Carma Group

Scott recommended Acumatica Construction because it was tailored to its industry with
job costing, change order, and commitment functionality, was conceived in the cloud, and
allowed third-party applications like Procore to connect seamlessly. The unique pay-asyou-
go consumption licensing model made the platform affordable, and its ease of use and
personalization were attractive.

“At the time I was evaluating, the other software wasn’t really cloud-based,” Scott says. “They
were more remote-desktop based. One of the things that I really liked about Acumatica is they
started being cloud-based. They didn’t start in a traditional client server base and then convert
it. This was built from the ground up, and cloud-based all the time.”

In addition, when he used Timberline, Foundation, and Vista, “I would extract data and then
had to spend a lot of time manipulating this data to get what I actually wanted,” he says.
With Acumatica, “I can filter and I can sort and I can get the information the way I want it,” Scott
says. “I can hit this button and it dumps data right into Excel. I don’t need to dump it into Excel
and then manipulate it again. It dumps it into Excel and then I can just do simple subtotals or
whatever I want in there. Acumatica gets me information really, really quick.”

Scott estimates he’s saved countless hours by having instant and accurate information all in
one place. He and others spend time making better decisions rather than digging for data and
manipulating it.

While having data at one’s fingertips doesn’t sound earth-shattering, it does allow Carma
Group to make more informed decisions, improve project efficiency, and reduce costs, which
often results in increased project success and profitability. Delivering projects on time and on
budget increases the firm’s reputation and has led clients to rehire Carma Group without the
need to compete through RFPs.

Most of Carma Group’s project managers operate in Procore while Scott acts as the main point
of contact for data in Acumatica because he is an Acumatica power user. Project managers
all have access to Acumatica and Scott has taught them how to pull information. But they are
encouraged to use him as an information resource.

“If they need detail, I encourage them to come ask me because that’s my area of expertise,”
Scott explains. “I try to get them actionable information quickly so they can make decisions on
running their projects, either minimizing margin fade, or taking opportunities to enhance margins.”

“My value lies in getting actionable intelligence as quick as possible,” he reiterates. “And some
of those features in Acumatica, like the simple little Excel button, allows me to do that. While I
was being pushed away from QuickBooks Online because I couldn’t get that information, I’m
being pulled in by Acumatica saying, ‘Look what we can do.”

Personalization, Customized Dashboards
That’s not to say, Scott says, that he dumps everything into Excel. Acumatica is highly
configurable and allows users to personalize screens and dashboards to make them
actionable based on their titles, the way they work, and the data they need.
For example, he says he created a report showing outstanding payables and whether they
are pending, on hold, or balanced, which helps him understand what might be impacting the
company’s monthly financials. “That kind of customization is so easy to do in Acumatica,” he
says. “I have actionable intelligence at the click of a button.”

The accounting team also uses Velixo, a third-party application that seamlessly connects to
Acumatica and supercharges reporting and budgeting. “It basically creates a whole new set of
formulas, and it reaches Acumatica, pulls data, and puts it right where I want it,” Scott says. “I
absolutely love that.”

Scott uses Acumatica’s dashboards daily to see how the company is performing. He colorcoded
one dashboard so he can instantly see what his priorities should be. “The dashboards
are nice because I like to manage by exception,” he says. “What do I need to focus today? If
everything’s green, I can just do my regular things, but if something turns red, then I should
go chase that down. Instead of me running a report to see if anybody past due today, this
dashboard tells me every time I log in.”

Acumatica also makes it easy for people to configure screens and make dashboards that
reflect how they operate. “Employees can enter data in the order that makes sense to them,”
Scott says. “Instead of bending your ways to the way the ERP system works, it’s so easy to
change Acumatica to accommodate something the way you want. It’s the little things that make
Acumatica different.”

Keisha Baum, who recently joined Carma Group as a project coordinator, agrees. “Being able to
navigate it immediately and easily was huge for me,” she says. “I’ve found Acumatica to be very
time efficient; I can pop into the system and find information inside of probably less than a minute.”

She also likes that she can personalize screens without being a developer. “The configurability
of the system has allowed me to really make it mine. It allows me to look at what I need to look
at on the screen versus what five different people need to look at.”

Baum adds, “Compared to other systems, it’s definitely a lot easier to use to find information
because you don’t have to go to 8,000 places to find it. I found it very, very, very user-friendly
and very navigable.”

Ability to Attach Documents
Scott appreciates that he can make notations and attach documents to transactions within
Acumatica. “Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, it’s going to be on an invoice, but I can put
notes on anything,” he says. “I can leave breadcrumbs, put work papers up there, and attach
spreadsheets. That has worked great because when I’m doing financial statements, I need to
make some adjusting entries to an account.” With supporting documentation, he saves time
and avoids having to try to remember why he did what he did, he says.

Remote Access
Having a cloud-based system was paramount during the pandemic, Scott says. The construction
firm was able to keep operating while competitors on legacy on-premises systems struggled to
work remotely. Carma Group also minimized its technology spend with the cloud platform.

“When you’re that small, you just don’t have the infrastructure in human capital or otherwise to
have a full server set up,” he says, “and all the things that go with that – backups, redundancy,
power supplies and networking interfaces.”

“If it’s on the cloud, it’s just simply done. I don’t have to worry about updates and taking the
server offline. With Acumatica, it just happens.”