Improved profitability in the project means shorter repayment time
Bygg-Fast offers special competence within construction project management and property development. In total there are fifty consultants at their offices in Gothenburg, Halmstad, Helsingborg, and Malmö – everything from shorter assignments around consulting and decoration to several years’ engagement in larger new and renovation construction. Among the more well-known assignment are the construction of IKEA’s new chain store in Malmö and western Sweden’s biggest housing project in central Gothenburg.
At the end of 2009 there was an acute need for a new time control system for continuous time accounting and forecasting of the company’s workload. The choice fell to the project system Copernicus Pro that shortly thereafter was put into operation.
– In addition to keeping the day-to-day under control, Copernicus Pro has made it significantly easier for us to evaluate and learn from completed projects, while at the same time it is an invaluable support in our resource planning, says Anders Hedenskog, MD of Bygg-Fast AB.
Copernicus Pro was integrated from the start with the company’s existing business and salary systems, with automated transfer of transactions. It led to considerable streamlining benefits, for example, consultants can now initiate their invoicing themselves.
– With that we have accomplished an important goal, namely automation of the entire flow from keying in time and costs to a completed invoice. Copernicus Pro has improved control of our operation, most of all when it comes to related costs in the project. We previously had a certain waste that was never invoiced, mostly because we handled travel expense reports, outlay, and time in separate systems that didn’t synchronise with each other.
Today we have consolidated in one system which means that all time worked, outlay, trips, and purchases by subcontractors are included in the invoice background information when it is generated. Bygg-Fast then has full control over what is to be invoiced or not invoiced.
– All of this boils down to us having better profitability in projects, so we count on a very short period of repayment on the system.
To be able to survey its entire project portfolio and order book Bygg-Fast also plans to introduce the Project and Resource Planning module.
Like other consulting operations, Bygg-Fast’s profitability is to a great extent dependent on succeeding in maintaining a satisfactory level of workload on their consultants. It is then of crucial importance to have access to tools that give relevant forecasts and possibility of making analyses of both present and earlier assignments, to quickly be able to get check the status of the operation.
– With that we can act more quickly if we have to change course in some respect while at the same time getting an invaluable survey of our recruitment need.
Key points
- Project accounting, time reporting, travel expense reports, invoicing, and follow-up.
- Integration with accounting and salary systems.
- Has resulted in better profitability in the project, as well as better analyses and forecasts.