Allwood Manning designs and builds new masonry homes and also project manages significant residential renovations in Auckland. It manages the entire scope of construction from design, costing and project management to construction completion. The internal system which has enabled Allwood Manning to manage all these aspects while adapting as the business has grown, is Timberline Office from Sage Timberline.

Most recently, Allwood Manning has implemented Timberline Office from Sage document management system to transform its paperwork system into a web-based electronic document classification, storage, retrieval, and routing system.

Previously, John de Latour, director of Allwood Manning, and his staff were filling up multiple Eastlite folders with material relevant to each specific job, including quotes from subcontractors and suppliers.

“Trying to find a specific quote within a stack of materials not catalogued properly was a nightmare, especially when a supplier’s invoice was urgently needed,” says de Latour. “In order to respond to business matters more quickly, our documents needed to be easily organised and instantly accessible.”

With the Sage Timberline document management system, Allwood Manning’s staff can now access accounts, documents, invoices and quotes whether working from the office or offsite. The solution has introduced flexibility that was not possible with a paper based system.

The document management system is just one example of the Sage Timberline Office applications which are designed specifically for the housing/construction/real estate industries. The applications cover the entire building lifecycle, from concepts and estimates, to construction and facility management, to knowing when to sell. Modules include estimating, accounting, document management, job costing, and ordering software. 

De Latour says Sage Timberline Office products are extremely well-suited to small- to medium-sized companies. Coming from a corporate background, he experienced the frustration of using systems that weren’t compatible.

“The Timberline suite is an off-the-shelf product that is completely integrated and developed specifically to meet the needs of construction companies,” he says. “While Timberline products can be customised, we have successfully used the products as they come.”

John de Latour continues, “I first viewed Sage Timberline Office at the National Association of Housebuilders Conference in the US, before establishing Allwood Manning and recognised it was a perfect fit for a residential construction company.”

When Allwood Manning was formed ten years ago, it established Sage Timberline Office as the foundation for its business management processes. The company first implemented the estimating extended module, followed by its accounting modules, job costing and ordering modules.

According to de Latour, a standout feature of the Timberline Office products is that they offer him instantaneous and real-time feedback of where his company is cost-wise on a job – whenever he needs it.

“The Timberline job costing module and ordering systems are excellent cost-controlling tools. We are currently doing an alteration that’s a NZ$700,000 project, and another NZ$1.6 million dollar new home - and we know exactly where we are on both of these.”

Sage Timberline Office products have also increased efficiency at Allwood Manning. With the Sage Timberline accounting package, GST claims and PAYE paperwork are handled in a matter of minutes.

“I believe we have the infrastructure in place to help the business grow substantially,” says de Latour. “We could quite easily double turnover without additional staff or new systems as Sage Timberline Office makes the business side of the company manageable. In fact, I’m quite surprised when I hear of companies larger than mine that aren’t using these products, because they are such a wonderful set of tools.”

The products were implemented with the assistance of Sage Timberline Solutions Partner, Project Systems. Chris Heyhoe, managing director of Project Systems said his team of Sage Timberline Office certified  consultants are available to walk customers like Allwood Manning through installation and training of each module, and to help with integration of the system.

For information on Sage Business Solutions
call 0800 904 409 or sales.pacific@sage.com

December 2006