Customer Stories

VIEWPOINT.com | +1 800.333.3197 Whether it is a new construction project, a major refurbishment or a fitout, SJ Higgins is accustomed to delivering quality results to its clients. With a turnover of $150 million and contracts ranging in value from $2 million to $30 million, efficiently and accurately managing everything from budgets, forecasts, subcontract claims, variations to gain and losses, is absolutely essential for SJ Higgins. However, according to Melissa, the company was finding it increasingly more difficult and cumbersome to efficiently manage its projects as it was quickly outgrowing its current construction management solution, with several key pain points putting pressure on her job. Life before Viewpoint As a CA at SJ Higgins, keeping control of costs during the construction phase, managing trade budgets and preparing financial project reports is key to fulfilling the role well. However this includes a whole range of other responsibilities such as letting subcontracts; assessing claims; holding retentions; assessing variations; preparing claims to clients; forecasting & monitoring margin projections throughout the building phase. The work carried out by the CA has the potential to have substantial impacts on the results of individual projects and therefore the whole business. This includes making any necessary risk adjustments and ensuring contingency plans are in place should projects go over budget or unforeseen costs arise – and having the ability to report this correctly. So what specific problems was Melissa facing in her day- to-day work? "One of the biggest obstacles with the old system was its inability to apply any revisions to commitments once it was locked. If an incorrect entry was made, for example, a subcontract figure was entered incorrectly or changes were made to an agreement post letting, there was no easy way to revise it. This forced us to use workarounds by entering an adjusting variation to fix the committed cost. This made the financial tracking messy and more difficult to control", says Melissa. Cost reporting in our old system was time-consuming and laborious. Because costs could be out due to messy workarounds, I was spending a considerable amount of time dissecting cost reports to make sure Invoices (Claims to Client) versus Receipts (Payments to Subcontractors) was consistent with what was being reported by the accounts team. – Melissa Gesos SJ Higgins Contract Administrator

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