Company Recognizes Opportunity to Save
Time and Money with mJobTime
Sacramento plumbing contractor cuts payroll process time in half with time tracking software
Gary Morrissette and Terry Wilson have been business partners since 1984 and friends since childhood. They built their long-term relationship on mutual trust and a shared commitment to doing things the right way.
The pair brings the same philosophy to their business, WilMor & Sons Plumbing and Construction, based in Sacramento, California. The company specializes in new construction, residential, apartments, commercial, hotels and warehouses.
“Gary and Terry are always looking for ways to streamline business processes and keep things simple so our employees can stay focused on getting the job done,” said Heather Fletes, the company’s office manager. “One place where we saw an opportunity to save time and money was the time tracking and payroll process.”
WilMor employs more than 80 journeymen and apprentices who work in crews of two to six. The company relies on its 30 field foremen as trusted employees who are accountable for meeting job site performance objectives. Among their responsibilities, foremen keep track of employee time and attendance, as well as job numbers and phases.
According to Fletes, for every two-week pay period, two clerical employees used to spend 16 hours inputting data from paper timecards submitted by field employees. It was a slow and error-prone process.
“It was hard to read handwritten timecards and sometimes the information was incomplete. Employees expect their paychecks to be accurate, but it was a real struggle.”
In 2005, the company launched mJobTime™ to improve accuracy and simplify the payroll process and to help the owners manage crew resources more efficiently. During an all-hands employee
meeting, field personnel got their first look at the mJobTime system. Employees were trained on the software and on Dell Axiom PDAs, the devices used by crewmembers to input employee time and other job site information. A follow up meeting a few weeks later gave foremen a chance to resolve any technical issues and share their mJobTime experiences with peers and management.
"It’s important to know not only who is working and how many hours they have logged, but also how many hours and other resources have been committed to each phase of a job,” said Fletes. “This is a very competitive industry and with mJobTime, the owners have quick access to payroll and job data that enables them to react quickly to fluctuations in the economy and bid competitively.”
WilMor looked at several time tracking systems but chose mJobTime because the system is easy-to-use, flexible and compatible with the company’s Construction Partner accounting software. Now, the payroll process takes less than eight hours, and one employee is free to do other work.
Fletes said what really sealed the deal was the responsiveness and willingness of the mJobTime Technical Services staff to work with the company on customizing reports that give Morrissette and Wilson quick access to payroll and other information.
“When you’re implementing a new technology, it’s comforting to know that help is only a phone call away,” said Fletes.
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.”
