Classic Quality Painting Success Story

Ben Golde, owner and founder of Classic Quality Painting in Charleston, South Carolina, realizes that anyone can put paint on a wall, but his 12-year-old business has proven that the prep work before a job is as important as any other element in his field.

Although Golde feels his staff’s preparation gives his business an edge, Classic Quality Painting faced a major problem in the summer of 2009. The business owner had tried just about everything to better track his 15-employee staff, but nothing - from subcontracting his workers to handwritten timesheets - seemed to be working. Golde was losing money and needed a solution to save his business.

"Our profitability was never there, but I knew it should have been," Golde said. "It just didn’t make sense. The amount of hours written down didn’t seem to add up to what I was seeing out in the field."

Everything changed when Golde’s wife found Exaktime on the Internet. After some reluctance, Golde purchased The ExakTime System, and, immediately, he reaped the benefits.

It was amazing to him when he saw how inaccurate his paper timecards had been. Golde realized he had been overpaying workers for undelivered labor every week - sometimes by as much as seven hours. By using the ExakTime’s portable time clock, the JobClock, and ExakTime’s mobile time tracking software, PocketClock/GPS, Golde saw his weekly payroll drop from the $7,000 range down to about $5,000.

The money he saved allowed his company to stay afloat during tough economic times. And personally, it allowed Golde to keep his home.

"Being a small company like we are, spending $3,000 to $5,000 at once is a big chunk of money," Golde said. "I was very short-sighted in seeing the benefits right away... but if I had not made that move, I would not be in business right now, and I would have lost my house."

Within two months, The ExakTime System paid for itself, and Golde said implementing the JobClock in his business was easier than he expected. The time and attendance system alleviated a huge problem he previously had with employees: arguing over time. The relationship with his employees has changed as a result of the automated timesheets.

"It improved the overall morale of our guys," he said. "They were always upset when I changed their timesheets to what I thought they had worked. Every Monday I had a line of workers that were unhappy that I didn’t pay them for all the hours they wrote down, and I had no proof."

Nearly a year after making his first purchase with Exaktime, Golde couldn’t be more thankful for the time and attendance system that saved his business. He speaks highly of the Exaktime support staff and has recommended the JobClock to other business owners as well.

When looking back at his purchase, he has only one regret.

"I wish I listened to my wife about a year before I actually bought it," he said.