Diamond-R-Electric Success Story

Rob Rhoades started Diamond-R-Electric in 2005 based on three core values: Honesty, integrity and fairness. The Enterprise, Alabama-based electrical company’s principles are providing customers with what they say, for how much they say, when they say it. Rhoades’ knowledgeable technicians provide top-quality service to a broad client base in southeast Alabama.

Rhoades knew back in 2005 that the traditional method of using paper timecards for payroll wasn’t going to fit his needs. With just six employees at that time, it took his bookkeepers one hour per employee to process payroll. Rhoades needed something fast, accurate, efficient and simple for his work crew out and bookkeepers. That’s why he turned to ExakTime.

Now managing 26 employees working up to 70 jobsites at a time, Rhoades couldn’t be happier he automated his payroll back in 2005 with ExakTime solutions. 

“Payroll was such a laborious task,” he said. “Numbers were never correct. It took about six hours per pay period. I couldn’t imagine how that would translate to now.”

“Today, we’re a $4 million company. ExakTime products are one of the few pieces that we could not function without,” Rhoades added.

Rhoades said his payroll, which reaches up to $550,000 annually, has seen an increase in savings each year since he started using ExakTime’s portable and mobile solutions. Including direct and indirect costs, he said Diamond-R-Electric saves $45,000 to $50,000 each year by using ExakTime’s products.

His biggest surprise about the system was finding how easy it was to implement with his workers. From the start, 80 percent of his employees liked the simple idea of clocking in and out with their own PIN number on mobile devices. The other 20 percent followed shortly.

“Now they love it because they don’t have to deal with paper timecards and don’t have to remember where they were last Tuesday,” Rhoades said. “All the guesswork is out for them.”

Rhoades said his company relies heavily on historical data, and TimeSummit, ExakTime’s reporting software, produces unique reports that fit Rhoades’ needs, whether that means bidding, estimating or tracking cost codes. He then transfers all of his records from TimeSummit to his accounting software, QuickBooks, using ExakTime’s integration tool, AccountLinx. Payroll processing now takes him less than an hour for his entire workforce.

“Our clients marvel at our accuracy, and I laugh because it’s so simple,” Rhoades said. “It’s neatly formatted down to the hundredth of a minute, and it looks like you have spent hours on it. The fact is, it actually took less time to do payroll with that degree of accuracy than just to throw a number on a page… ExakTime makes us look like geniuses.”

Rhoades has also been highly impressed with the ExakTime team in Calabasas, California.

“Y’all are the exception to the rule,” he said. “A live human is on the other end of the phone, and it’s a huge plus. They get it and understand what the goal is. ExakTime knows its customers very well.”

Rhoades can confidently say to this point that ExakTime has helped him run his business more efficiently and capture the trust of his clients throughout the years.

“I could not live without it,” he said.

“Given our current business climate,” Rhoades added, “businesses are constantly looking for ways to trim costs, increase efficiency and be more competitive. ExakTime offers solutions to all three in one package.

“How many other companies can make this claim and virtually guarantee the results? I feel that having implemented ExakTime’s solutions right before the economic downturn better enabled us to not only survive, but to actually grow during these times.”