Integrated time management and payroll helps firm to focus on building revenue

When three friends – all engineers and design professionals – started MASS Engineering and Consulting, LLC. in January 2017, they brought to life a dream of going into business together. Today, their Georgia-based firm provides civil engineering services, from land development to site design and construction management, throughout the United States. However, with their dream came the day-to-day requirements of running a business – things like doing payroll and timesheet accounting – that need to be done whether you are managing multiple jobs in the once or at a client worksite.

MASS Engineering often manages more than 200 projects simultaneously; the firm’s principals need to be able to clearly show their clients what projects they worked on and how much work they did on specific days.

Business Challenges

• Capturing hours worked on billable projects for accurate time reporting/client invoicing
• Time-consuming tasks, such as payroll and tax filings, that took time away from productive work

Tackling small business payroll and time-consuming tasks

Jeff Masisak, one of MASS Engineering’s three principals, explained, “Our initial thought was we do our work, send invoices out to clients and handle payroll ourselves. But we soon realized that approach takes away from what we expected to do. Payroll takes time – there are input and deductions, regulations and filings, and deadlines to deal with. Accurate billing also takes time.”

“In our profession, when you invoice clients, you have to clearly show what you worked on, how much you did and on which project. And auditable financials are essential whether you do work in the private or public sector.” He added, “One of the biggest questions we had to face boiled down to this: If each employee works ten hours tomorrow, what’s the most accurate and efficient way to show our clients what they did while keeping our non-billable admin time to a minimum?”

Cost was a big consideration as the firm weighed their options. They could add an administrator to headcount or purchase a license for an engineering timesheet software.

However, either path would add to overhead costs in a big way. They didn’t realize there was another option that included mobile access for scheduling appointments with clients, reducing payroll management time by hours each week, and eliminating the burden of dual data entry.

“As luck would have it, a close friend of mine told me she had a great accountant and we should talk with him,” Masisak said. “When we met the accountant, we were already using QuickBooks and had everything on Excel spreadsheets. He listened to our story, evaluated our expectations and told us, ‘You should use ADP. I recommend them to all my new clients.’
So, we started with ADP for payroll and when we discussed with our ADP account manager our pressing need for accurate timesheets and mobility, we were introduced to their strategic business partner, Deputy.”

Deputy is a leading scheduling and timesheet solution that easily integrates with RUN Powered by ADP payroll. Masisak’s firm now uses it to manage schedules and approve timesheets, which smoothly feeds the payroll process. Simultaneously, their accountant receives a set of their timesheets weekly.

Mobility is also a keystone feature. The integrated Deputy and RUN solution lets the firm manage scheduling, time and payroll functions right from cell phones or iPads. “Whether we’re traveling or in the office, these tools are helping us to be more accurate, accountable and productive,” Masisak said.

Building a profitable future by growing revenue

MASS Engineering is already saving time and money and incrementally adding to revenue with their new solution. “It’s a little too early to talk about a full ROI, but savings are already showing up,” said Masisak. “The timesheet flow with Deputy has made a huge improvement in the tracking of hours, client projects, and in our audits.”

With Deputy, the team can bill more accurately than they were able to previously with lump-sum billing. Having more accurate billing frees up their time from focusing on administrative tasks, like billing and payroll, and enables them to be more efficient with increased time spent on billable hours. And more billable hours means increased revenue for MASS Engineering.

Deputy’s ability to help accurately track time also positions MASS Engineering to meet the highly rigorous audit standards for government projects. “When you’re a start-up, all you really have is your good name,” Masisak said. “Your website is just a verification tool. We wanted our clients and potential clients to recognize us as honest professionals who know our business, are good stewards of our time, and could be trusted implicitly to bill them accurately for the work we’ve done. The ADP and Deputy products operate well together. They help us demonstrate to the marketplace we are that kind of firm.”