Fence contractors invest in expensive equipment to ensure they can build fences faster, with better accuracy, and with less back-breaking effort. Foundation Repair contractors don't hesitate to use hydraulic jack systems to quickly and more precisely lift a house. Even painters and remodelers invest in equipment to help them work more efficiently and accurately. So why does the administrative side of the business often get left to "old school" processes with paper files, carbon copy contracts, and pain-staking redundancies? Change can be difficult. Much like investing in new equipment to help get the job done efficiently, taking your company paperless can result in a more streamlined workflow, saving you time and allowing you to keep up with your growing business more efficiently.

1. Organization

Have you ever lost a note with a critical piece of information and found yourself searching through your pile of sticky notes on your desk, flipping through your notebook, or digging under the seat of your truck to find it? With a paperless system, contact information, appointments, notes, and more can be easily located all in one place.

2. Accessibility

Ever been at a conference (or maybe on the golf course) when one of your crews calls about a job? When you're not on-site, it can be difficult and time-consuming to get information about the project, photos of the issue, and other critical pieces of information to help them. With a paperless system, all evaluation photos or notations, any estimates, and drawings, as well as internal notes, can be found with just a few clicks. You can support your team quickly and efficiently and get back to….whatever it is pulling you away from the office (ah-hum…. golfing).

3. Convenience

Every trip to a customer’s home costs you time and money. Gas prices hit an average of over $5 per gallon in June, causing contractors significant increases in overhead. By going paperless, sales teams adjust bids, scope changes, and contracts online and get signed agreements without making extra trips to drop off or pick up paperwork.

4. Reporting

It can be incredibly tedious digging through stacks of files to pull together data and produce a report by manually entering figures into a spreadsheet or calculator. When all leads, estimates, sales, and other data are in a digital format in one place, teams can use technology to automate reports quickly and with less margin of error.

5. Savings

While the direct cost of purchasing notebooks, carbon paper, gas, folders, and ink for the printer is obvious, the indirect cost savings of going paperless often far exceeds the expense of software. Indirect cost savings include:

• Creating efficiency that saves significant time for your team.
• Using technology to create automation reduces the risk of calculation errors or forgetful estimators.
• Ability to analyze reports to make business decisions based on actual data.

These things can save companies significant time and money so much that it often covers the cost of any technology investments made to shift to a paperless process.

About Contractor Accelerator

Thanks for reading our Blog. We would love to help you transition your business to a more digital process. Contractor Accelerator is a leading mobile software provider for residential contractors that seamlessly integrates job estimates, digital drawings, customer management, appointment scheduling, and more features in a single platform. The Kansas City based company focuses on creating easy-to-use technology for residential repair contractors to help them organize and automate their business and become more efficient to grow without sacrificing work-life balance. For more information, visit Contractor Accelerator at www.contractoraccelerator.com.