Part 2 of 4
If you have not read part 1, then click here
Life always has some curve balls for us. In the late 1990’s after a major life event within my family, I personally started to lose the day-to-day desire to keep the business moving forward. Remembering my motto “grow your construction business”, I made the decision to bring in a “trusted” friend as an equal partner in our construction business. I put complete faith and financial control of our business in this new partner, and I went back to site management of our projects.
A new software for the building industry
Unfortunately, I let this new partner convince me that we should implement a different software for the building industry . Once we implemented the new software, I realised that I did not have the confidence in my builder costs. The reporting did not seem to reflect by true builder costs. The job costing software module didn’t seem to clearly reflect profits etc. The construction accounting software processes were abysmal compared to Bizprac, which I had been using. As a result, the new partner was now providing me with spreadsheet reporting. He needed to fill the gaps where this new software for the building industry was lacking.
Lost Control of My Business
Sadly, due to the lack of transparency of the new builders software, specifically , builder costs, purchases and accounting, our new partner proceeded to hide where he was. He stripped project profits by inflating invoices and cash sharing with subbies as well as other transgressions. All of which he was able to smoke screen through the spreadsheet reporting.
In hindsight, my previous software for the building industry (Bizprac) would have highlighted any transgressions as overruns on a project due to the accuracy in its job costing software module.
When I became aware of these transgressions I approached my business partner on all matters, he continued to use his spreadsheets to cover his dodgy builder costs /transactions. Not only did he show he wasn’t doing anything untoward, but the business owed him large sums of unpaid contributions and unpaid wages.
Looking back now, had I continued to use my previous software (Bizprac), I would not have lost control over the business. My previous software for the building industry, as you may recall was specifically designed construction accounting software and construction payroll software.
Bizprac Software for Building Industry
After all this I was able to reinstate my Bizprac software for builders. I then rebuilt the project data, and the company’s bank records and clearly identified all that had been happening. It was a simple process of tracking all the money in and money out transactions, as well as further information from subbies not involved in the dodgy practices.
If you would like to see how I managed to uncover the underhanded dealings of my business partner then stay tuned for the next instalment of …
So I guess you could say “I loved the product so much – I bought the business”
