You’re a professional surveyor, but running the business feels like a constant struggle. Many of you face the same issues: wasting time on manual time entry and struggling to see true project profitability with vague, lump-sum revenue reports.
Recently I was approached to write a business handbook for surveyors and I might do it. It dawned on me that a lot of my conversations with you focus on the business tools and processes you need, and want, to make things easier and faster. Many of you have told me, “I am trained as a professional surveyor, now I run a business but wasn’t trained for it.”
I bring years of business management and engineering process experience to my role at Qfactor. There are a few easy ‘wins’ for helping you and your team be more efficient. Simple changes. I’ve highlighted a couple here.
Manual Time Entry
The first one is reducing the time spent on spreadsheets and manual time entry. The best analogy for the time saving difference is that of a Zelle payment versus writing a check. Zelle takes about three clicks once set up. Writing a check requires getting the checkbook, filling it out, putting it in an envelope and mailing it. Oh, and where’s that stamp??? Zelle takes a little time to set up at first, but writing a manual check, even though it still has to be done once in a while, is just annoying!
Believe it or not more than half of the surveying business owners I speak with are still on a manual time entry system. Paper, to spreadsheet, to…? It’s much faster to automate timesheet data and let it roll through your software platform for reports and real-time data. Enter data once, have it show up where needed.
Quickbooks Reporting
Next, is the issue of accounting and/or quickbooks information. The better Quickbooks looks, the better project profitability looks.
Many of you are showing one lump sum of revenue at the end of the month.
Knowing you had $100,000 in revenue last month is interesting, but wouldn’t it be better to break that out more? To have a P&L that shows which services your revenue comes from? At a minimum, a more detailed revenue breakdown helps determine which areas it comes from: field work, CAD, admin time and PLS time. Is the time billable or non-billable? This helps owners and managers know where their revenue is coming from and whether or not the service items achieve sufficient profit margin.
Needless to say, we help with this. Our internet-based platform features software that integrates with time entry apps for profitability reporting. You can access all this in three clicks or less. It’s what sets us apart from others. We designed Qfactor to help you run your business including pesky functions that are often manual.
My Dad installed computers in the military and taught accounting to GIs in retirement. Some of what he preached was passed down to me. If you own a business, you need to understand accounting. If you manage people, you need to know what they are doing. I have a construction and tech background and take pride in helping businesses integrate everything without unnecessary complexity.
Other Qfactor features help boost your workflow and electronic measurement. The two issues above are the highlights for today.
Check out my blog from awhile ago about improving your time entry process
Check out my presentation on MentoringMondays podcast with Trent Keenan hosting.
I’ll be at the Vegas trade show (Booth 53 – near refreshments) and hope you’ll stop by to say hello and discuss how Qfactor might help you.
