“We save about 3.5 hours each week by using the material supplier integrations in AccuLynx.”
| Training & Process Coordinator| Yellowhammer Roofing
How Yellowhammer Roofing used AccuLynx + Beacon to improve estimating accuracy and save time
Yellowhammer Roofing has been servicing customers throughout Alabama and Tennessee since 2001. As the company grew over the years—with the help of AccuLynx’s all-in-one roofing business management software—their teams saw first-hand the role technology played in improving productivity.
Challenges with quoting material costs
AccuLynx has helped Yellowhammer Roofing centralize their information and streamline many of their internal processes since they became a customer more than 5 years ago. However, when it came to pulling up-to-date material pricing into estimates, there was still a significant amount of manual work for their staff.
The company orders almost all of their materials from Beacon Building Products. Every week, one of their production managers would visit the Beacon Pro+ website and manually update material costs in their AccuLynx account’s “Company Library” so they could ensure they were including the most accurate pricing in every job estimate they sent out.
This process was time-consuming and further complicated by economic factors facing the roofing industry. Fluctuations in material pricing and product availability made it harder to quote jobs. Some of their estimates didn’t reflect the true cost of materials or included products that were out of stock. The company knew they needed to get ahead of this or it could negatively impact their profits and overall sales.
“Inaccuracies with a job’s estimate often didn’t come to light until the day of install,” explained Chrissy Boyd, Training and Process Coordinator for Yellowhammer Roofing. “Material handlers had to scramble to deal with these issues, and the project would be delayed while we waited for the correct materials to be delivered.”
New integration brings Beacon’s supply catalog into AccuLynx
All of this changed for Yellowhammer Roofing in the spring of 2022 when AccuLynx and Beacon joined forces to combine their industry-leading offerings, integrating Beacon’s supply catalog into the AccuLynx business management platform.
This software integration allowed them to see their real-time material costs as they created an estimate, quickly create a material order from that estimate, place the order directly to their preferred Beacon branch, and track the status of the order—all without leaving AccuLynx.
Boyd said, “Being able to see what products are in stock at a particular branch, along with our Beacon account pricing, has made it so much easier to create an accurate estimate quickly.”
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Hours saved each week
Estimates that once needed to be thoroughly reviewed can be reconciled in minutes, totaling an average time savings of 3.5 hours per week. “Now, we don’t have to worry about errors from transferring information from one system into another slowing us down,” Boyd said.
With improved estimating capabilities, Yellowhammer Roofing’s sales teams have confidence they are pricing their jobs accurately. They are able to deliver better customer service while capitalizing on upselling opportunities. “Our teams have more information at their fingertips that they can use during the sales process,” according to Boyd. “For example, if a customer is looking at two different shingle options, we can price both out on the fly.”
The integration streamlined Yellowhammer’s ordering process as well. Right away, the production team noticed it was much easier and faster to place orders. “Before we started using the Beacon integration in AccuLynx, it was really time-consuming to order materials when you have the volume that we do,” said Boyd. Now Yellowhammer sends their orders directly to their Beacon branch from AccuLynx without having to log into the Beacon Pro+ website.
Boyd concludes, “AccuLynx’s integration with Beacon immediately had a positive impact on our company. Our teams have more time to focus on servicing customers, selling more jobs, and ensuring overall profitability for the company.”