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E-based client pre-billing approvals make invoicing
much easier.
Comsys, a Houston-based Forbes 500 Top
Private Company, helps IT organizations operate more productively
and profitably. Over 3,800 salaried and vendor consultants are
spread among 40 company offices plus innumerable home offices.
Clients include 70 percent of the Fortune 50 and 35 percent of
Fortune 500 companies.
With the nature of their business,
collecting time accurately is extremely important. For all too many
years, Comsys had been using a paper-based system. Consultants
throughout the country, each with their own individual billing code
and negotiated rate, faxed their time per project to a branch office
where data was manually input into a non-web based homegrown system.
This approach simply took too long and was subject to inaccuracies
and extraneous personnel costs.
As a result, Comsys decided
to move to a web-based system that would let consultants log time
from anywhere on their PCs. In addition, such a system could provide
a secure method of letting clients view and approve time posted to
their accounts prior to billing. Likewise, such a system could
notify consultants of changes to their timecards or notify them if a
timecard had not been received.
Hundreds of interface mapping
points
“We chose AutoTime for its functionalities and
Kaba-Benzing relationships,” explains Jay Izzo, Comsys project
manager. “We knew they could bring our homegrown front-end systems
together with AutoTime to facilitate billing as well as feed our
Deltek CostPoint 4.0C payroll system. As a by-product, there would
only be one entry point for HR with no updates needed and no
conversions required.
“AutoTime improves the accuracy of our
time recording and saves us money by reducing the need for data
entry personnel,” Izzo adds. “This system accelerates both billing
and payroll.”
Although the final solution is elegant in its
simplicity, getting there was not. The legacy system required
hundreds of mapping interface points in order to exchange all the
information necessary. Kaba Benzing took on the challenge along with
a dedicated team from Comsys and delivered the solution in less than
a year.
Billing is now faster and easier. Payroll is more
accurate.
Today, consultants log onto the system and see only
the project or projects on which they work. If the consultant only
works on one project, that is all that is shown. The consultant then
enters the time for that day.
Likewise, clients can log onto
a special AutoTime application and review the time spent on their
projects – and their projects alone. They can approve and/or
disapprove of time directly from their own PCs and even ask for
explanations.
Upon reception of this review, branch managers
can reconcile any discrepancies. To close the loop, the consultant
is apprised of any discrepancies and/or notified if a time input has
not been received. With two pay periods per month, consultants have
available a semi-monthly pay view of their timecards. Two days after
the end of the pay period, the 40 branch managers enter the time for
all consultants.
In the consulting business, there is no
truer cliché than “time is money.”
With its new AutoTime
system providing web-based time and labor reporting, Comsys has
expedited the recording and billing of time. Today, there are no
surprises at billing or payroll. Both clients and consultants know
what is being billed beforehand.
For more information:
Rohini
Uppal
KABA BENZING
954-416-1720, x361
ruppal@kbm.kaba.com
Tom Brigham
BRIGHAM
SCULLY
818-716-9021
tbrigham@brighamscully.com
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