Jul
Construction Firm Builds Integrity with Time
Posted by Matt N in Case StudiesTagged: Case Studies, construction
“Integrity Builders. You say that to someone, they think, ‘cool name, but what does it really mean’?” says Fred Thomas, owner and president of Integrity Builders in Austin, Texas. “It’s not just the integrity of a building, but it’s about bringing integrity back into the construction industry. That’s the difference between us and the competition. We stand with integrity. It’s not just a name, it’s a lifestyle.”
Transparency and true accountability are integral components to the core company philosophy, but the concept became a daily practice three years ago when the business began using TSheets. Previously, timesheets were delivered by hand, with often illegible handwriting.
“We were spending 40 plus hours on Fridays, the day that timesheets are supposed to be in, just working out the handwritten kinks,” notes Fred. “Each person would sit down and try to remember a week gone by. Then we would take the handwritten timesheets and enter them into excel
sheets, then turn those in as back up to be paid by our vendors or clients. We were dealing with constant delay, user error and time wasted. TSheets was a saving grace for me.”
Fred looked for three months straight at every system on the market before making the move to TSheets.
“Price was a big deal for me, and so was user-friendliness,” Fred reports. “We wanted the ability to change job codes easily in real time when in the field. We also have a lot of bilingual and Spanish-speaking people, and not everyone is computer literate. Now employees can text in time, or use their iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, laptop or iPad. Whatever they have, they have the ability to track and clock in.”
Integrity Builders bills out $3 to $3.5 million a year, and each invoice sent by the company previously cost $60 a piece. When sending out 100 invoices a month, the payroll and administrative costs added up quickly. By integrating TSheets into the system, the company dropped that per invoice rate to $20, saving approximately $4,000 a month on invoicing procedures alone.
TSheets has also offered unexpected and prolific returns on investment that go beyond the administrative and payroll hassles. Integrity Builders’ employees can now track real-time costs involved in day-to-day work, like the amount of Freon or duct work needed on a HVAC repair,
making inventory a snap. Integrity Builders now also tracks salaried employee time to help with overall transparency and time management. Fred also tracks his own time, often fascinated by where it actually goes.
“If you believe in something, you just can’t stop talking about it,” says Fred. “Other friends in construction see the app on my iPhone, and I’m like, check this out. I probably should have been a salesperson for TSheets.”
