Happsa Group, one of Australia’s fastest growing cleaning companies, has kicked off 2020 with a systems project that aligns with its business vision of continuous improvement.

Happsa has made its mark on the industry by offering clients a holistic service portfolio across cleaning, maintenance and security. Organic growth from a single contract in Melbourne to a multifaceted organisation that services clients across Australia, has driven the need for systems improvement.

“As the business grew, we realised it needed a solid IT foundation. We want to ensure our systems support our business growth and levels of customer service” says Harry Georgiou, Group MD of Operations at Happsa Group.

The management team reviewed a number of small, separated systems that provide solutions in the cleaning space. One of the draw-backs of this approach was that the business would rely on a number of systems that don’t talk to each-other. “There would be no one-version of the truth” said Angelo Tsonis, Group MD of Corporate Services.

Happsa decided to implement Templa CMS with Facility ERP. Angelo continues “Our senior management team, many of them who have worked with Templa CMS before wanted a single solution to answer our questions, rather than spending time on gathering information from multiple sources. We realised that a single source of truth would also deliver customers with information that is reliable and timely”

Happsa will implement Templa CMS across Accounts, Payroll and Operations. Payroll will be streamlined with time and attendance to create client visibility of staff activities on-site.

“We are delighted to work with Happsa. I’ve been tracking their progress as a cleaning business over the last few years and can see a great future ahead for the team. Their dedication to excellence and customer service is evident in all they do and I’m looking forward to seeing it supported by our solution” says Mark Fermor from Facility ERP.

Cleaning companies are always looking for the magic bullet that will give them an edge over the competition. The secret lies deeper than you may think.

It’s no secret that contract cleaners are under growing pressure to provide ever expanding benefits to clients. Mobile Quality Audits, Customer Portal and Time & Attendance have been hot topics in the last few years, and as a result an ever-growing number of software providers have popped up in these areas.

Cleaning Companies that adopt these “quick-and-easy” solutions without applying structural system change gain little to no benefit. They may offer a new feature to clients, but at what price? It’s added yet another system to learn, feed and manage onto an ever-growing list. If your business is in this cycle, the following may sound familiar:

Finding accurate reports quickly is impossible, because they need to be manually created from various systems. They may not always be accurate either!Information is entered into many systems. There is always a lag!Contract information is scattered all over the place. Excel, Outlook, Finance & Payroll each hold pieces of the puzzle. There is no one version of the truth!There is no clear indication of what is being missed, you only find out when clients complain

No isolated piece of software, however innovative it may be solves the problem of an unstructured, unintegrated system strategy. So, what does the solution look like?

1 - Fully Integrated: Operations, Payroll and Finance

How many systems in your business holds the following Site based information?

BudgetsInvoicing (Contracted, Additional Work, Stock Recharge)PeriodicalsQuality AuditsMaterials, Consumables and Recharge Stock with SDS’sStaff Rosters with Award DetailsEmployee training recordsEquipment items and T&T datesSubcontractor agreementsProfit & Loss Reporting

Having one solution to control this vital record and all transactions related to it, is the foundation of a healthy cleaning company. This is a principle that cannot be ignored.

Now consider Additional Chargeable Work. How many systems are involved in the following process?

Quoting the client for the workRaising a Work Order and scheduling it with staff or a subcontractorConfirming the work has been performed to standard and completing itInvoicing the clientPaying the staff or subcontractor and not exceeding budgetTracking the client’s payment of the invoiceAccruing for the costs if the subcontractor has not invoiced yetSubmitting BAS/TPAR/STP to the ATO

If the answer is not one, then the foundation is not set for efficient transaction processing in your business.

One of our clients, David Johnson who is the General Manager at Zippy Cleaning & Maintenance Services describes the benefits of an integrated solution as follows:

“To have been able to eliminate three software packages into one has been a game changer for Zippy, this has allowed us to see our business in real-time with data we can trust. “

2 - Out-of-the-box software that fits your Cleaning Business

It’s vital to select software that was designed for your industry, because it comes with features designed the way you need it. All of our clients have been through the experience of “bending” Standard Accounting, Payroll or CRM systems to cater for the idiosyncratic nature of the cleaning industry.

These attempts cost a lot of money and time! It’s an endless money pit which is exacerbated when one of the systems needs an upgrade. Implementing new systems is hard enough, so make sure the solution you choose delivers from day one.

3 - Mobilize your field staff, properly

The need for Quality Audits brought many new apps to the market. Field staff quickly jumped on the opportunity to throw away paper forms and replace them with PDF generating apps that emailed clients completed forms. As these Apps brake rule number one (having an integrated solution) they provided no additional features that could assist Managers in other areas of their work.

What about the other functions Area Managers perform?

Raising quotesRaising additional Work OrdersCompleting jobs including PeriodicalsRaising Stock OrdersTracking site budgetsRaising Service Requests such as customer complaints and following them to completionCompleting staff training forms whilst on-site

It’s not feasible to have a separate App for each of the above. So, the only solution is one Mobile App that does it all as part of an integrated solution.

How can we help?

Facility ERP specialises in providing Fully Integrated ERP Solutions to the Cleaning Industry. Our clients take systems seriously by building efficiencies from the ground up.

Templa CMS is a Contract Management System designed for the Cleaning Industry. It does not have to be bent to fit your business, like most off the shelf applications. The benefits are clear:

It is designed specifically for contract cleaning and reflects cleaning pay structuresYou no longer need to enter the same client data to multiple systems, saving time and reducing the potential for administrative errorsYou further reduce admin by computerising time consuming tasks such as ordering and invoicing consumables‘Touch of a button’ reporting means you know the cost of your pay run before you process it. In fact, all costs and revenues can be budgeted and analysed down to site levelArea Managers can view and amend payroll data online and in real time, saving their time and your payroll department’s timeYou can schedule known future events in advance such as annual contract increases or periodic work, reducing the risk of clients not being charged correctly or at allField managers perform site-based tasks on their mobile devices, with data transmitting automatically to and from HQYou can share key information with clients, fostering more trusting relationships

Where to start?

If you are serious about giving your business the right system foundations, give us a call. We will arrange a consulting session to tell you where the issues lie and what can be done to resolve them.

Some of the leading Commercial Cleaning Companies in Australia, New Zealand, UK, Ireland and Island have laid the foundation for their business to grow with our solutions.

Call us on 03 8899 6683 or email info@facilityerp.com.au

It’s no secret that margins in contract cleaning are under pressure, and looking at the economy in Australia this financial year is going to be tight. According to research the average net profit margin amongst the top 1,000 cleaning companies is less than 4%. So for a company with a turnover of $ 10 Million that’s a $ 400,000 reward for 12 months of hard work - a figure that could easily be wiped out without tight financial control.

The concern for the cleaning industry at large is that hundreds, if not thousands of companies may not make any profit at all this year. But if the 4% average margin is right, it begs the question, “Without compromising service, what can be done about the 96% that represents a cleaning contractor’s cost base?”

Most contractors I meet use a combination of off-the-shelf packages and spreadsheets to run their key business processes. In doing so they experience the frustration of managing several unconnected systems (and suppliers), most of which don’t cater for the idiosyncratic nature of the cleaning industry.

As a result, when is comes to tight budget control, I am constantly met with the following fundamental failures:

1 - Budgeting for payroll by hours only

Australia offers cleaning companies the Modern Cleaning Award to navigate. As a result the pay variances between Full Time, Part Time and Casuals can be as high as 35%.

The vast majority of potential customers I meet set wage budgets in hours only. A common trait is that “Excel” is used for timesheets and hourly budgets are tracked here. Area Managers fill these in and send them off to Payroll for processing. If the hours match then staff are paid without any questions being raised.

The main problem with this method is that there is no financial check against the resulting pay those hours represent. If a Part-Time worker covers for a Full-Timer, the resulting Gross Pay will be at least 15% higher. What’s more concerning is when the resulting pay is Overtime, because the employee who covers worked more than 7.6 hours on the day.

Once you add on-costs to this increase, your margin is rapidly eroding! Portable Long Service Leave in Victoria has now added 1.8% to contractors ordinary wages bill, so it’s more important than ever to track budgets pro-actively by looking at the Dollar value.

2 - Wages budget, fortnight-by-fortnight

Most companies review their wages budget once all hours have been entered at the end of a fortnight. Even with some level of budget control it’s far too late to intervene in overspending, as cleaners expect to be paid irrespective of the site’s budget position.

Most contractors lack the ability to see their daily budget position, and therefore cannot adjust hours proactively to stay on target for the fortnight.

The main issues are:

Lagging in the capturing of actual start and finish timesNo Real-Time Award Interpretation

A business only has to overspend on a few fortnights to loose it’s 4% margin on some contracts.

3 - Materials & POC Consumables ordered without budget control

Most cleaning companies “budget” for Materials during the tender process by adding a % of the contracts income value to the cost. This figure varies between 3-5% and I’m always surprised at how little control (if any) takes place from that moment forward.

Most finance packages do not understand the nature of ‘Material Budgets’ by site, so the business relies on external systems (perhaps Excel again?) to manually track expenditure.

What’s more, the complexity in splitting purchases between “Rechargeable Goods” or “Materials” means orders have been placed long before anyone is aware that the budget has already been blown.

The fundamental elements in this problem can be defined as:

The lacking of standard systems to set material budgets by SiteThe inability to trap orders that will exceed budget before they are placedManaging stock in multi systems that do not talk

How an integrated management solution can help in 2020

Integrated business software can’t clean buildings, but it does control the cost of doing so by making processes more efficient. The way it works is that a single, central database stores all client data which business ‘modules’ then use to process daily tasks and transactions.

The benefits are simple:

It is designed specifically for contract cleaning and reflects cleaning pay structuresYou no longer need to enter the same client data to multiple systems, saving time and reducing the potential for administrative errors You further reduce admin by computerising time consuming tasks such as ordering and invoicing consumables‘Touch of a button’ reporting means you know the cost of your pay run before you process it. In fact all costs and revenues can be budgeted and analysed down to site level Area Managers can view and amend payroll data online and in real time, saving their time and your payroll department’s time You can schedule known future events in advance such as annual contract increases or periodic work, reducing the risk of clients not being charged correctly or at all Field managers perform site-based tasks on their mobile devices, with data transmitting automatically to and from HQYou can share key information with clients, fostering more trusting relationships

Cleaning Services providers will need to provide a Taxable payments annual report (TPAR) by 28 August each year.

The TPAR tells the ATO about payments that are made to contractors for providing services. Some government entities also need to report the grants they have paid in a TPAR.

Contractors can include subcontractors, consultants and independent contractors. They can be operating as sole traders (individuals), companies, partnerships or trusts.

The details you need to report about each contractor are generally found on the invoice you should have received from them. This includes:

their Australian business number (ABN), if knowntheir name and addressgross amount you paid to them for the financial year (including any GST).

The ATP will use this information to identify contractors who haven't met their tax obligations.

All Facility ERP Clients have been provided with the required reports and are fully TPAR compliant.

Single Touch Payroll for Cleaning Companies places a requirement on all businesses to submit payroll information to the ATO in real-time.

All Facility ERP customers now have a fully compliant solution. After each payrun the system will send YTD employee totals to the ATO. This means a business no longer needs to submit the MDUP file.

Cleaning Companies realise cost for each hour an employee works on-site. Let's look at an example...A Full Time Level 1 Cleaner works 76 hours in a two weekly period. At the current base rate of $ 20.21 they will be paid $ 1,535.96

However, the business has just "realised" the following additional costs which will at some point need to be paid out:

1 - Annual Leave Accrual

2 - Superannuation

3 - Payroll Tax

4 - Annual Leave on Annual Leave

5 - Superannuation on Annual Leave

Simply put, the true cost to the Business and Site is higher than just the Gross Pay. Looking at just Annual Leave, the employee has accrued 5.85 Hours of AL.

That means the business at some point will need to pay this out to the employee. Therefor the true cost to the site should also include $ 118.15 of AL Accrual Cost.

Templa CMS has now been modified to automatically accrue these very real costs..Get in touch to find out more..

It seems our telephone provider has gone out of business leaving us with no phones for the day! We have also had to change our number and it's now 03-8899-6683.

Facility ERP has partnered with CleanJack, a Dutch based Time & Attendance solution to further expand it's product offering to Cleaning and Facilities Management Companies.

CleanJack works on a unique basis whereby a Cleaner or Site based device is purchased. Most cheap and cheerful T&A solutions today rely on cleaners phones to function properly. This introduces a number of operational issues which interfere with the process. "I have no data", or "my phone is not working" are just some of the common problems experienced by cleaners..CleanJack eliminates these problems.

Facility ERP Director Mark Fermor believes CleanJack will be a premium solution for clients that take Time and Attendance seriously. "Downloading a T&A app is so easy these days...but comes with so many operational challenges. No matter how good the app is, it always relies on a Cleaners phone and data to function properly. CleanJack has proven that a device fit for purpose is much more reliable, so we see this product benefiting our customers who require 99.9% accurate information"

Kaylene Ward has joined Facility ERP as our System Implementation Consultant. She has a wealth of experience and will be managing all new and existing client projects. Welcome Kaylene!

Facility ERP is recruiting for a Support Consultant. Attached is a Job Spec...Feel free to get in contact if you are interested or if you know someone who might suite this role.

Minster Cleaning Services with over 40 franchise branches has chosen Templa CMS as it's Contract Cleaning Enterprise System. The franchise will be using Templa CMS Core with Accounts and Payroll, Customer Services, Quality Audits, Dashboards and Advanced Data Forms.

Templa was chosen as the preferred solution out of 4 system evaluated.

Mike Parker, Managing Director explained: “A combination

of Templa’s reputation, their understanding of our business

model and their comprehensive training proposals made

Templa CMS the obvious solution for us.”

Templa Mobile Version 2.06 is now the latest with a number of performance improvements. Please ensure all devices are updated to this version.

Important note to all out clients...Remember:

- Create the new Financial Year in your HR3 system before you process your next payrun

- Ensure you have done a financial year-end in Dimensions for June 2016

Matthew Collings of Collings Property Services, who is one of our clients in Tasmania and a fantastic chap told me a story about one of their clients not so long ago. I asked if I could quite his comments on the front-page of our website, and I thought I would use it as an example of what our solutions are all about.

Many companies who we meet that use systems like MYOB, Quickbooks and Xero are always pretty confident that they are making a profit, and as the bottom line says so they are obviously right. What none of them can quickly comment on is which sites/contract are making the most and why...And which ones are loosing them money and why.

The purpose of our solutions is to give your business exactly this capability. Find the best sites and make sure they are happy...Find the worst sites and turn them around.

With margins of between 3-10% it's critical to find the sub-zero sites and turn them around!

It's been 5 successful years in Australia and New Zealand servicing the Contract Cleaning and FM market. Our consultants have helped hundreds of users and thousands of cleaning staff improve their business through Advanced Cleaning Software.

Today we have decided to change the business name to Facility ERP. Our solutions improve not just the systems in cleaning companies but across the FM spectrum. Thanks to all our customers for being so great and all their support!