Reinventing the Remodeling Industry, One Customer at a Time.

Remodeling can be a frustrating experience for home and business owners if they hire a contractor who doesn't have the tools or the knowhow to do things right. To be sure, the residential remodeling and custom construction industry has its fill of unskilled and unreliable firms. But lucky for some, a firm by the name of Ryan Remodeling is raising the bar on remodeling standards and has given customers in the Cincinnati, Ohio area a unique construction option.

Respect for their clients and a strong work ethic combine to make Ryan Remodeling one of southwestern Ohio's most respected renovators and custom home builders. With a crew of 20 skilled workers, Ryan Remodeling stays busy twelve months of the year and handles mostly referral work. Last year, they generated more than $2.5 million in revenue.

President Dennis Ryan founded the company in 1975. Working from his truck and hired initially by friends and relatives, Ryan's business began to grow along with his reputation for high quality craftsmanship. "Just as our clients have high expectations for their housing ideas, I also expect nothing but excellence from myself and my crew," he said.

Unfortunately, excellence was not what Ryan was getting from his manual method of business accounting. What had worked for his small start-up business was no longer efficient. By 1993, with a growing number of projects and employees, Ryan found that he was spending way too much time trying to understand his financials and make sound business decisions.

The Challenge

For nearly twenty years, Ryan Remodeling used a hand ledger accounting system that was slow and open to error. Using timecards, tax books and a calculator, payroll was calculated for each employee every two weeks. Nearly the entire month of January was spent calculating W2s for each employee, pay stub by pay stub.

Ryan soon became motivated to replace his accounting system. He wasn't sure what he needed; he just knew he wanted a better system that could give him the ability to see his overall financial picture.

In the fall of 1993, Ryan attended a Construction Exposition in Cincinnati where he met Fred Ode, founder and chairman of Foundation Software. After listening to Ryan's challenges and frustrations, Ode concluded that Ryan had the accounting processes and procedures in place, but was lacking the right tools. He assured Ryan that Foundation Software could help increase administrative productivity while improving his decision-making abilities. Despite Ryan's concerns that he and his office staff had weak computer skills, Ryan purchased Foundation Software's premiere product, the Foundation Accounting System (FAS).

In early 1994, technicians from Foundation Software came to Ryan Remodeling for the installation and training process. "They were very efficient, knowledgeable and fun to work with," Ryan said. "It was relatively easy to learn and we knew right away that it had a good support system behind it."

The Solution

Productivity and efficiency immediately improved at Ryan Remodeling following the installation of FAS. Just as Ode promised, man-hours spent on nearly all accounting tasks were significantly reduced and, for the first time, the company had instant access to accurate financial data.

"The most drastic change occurred in the area of payroll," said Elaine Barrick, office manager. "Biweekly payroll, which used to take me all day to figure manually, could be completed in just a few hours, from start to finish. Employee W2s now take a fraction of the time to complete and we have nearly twice as many employees."

In 2002, Ryan decided to upgrade to FOUNDATION® for Windows®, a system that offers even more powerful reporting capabilities in an easy-to-use Windows format. The detailed and drillable job costing reports, available in so many different reporting options has given Ryan a new level of confidence about their business. In the past, because the company does many one-of-a-kind, custom tailored jobs, it was extremely difficult to analyze costs and estimate new jobs.

"Our comfort level has been raised because of the system's accuracy and reliability, Ryan said." Most importantly, Ryan credits FOUNDATION with increasing the company's profitability. "The ability to produce all the reports I need, quickly, helps me to understand our current status, profit levels, and allows us to plot future job costing," he said. "Ryan Remodeling continues to expand and evolve and Foundation has helped our strategic planning by providing key information for making long-term decisions."
When asked what advice he would give other companies looking for an accounting solution, Ryan had this to say: "We believe very strongly in FOUNDATION. No peer has ever discussed a system they are currently using that offers what FOUNDATION already delivers."

The Benefits

• Productivity increased; time spent processing payroll was significantly reduced.
• Conversion to FOUNDATION improved reporting capabilities.
• Solid, long-term relationship with tech support and service.
• No company offers what Foundation already delivers.
  

FOUNDATION Software, Inc.
150 Pearl Road
Brunswick, OH 44212
www.foundationsoft.com