Our Commitment to Innovation Through Accounting

By: Harkins Controller Jim Beck

While all departments within Harkins are integral to the company’s success, accounting is especially important and tends to be overlooked. Accounting in the construction industry is not only demanding, but the attention to detail is crucial to ensuring that trade partners are paid in a timely fashion, that our employee-owners are compensated bi-weekly, and that project financials are represented accurately, all while acting as a safeguard to protect corporate internal and external data. Utilizing the latest technology, we can continue to evolve as a leader in the industry and allow our accounting department to continue advancing.  

Procore is one of the most widely used construction software, allowing teams to collaborate while finishing quality projects safely, timely, and within budget. In 2015, this software was introduced to our accounting department, and the Commitment and Budgeting Module completely altered the way accounting and project teams functioned daily. The next step in accounting’s commitment to change happened in 2017 when a committee selected Viewpoint as the new document scanning and storage software to easily manage and access large quantities of project and corporate documents. This was a major upgrade from the antiquated filing system we used previously, and the move to this paperless system was an essential step in modernizing Harkins’ document storage and payment process.  

 With our accounting team’s next advancement, they will upgrade our current Oracle PeopleSoft version to the latest version to effectively manage a variety of different processes. This upgrade will allow a more integrated system that will streamline workflow and document storage of invoices. It will also consolidate the use of human resources’ many systems into one to eliminate duplication of data entry, while creating other efficiencies. With the extraordinary effort, patience, and flexibility of accounting, human resources, and project teams, we can expect a successful transformation by 2023. As we work together to upgrade our PeopleSoft application, we will remain focused and look to the future for the next opportunity to positively transform the way that Harkins operates through leadership of change and advancement through software enhancements.