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Keeping Job Costing Current at Wojchik Electric
In 1952 Lester Wojchik established an electrical contracting business in Paterson, New Jersey. For 25 years, family-owned Wojchik Electric specialized in small residential renovations. In 1977, Lester’s son John entered the business and expanded its operation to include commercial installations. The business flourished until the economy took a nose dive in 1988. The company decided that in order to remain lucrative, it would have to expand its customer base to include public entities such as schools, hospitals, and municipalities. That’s how the company operates today. With sales figures running between $2.5 million and $3.5 million annually, Wojchik Electric’s territory extends throughout Northern New Jersey.
In a Fix
With company growth comes mounds of paperwork. John Wojchik had been using Sage BusinessWorks 50 Accounting to manage his accounts receivable but did all of the company's job costing manually, spending hours entering labor, material, and other costs into a spreadsheet to monitor the accumulated cost of a particular job.
"Bonding companies require detailed status reports of job cost to date and estimated cost for job completion." said John Wojchik, president. "Every quarter we need accountability of what's going on. That's why some people don't want to be in the particular field we're in."
Constructing a Bright Solution
Wojchik set out looking for computer programs specific to the construction industry that would help to automate the business, allowing him to make more productive use of his time. With 16 electrical workers, including journeymen and apprentices, Wojchik needed a program capable of processing payroll for union employees. He was stunned to learn that the construction industry software he examined couldn't compare to Sage BusinessWorks.
"I must have looked at two dozen programs selling for $10,000 to $15,000 that didn't have the look, appeal or ability of Sage BusinessWorks," said Wojchik. "It's amazing what people try to sell you. Using the demos, I experienced so many data errors it was unbelievable."
When Wojchik evaluated Sage BusinessWorks, he was sold. He found it to be a powerful program yet easy to install and intuitive to learn. At a fraction of the cost of comparable accounting software, Sage BusinessWorks took the drudgery out of job costing. The solution enables Wojchik to calculate financial reports for jobs in progress, generate status reports, and show cumulative costs to date and percentage of total allocation spent.
"A typical $800,000 municipal project, such as a college dorm, might include all electrical wiring, security system, fire alarms, and six individuals on the project," said Wojchik. "Sage BusinessWorks instantly ties it all together by calculating all of the costs for us." Wojchik recommends Sage BusinessWorks to anyone in the construction industry.
"There’s logic behind the way you do certain things in Sage BusinessWorks, and I like the way it looks and operates," said Wojchik. "I’ve used it so long, it’s just second nature to me."
