Their challenge: Managing financials for two construction companies

Located outside San Antonio, Texas, DMJ has two partners – David Barkley and Monty Brock – who bring a wealth of construction and business knowledge to form two world-class companies. DMJ Restorations focuses on remodeling and restoration while DMJ Design Build works on new home construction and major additions.

DMJ didn’t always have the best tech in their corner. In fact, before they arrived at Buildertrend, they tried two other solutions.

“We started with a back-of-the-napkin package; something really basic,” said Monty, managing partner. “Then a suite for the restoration industry. It was good for one side of the company but not the other.”

Their software sorrows came to an end in 2020 when they discovered Buildertrend. Demand was skyrocketing, and they needed a system that could help them avoid any growing pains. It wasn’t just about project management. The financial features included in our construction budgeting software won the team over, too.

“We’re able to handle more jobs more effectively due to a lot of reasons including our processes and people, but one of the biggest reasons is Buildertrend,” Monty said.

Company name
DMJ Restorations

Industry
Custom homes and remodeling

Location
Garden Ridge, Texas

Favorite Feature
Payments

Ready to strengthen your business?

Their solution: Keeping everything organized with one software solution

Two revenue streams. One tool to manage it all.

Financials used to be complicated for DMJ Restorations and DMJ Design Build – but not anymore. Although they’re run by the same two business partners, these two companies have separate cash

flows. Keeping all the dollars and cents straight was no easy task until construction project management software helped make sense of the numbers.

“Everything is coming together the way we want it to,” said Monty. “Also, we have set up a chart of accounts and invoicing process that provides financials for each company discretely as well as providing a rollup. Our accountant loves us.”

As their single source of truth, Buildertrend makes it possible to manage multiple financial processes, more easily.

Modern kitchen with island table and ample lighting

Their success story: Ensuring budget accuracy and faster payments for subcontractors

Literally we’re budgeting a remodeling job in about 30 minutes,” Monty said.

It wasn’t always that easy and efficient. Before, all estimates and expenses were kept in project manager’s heads or Excel spreadsheets. There was no visibility and very little accountability. Today, with the Buildertrend Budget, everyone has access to the numbers.

The Budget feature tracks bills and purchase orders and even interacts with the Schedule to send notifications. The DMJ team integrated those figures with QuickBooks accounting software to further minimize admin hours and maximize profits. The real power of the Budget? It shows actual costs versus estimates to keep jobs on track.

I’m not wasting those hours anymore. In the five years we’ve been in operation, it’s never been this easy. With the Budget tool, I have complete confidence in my numbers.

Monty Brock

Managing partner, DMJ Restorations

DMJ Restorations Kitchen Photo

“We try to always have expenses in the system within 48 hours of expenditure to allow our project managers to have near-real-time visibility,” Monty said.

During their weekly staff meeting, DMJ can flip through each construction project’s budget to see if any expense or payment has been missed. That’s accuracy done fast.

“There’s no questions about it. Our margins have really improved,” Monty said. “Right now, I would say it’s very rare we don’t hit our targeted margins. It’s because of our budgeting and change order process. In the past, we might have had three good jobs and one oops. Everything’s tightened up today.”

The Budget isn’t the only way Buildertrend has helped tighten financial processes. DMJ also heavily relies on Buildertrend Payments, to save hours on each project. Through online payments, Buildertrend serves as their team’s one place to pay subs and get paid by clients. Money in. Money out. It’s that simple.

Prior to Buildertrend, DMJ would have to drive across San Antonio and the Texas Hill Country to collect checks from clients or deliver checks to subs. Their vehicles (and stress levels) now get a much-deserved break.

“We pushed more than $100-grand worth of checks from 15 different clients through last week. We didn’t have to pick up anything,” Monty said. “We’re the seventh largest city in the U.S., so we cover a lot of distance. When we’re not taking time to drive around for checks, that’s a wonderful thing.”

Monty and his team are also using Buildertrend’s new payment system to send funds digitally to their subs and vendors. It’s not only saving them money on having to buys stamps and envelopes, but also saving them time on entering information in two places.

“I would say 85% of every project that we’re on is subcontracted,” Monty said. “One of the big advantages we’ve seen in the new payment system – there’s no more double entry required from the way we were doing things before. Before, we’d have to write an entry in Buildertrend, then go to the bank, create the payment and wait for them to match up. So, internally it saves us a ton of time.”

And their subs love it, too. The service is free for them to use, they choose how their money is deposited and – most importantly – it’s fast.

“Our subcontractors get paid even faster than they were before,” Monty said. “We had been paying them overnight via ACH. Now, they’re receiving a check that they can print out, which can be instantly deposited into their account. So, we were already in good standing with our subcontractors by being able to pay overnight. Well, now it’s even faster.”

The DMJ team doesn’t miss the days when reports had to be pulled manually and a missing receipt meant longer hours or devoured costs.

Monty estimates he’s saving upwards of five hours per week on financial management alone. Before, he would spend two to three hours just getting ready for a Tuesday staff meeting update. Now he opens QuickBooks and Buildertrend, reviews the numbers and it’s done.

Click in. Click out.

“I’m not wasting those hours anymore,” Monty said. “In the five years we’ve been in operation, it’s never been this easy. I have complete confidence in my numbers.”

Buildertrend’s project management software is often referred to as a one-stop-shop – and this is why.

“Buildertrend takes everything you want the business to do and makes it possible,” Monty said. “You want to have good communication with a customer? Check. A single system with financials and reporting? It’s right there. Something that’s easy to use? You got it all.”

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