Jonas provides The Stevens Group with a comprehensive ERP solution that is adept at handling the complexities of multi-company construction accounting, which includes solutions in: job costing, invoice tracking and job billings (including progress billings and service billings.)
The ability to integrate their back office and field operations together in real-time streamlines their operational workflow and processes, while enhancing data accuracy on their accounting and job cost data. Moreover, Jonas provides The Stevens Group with supporting solutions like equipment management and inventory management to further enhance their operational efficiency and visibility into their costs and operations.
Multi-Company Accounting
With Jonas as the core accounting software for The Stevens Group, they can manage their general ledger, account receivables, account payables, and payroll for multiple businesses from one system. This consolidation simplifies financial processes and enhances their reporting and data accuracy, while reducing time spent on manual processes.
Streamlined Data Management
Jonas enables a single data entry system from the field to the back office, significantly reducing the risk of errors and time spent on double data entry. As a result of this, Haley can rely on Jonas’ to provide The Stevens Group with data integrity and reporting accuracy.
Custom Reporting through Data Mart
The use of Data Mart and SQL queries in reporting provides Haley with the flexibility and customization to meet the unique needs of their diverse business entities. For example, they have one business with 35 custom fields in their payroll module that needs to be filtered down to view additional data.
The ability to create custom reports and filter data to finer detail helps Haley handle complex data management and gain more insight into their financial and cost operations.
Automated Payroll and Invoicing
Jonas helps The Stevens Group automate accounting tasks in payroll and invoicing, which significantly reduces the time spent on these manual processes. Haley estimates that the ability to mass export files and invoice information to be automatically recorded in accounts payable and accounts receivable probably saves them “weeks [of work] every year” for one of their business entities.
Improved Operational Efficiency
Jonas Construction Software enables The Stevens Group to streamline its accounting and operational processes from the field to the back office and improve its operational efficiency for the entire business enterprise. Features such as advanced payroll management, automated invoicing, and integrated accounting improve workflows, reduce manual labor, and allow them to automate manual processes to complete the same or more tasks within a shorter amount of time.
Regulatory Compliance and Audit Readiness
Jonas’ robust reporting tools produce clean and detailed financial records with ease and make it accessible for Haley to provide comprehensive, drillable data for audits when needed. This not only makes their audits more efficient and less disruptive to their regular business operations, but also makes them a preferred business for auditors because of the access to clean financial records.
The Impact: Integrated Multi-Company Accounting Operations with Clean Audits
With Jonas Construction Software, The Stevens Group not only found a solution that addresses their multi-company accounting requirements but also positions them for sustainable growth and scalability. Jonas’ integrated solutions provided The Stevens Group and Haley with the accuracy and visibility into their enterprise financials and costs to be more operationally efficient and profitable.
Due to the broad scope of businesses in their company portfolio, The Stevens Group and Group Controller Gordon Haley faced stringent regulatory requirements and frequent audits. Ensuring compliance and facilitating smooth audits required impeccable record-keeping and easy access to clean, auditable financial records.
Haley jokingly says, “Jonas has put us on the top of the list for being audited.” He continues to explain that it’s “because it’s so easy to get the information [for auditors] and it’s so clean.”
The access to clean, comprehensive, and drillable reports for audits make The Stevens Group a preferred business by auditors and possible to scale company growth without any major reporting concerns.
By addressing the unique challenges of multi-company accounting and reporting with integrated and automated accounting software for the service and construction industry, Jonas enables The Stevens Group to achieve operational efficiency, financial and cost accuracy, and strategic agility.
About Jonas Construction Software
Jonas Construction Software offers integrated construction software solutions in construction accounting and construction management for mechanical and speciality contractors.
With a commitment to building software focused on accounting automation, enterprise efficiency and superior cost reporting, Jonas’ comprehensive suite of integrated solutions comprises automated accounting & payroll, project management, service management, and supporting integrated operations.To learn more about how Jonas can help your service and construction business enhance cash flow predictability and maximize profits, request a demo today.
