A growing number of customers are discovering the power of Groundplan integrations. 

No integration is more popular than our connection to Simpro. But how does it actually benefit your workflow? Rex from Groundplan sat down with long-time user BJ Barlin to hear from someone who is very familiar with the process.

Integrated Powerhouse

Electrical automation business Integrated Powerhouse has been in business for twenty six years. They cover everything from lighting design, engineering, electricals, audio/visual and security. They’ve built a reputation as the one-stop shop for architecturally designed homes on the Gold Coast in Australia.

Owner, BJ Barlin, has become a respected authority in his field. 

With fourteen staff on the road, the business runs what we call the ultimate tech stack for any trade business of its size. Groundplan accurately prices up jobs, Simpro manages the jobs, and Xero manages the financials. All business operations are tracked, monitored, and measured.

Accurate, up-to-date pricing in Simpro

In Simpro, Pre-builds are at the heart of any good pricing setup. Pre-builds are grouped collections of materials and labour. It’s like building your own internal templating system. Once your Pre-builds are configured and priced properly in Simpro, then all you need is an accurate count of how many of these pre-builds are required for the job.

“Once you have all the templates done, that’s the key to your success”
‍- BJ Barlin, Integrated Powerhouse

Simpro holds the price and the labour rates with automatically updated pricing from the wholesaler so BJ can be confident he’s priced correctly. When the invoice is sent from Simpro, a copy is also sent to Xero.

“The integration of Groundplan & Simpro is integral in our business”

Purchasing is accurately tracked so the Purchasing Officer or BJ himself knows when, where, and who purchased materials for a job.

Crucial quantities in Groundplan

Up-to-date, accurate pricing is the first step, but accurate quantities are equally crucial.

It wasn’t until BJ started using Groundplan that he realised he’d been falling short by an average of 18% on his estimates. 

“I told you to F off, until I ran the numbers myself”

Earlier, we mentioned Pre-Builds. A similar concept can be found in Groundplan with Takeoff Templates, which are groups of items regularly used as a group and saved in your account for use on any project.

One Bill of Quantities, from quote to delivery on-site

Once the quantities are defined and quoted and the job is won, you’ve got a complete bill of quantities ready for purchase ordering. 

In other words, the same list that's been counted from the plan, is the same list that’s been quoted and it’s the same list that gets ordered and the same list that gets delivered to site.

“The thing I like about Simpro is that I can see everything that’s being purchased. Nothing can be deleted.”

BJ also likes to make sure the guys in the field have a copy of the plan. That way they can see exactly what’s been quoted. Room for error is minimised, and then some.

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We’d like to thank BJ Barlin from Integrated Powerhouse for his time.

He’s been a long-time advocate for building better business systems and we think he’s hit the sweet spot.