Product Profile: Effectively Managing Information

For Bob Slingluff, president, Yardmaster of Columbus, Columbus, Ohio, finding a reliable time tracking system has always been a major management challenge. Without a good system in place, Slingluff has had trouble with everything from employees complaining about incorrect paychecks to customers questioning the accuracy of their invoices. Multiple processing of information was also a big frustration and waste of time. “When you get information in, such as time sheets, you enter that into your payroll system,” Slingluff said. “And then you have to enter costing hours and billing information, separately.”

With his new system, however, these frustrations have quickly become a thing of the past. Slingluff has been using Minnow, a field data collection software program designed to run on a Palm Pilot (or Visor, a Palm Pilot clone) hand-held computer. Minnow downloads scheduling and estimating information from a main computer that a landscape crew can use at a job site to keep track of the day’s tasks. The system is also used in-house for sales and administrative purposes.

Minnow was developed by and is sold through Include Software Corp., Laurel, Md. Minnow costs $999 for an unlimited amount of users. Equipment and other related Asset software packages for accounting, estimating, scheduling, inventory and payroll purposes are sold separately.

ATTENTION TO DETAIL. Minnow allows greater accuracy, which Slingluff said, is a welcome change from his old system. Leaving no facet of the job unaccounted for, the system tracks start and stop times for each task by crew member, job and day; travel time and other indirect time. The hand-held computer is then brought back to the main computer, where the information is uploaded, automatically updating the schedule, time card and billing modules. During peak season, when Slingluff oversees approximately 18 four-person crews going to 200 sites per week, this system is simply indispensable, he said.

The software’s attention to detail makes for a more effective job and, in turn, better production management, Slingluff said. “If you’ve got six separate edgings on a job, it’s a lot easier to make sure you get the edgings done than it was in the past, because they don’t just disappear into the system,” he said.

“If you schedule them and they don’t get done, then you know that immediately. It doesn’t slip through the cracks.”

Minnow also saves time on estimations. “You’re doing everything within one system so that you’re not reinterpreting things constantly,” Slingluff said. “Nothing gets lost in the translation.”

Slingluff also likes the estimating system’s consistency and ability to accommodate detailed information. “When I do the estimate it’s the same as when another salesperson does the estimate,” he pointed out. “We can be more objective with this system than when we send somebody out with just a piece of paper and a pencil.”

USER FRIENDLY. The Minnow system is easy for Slingluff’s crew to use and has a substantially reduced margin of error. “Now the crew doesn’t have to write down anything or keep track of many pieces of paper, which can be lost or destroyed,” Slingluff said. “There was a lot to keep track of with the manual system that they just don’t have to do anymore. Now, all the crew leader needs to be able to do is push the right button at the right time.”

The only concern is being diligent about entering information into the system, Slingluff warned. “You just have to be disciplined about updating the system or the whole process is undermined,” he said.

Slingluff’s sales staff is also finding Minnow efficient and easy to use, especially since the software helps maintain accuracy from the initial sale to the finished job. “After making a sale, the salesperson goes back in the system and makes adjustments so that the contract matches what was actually sold – the original estimate,” Slingluff said. “The consistency is there so you don’t have a crew member looking at a piece of paper trying to interpret what the salesperson meant when he bid the job.”

Minnow has substantially reduced Yardmaster’s administrative costs. “We’ve lost two people who we aren’t replacing because, as a whole, we are spending a lot less time processing paperwork,” Slingluff said. “Dealing with paperwork was a full- time job for an employee using the old method. Now it can all be done at one time.”

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