Case Study: NEI General Contracting Improves Quality and Consistency of Payroll with hh2 Cloud Services

Introduction

NEI General Contracting (NEIGC) was founded in 1998 in the United States and celebrated its 20-year anniversary in October of 2018. The company had a target revenue of $205 million as of 2017. NEIGC has approximately 161 employees, which are a mix of office and field employees.

The organization first came on board with hh2 as a Remote Payroll customer in November of 2017. As of Dec. 12, 2018, NEIGC is using hh2's Remote Payroll and Human Resources solution.

NEI General Contracting Workflow Prior to hh2

Before hh2 Remote Payroll, NEI used an Excel spreadsheet for timekeeping. The Excel file had to be completed each week, returned, and replied via email to the HR manager. Once it was processed, it was entered into the ERP system manually. NEIGC’s payroll process prior to hh2 was very labor-intensive and heavy on the administrative side.

“It was a nightmare,” stated Naomi Roback, HR manager at NEIGC.  “We had an in-house payroll and our process was such that time cards were due each Friday. They were submitted via Excel or PDF, like a paper timesheet. I would have to print them and hand key in all of our payroll and job costing.”

Overall, the process was inconsistent. Some employees would print PDF time cards, fill them out, scan and email them to the HR manager. Others would fill out an Excel spreadsheet and email it to the appropriate party. There was essentially no approval process in place. Once NEIGC’s HR manager received the time cards, they were printed, alphabetized, and hand keyed into the ERP solution. This process took upwards of 20 hours per week, equivalent to two and a half full working days every week.

How did hh2 Remote Payroll help NEI General Contracting?

With Remote Payroll, instead of employees submitting different versions of time cards and emailing them to the HR manager, everything has been streamlined to a simple process. Employees now submit their time with hh2 software that gives them access to a list of jobs, cost codes, and more that is synced over from NEIGC’s ERP solution. Any time entered is automatically saved in the cloud and available for approval on multiple levels.

“Everyone is on the same platform, which is huge,” said D’Anna. “Before, everyone had to get on their laptops and stop what they were doing to enter their time on an Excel sheet and get it in on time. Now, there’s no excuse for not getting your time in. You have it on your phone, your iPad or laptop, whatever device you have in front of you. You can easily enter your time or your crew’s time, submit it, sign off on it and you’re done. It’s so simple.”

Benefits of hh2 Remote Payroll

NEI General Contracting has benefited from using Remote Payroll in many ways. From time savings to added consistency throughout the process, NEIGC has improved its payroll process by:

• Eliminating double entry for HR managers and saving valuable time to complete other important tasks
• Enhancing the accuracy of time cards across NEIGC by eliminating the need to decipher illegible handwriting/inaccurate job costing
• Eliminating Excel timesheets, improving the overall consistency of time cards
• Increasing employee mobility with apps for tablets and smartphones
• Utilizing hh2’s seamless import and export tools available within Remote Payroll
• “One of the biggest benefits is there has definitely been a huge time savings for me because there is less chasing,” exclaimed Roback. “With the printing of the PDF time cards, I can just hit ‘print’ and they all come out. I don’t have to sort them or do anything, it’s just a click of a button.”

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“hh2 Remote Payroll has really helped out the guys in the field,” said D’Anna. "When they’re on the run or trying to build something, instead of having to go back to the trailer, now they can enter their time from their iPads or smartphones from where ever they are. They can use any device, whether they’re on the job site, on the beach, or in the office. It’s a much quicker process.”

Results

For NEI General Contracting, Remote Payroll has changed the way payroll is processed and has cut the amount of time in half. Remote Payroll has completely eliminated double entry for NEIGC’s HR manager, and the consistency and accuracy of time cards have greatly improved across the organization. The different interfaces and the mobility that hh2 brings have made entering and submitting time so much easier for NEI.

“Overall, there has been a huge improvement in getting everyone’s time entered, processed, and exported into our accounting system,” said D’Anna. “That has been huge. It’s just so much more efficient, and that’s our goal here is to be more efficient every day with everything we do. hh2 Remote Payroll has definitely helped with that.”

Roback adds, “I would definitely recommend hh2 Remote Payroll because it has changed the way we process payroll for the better. The ease of the software and how much free time is has given me to work on other important items...I love hh2; I have from the beginning. From the start, it’s just been a great addition to our process. It’s totally changed it.”

About NEI General Contracting

NEI General Contracting was founded in 1998.  NEIGC is a general contracting firm based out of Massachusetts with operations in Florida, as well. The organization prides itself on its values, commitment to clients, and quality of workmanship. For more information about NEI General Contracting, visit www.neigc.com.

Contact(s): Aaron D’Anna, IT director, and Naomi Roback, HR manager, at NEI General Contracting

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About hh2 Cloud Services

hh2 Cloud Services was formed in 2004 to create mobile solutions that were built to add mobility to standard construction workflows. Now, hh2 creates a broad range of cloud-based solutions for gathering and reporting on time, entering daily logs, managing human resources processes, accounts payable routing and approval, credit card transaction routing and approval, service management, data aggregation, and full-featured accounting integration. For more information on hh2 Cloud Services, or if you’re interested in a free demonstration of hh2 Field Reports, visit us online at www.hh2.com. To stay up to date with the latest at hh2, like and follow us on Facebook!

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