John Riley, Founder of Riley Custom Homes in Annapolis, Maryland, has been running his business for over 30 years with the values of Quality, Integrity, and Vision. Staying true to those values has been made easier with the use of ConstructionSuite. "It's like Night and Day," said John, regarding the difference ConstructionSuite has made in their daily activities.

Riley Custom Homes has been a leader in custom homes and renovations in the Anne Arundel and Queen Anne Counties in Maryland for over 30 years. Riley Custom Homes can do anything from bathroom renovations to high-end custom homes and they stay busy because of their dedication to Quality, Integrity, and Vision. Uncompromising quality and superior customer service are the guiding principles in each job they do, and their recently completed 7,000 Square Foot Waterfront custom home in Annapolis is the perfect example. From the immaculate kitchen to the spacious game room, Riley Custom Homes knows how to incorporate precision and high quality in each aspect of a job.

The high quality results immediately draw prospective clients to Riley Custom Homes, but their use of ConstructionSuite affects what they present to clients, and definitely in a positive way. "The way we present an estimate really helps us justify our numbers. Seeing the estimate broken down bit by bit helps our clients understand where the price is and why," John Riley says, "It definitely helps us secure jobs because we can break it down for them instead of just giving them the bottom line." The detail available in estimating, scheduling, as well as the contracts, truly helps the Riley team stay organized and on top of everything in their daily activities.

The need for an improved estimating process is what sent Riley Custom Homes looking for software. Initially using simple spreadsheets, they started searching for a software program that would make their estimating better, easier, and quicker. While it took using a few different programs to find the perfect one, everything seemed to click together when they found ConstructionSuite. "We were looking for something that could integrate our estimating - that was our main goal. We had tried a few different programs that were just way too complicated and we spent way too much time keeping up with them. Honestly, they were also just way too difficult to manage..." said John Riley, "We wanted something that could help us do our estimating while still keeping it relatively quick and simple." ConstructionSuite does that for his team at Riley Custom Homes.

Not only does ConstructionSuite improve their estimating process, it also provides them with an outstanding organization system for their daily activities. Riley Custom Homes uses the ConstructionSuite Premier Version which includes company management tools like To Do List, Workflow Management, and Insurance Tracking. One of the most helpful tools, Workflow Management, is a dynamic resource that users take advantage of to keep each project progressing with ease and accuracy. Workflow Templates for each project type are available so each Project Workflow acts as a big picture checklist of the major points within each project, truly keeping all team members on the right track when working on projects.

John Riley is extremely pleased with how much ConstructionSuite has done to advance Riley Custom Homes. He says, "It's done a lot to improve my business - mainly it's been very helpful for us to create estimates and track our costs throughout each project... it's just much more powerful than the spreadsheets that we used to use." ConstructionSuite has also improved his business in the sense that it has saved Riley Custom Homes time and money. "We can do so much more with ConstructionSuite and it organizes everything so much better than what we did before - it's like night and day as far as I'm concerned," John says, "it's really helped us and it's probably gotten us quite a bit of work because we can give better numbers, better prices, and we're able to quickly send something over to a client where they can see the numbers completely broken down."

In addition to the estimating tools, the feature that John finds most beneficial is the QuickBooks Integration. ConstructionSuite users can transfer account, customer, and item information over to QuickBooks, enabling them to easily create estimates, invoices, and purchase orders. This integration makes things so much easier for the user, but more importantly, removes the margin for error because users don't have to enter the same information into both programs. John says, "The QuickBooks Integration works out really well for us because it saves our Office Manager so much time. We're also really excited to start using the Application for Payment features with QuickBooks Integration as well." The QuickBooks integration also gives users more flexibility with the Application for Payment system, which enables users to effortlessly generate industry-standard payment applications ready to be printed on AIA G702 and G703 forms. The Application for Payment feature is included in ConstructionSuite Premier Version and higher.

Riley Custom Homes currently has four licenses of ConstructionSuite Premier, which enables them to have the software on four different computers, all of which are connected by UDA ProjectSync. "We really like that we are connected to share information," said John, "Our Office Manager uses it for QuickBooks, the Estimator uses it to create all of our estimates, the Project Coordinator uses it to track all of our costs coming and going, and I use it to review all of the estimates and see where we are on everything... I couldn't image not being able to have everyone in the office use it together." UDA ProjectSync enables multi-users to stay connected and maximize team productivity, increase profits, and decrease costly miscommunication.