Migrating to RedSky’s latest construction and accounting system will give Walker Construction real-time information on costs and speed up the end-of-month reporting process.
Walker Construction has been a RedSky (and previously Buildax) customer for more than 30 years. Migrating from the AXiM legacy system to RedSky’s latest software has been on the cards for some time, but with so many staff now working remotely, it has become a business priority.
Finance Director Paul King said: “The arrival of Covid-19 has forced us to work in a completely different way. I can’t see things changing significantly for the foreseeable future.”
Before the pandemic, authorisations were taking place outside of the system. That was a fairly straightforward process when team members were working in the same building, but with so many people now working from home, approvals of invoices and subcontractor payments have become far more complicated.
RedSky’s Workflow and Approvals module will resolve these difficulties by facilitating electronic approvals within the system. “It’s going to be a lot slicker,” said Paul.
It’s a similar story for invoice processing – invoices are currently scanned manually, but the scanned images are not linked to the system, so people can’t see them easily, having to access and find the file from a network drive containing all invoice copies. To remedy this, the company will be implementing RedSky’s Invoice Register, which will provide an image of the invoice on the system, linked to the contract it relates to.
Walker is implementing RedSky’s Purchase Order Processing and Subcontractor Processing too. The Accounts team currently matches purchase orders to GRNs [goods received notes] manually and enters them on the system. After the migration, all the matching will be done automatically, freeing up staff time and reducing the risk of error.
“We will have far better visibility on committed contract costs as they come through,” said Paul. “Rather than relying on the end-of-month report produced by the Accounts team, our Commercial Managers will be able to build up their knowledge throughout the month. Having that insight at an earlier stage will be a big help.”
Business Analytics is also included in Walker’s migration package. Paul will initially restrict access to the Directors, Contract Managers, Project Managers and the Commercial Team, but eventually, he plans to roll it out across the company.
Implementation of the latest software will begin in November, with a view to going live on 1 April 2021, the start of the new financial year. Walker has taken advantage of RedSky’s 0% finance deal, which is enabling it to spread the cost of the migration across 12 monthly payments, at no extra cost.
Based in Ashford, Walker Construction (UK) Ltd is a multi-disciplined construction company delivering building, civil and rail projects across a diverse range of industry sectors. It combines experience and professional in-house services with technical innovation and sustainable construction solutions.
To find out more about RedSky’s construction-specific software solutions, fill out our Contact Form, email us at hello@redskyit.com or telephone 44 (0)20 3002 8700.
