Landscaper Sows Seeds of Time Tracking Success with mJobTime
Chicago-area business reaps benefits by streamlining payroll processes in the field and the office
When Christy Webber launched her lawn mowing business in 1990, she was just looking for a way to make a living and work in her favorite place — outdoors. But something happened along the way. Christy’s strong work ethic and creativity kicked in and the business took off. Today, Christy Webber Landscapes is one of the largest woman-owned landscape contracting firms in the country.
Christy Webber Landscapes’ field staff of 170 uniformed employees, including Certified Landscape Professionals and Certified Landscape Technicians, offers a full range of landscape design, construction and maintenance services to Chicago-area commercial, residential and governmental customers.
The company also provides landscaping general contractor services, overseeing and coordinating related work on irrigation systems, garden structures, decks and fence installations and snow removal.
Among the company’s clients are O’Hare and Midway Airports, the City of Chicago and United Center.
An average of 50 crews work in the field every day. Construction crews may work on the same site all day, or work at multiple sites, while maintenance crews move from site-to-site as they complete their weekly work schedules. The company’s inside employees provide a variety of services, from professional design to administrative support. In total, the company employs 230 – 250, depending on client and seasonal needs.
General Manager Roger Post is responsible for oversight of operations and guiding the company’s strategic direction and objectives. He monitors internal processes and looks for ways to improve efficiency and trim costs.
“Payroll was a primary problem,” said Post. “It was very time consuming and costly. We dedicated as many as four employees to the payroll process.” The problem began with a cumbersome time tracking process.
“Field employees came to office at the beginning of their shifts and clocked in and then went to their job sites,” said Post. “At the end of the day, they had to come back to the office and clock out. It wasn’t cost effective but it was the only way we could be sure who had worked that day.”
In the field, foremen struggled to keep up with each employee’s time and activities, using paper time sheets. Foremen also track how much time each worker spends on a variety of assigned tasks — often at multiple job sites.
“It is important to know how much time employees spend on each task, like mowing, pruning and fertilizing, because we use that data when estimating other jobs,” notes Post. “If our foremen get behind on completing time sheets, entries made later might not be accurate or complete.”
The payroll process also required a supervisor’s approval before time sheets went to the payroll department where administrative staff manually input the data.
The payroll staff no longer spends hours trying to read fuzzy faxes and searching for missing information. With mJobTime, payroll data can be transferred and reviewed daily and overtime is automatically calculated.
“It used to be a scramble to input time sheet data into the payroll system in time to cut pay checks on Wednesdays. Now, the payroll staff has the job done on Monday afternoon.”
The company went looking for a solution that would speed up the payroll process, eliminate costly errors, and free up employees to do work that is more productive.
“We chose mJobTime™ for a number of reasons,” Post said. “We wanted to push time tracking back to the field where it belongs, and the ability to sync quickly and easily was a feature we really valued. Our field crews needed a system that was simple and adaptable, and the office staff needed a system that interfaces with Master Builder.”
“We hire good people who know the landscaping business, but most of them are not techies,” said Christy. “In choosing a time tracking system, I listened to staff members who are technically savvy. They liked mJobTime because it is quick, easy to use and gives foremen more time to work with their crews.”
“Christy Webber Landscapes had some specific time tracking needs,” said Rich Daniels, vice president, mJobTime Corporation. “They needed to track time for employees working for one client but at multiple job sites. mJobTime’s daily log function solved that problem by allowing them to quickly document when they checked in and out at each site.”
Since implementing mJobTime, Post says there is no more Friday payday chaos because the payroll staff receives employee hours from the foremen every day.
“We pay weekly and before mJobTime, the payroll staff had to call foremen and chase details they needed to complete payroll records so the checks could be cut,” said Post. “That’s a thing of the past.”
