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Case Study |
DAISy - the D. Lawton Associates Administrative Information System
D. Lawton Associates had been using two DOS Paradox-based applications and two spreadsheets for
its internal billing, cash receipts, vendor payments, payroll and general ledger. The growth of our
consulting and development business and the increased complexity of our projects led to an increased
need for internal systems to reduce the administrative overhead of running our business.
Many of our requirements can be met by standard off-the-shelf solutions:
- We process vendor payments (e.g. Verizon) in much the same way as any other firm, so a standard A/P
module will easily meet our needs.
- While the calculation of pre-tax employee compensation is complicated by our unique incentive plan,
the calculation of withholding amounts and payroll taxes is dictated by federal and state laws and is
therefore consistent with an off-the-shelf payroll module.
- Our general ledger requirements are consistent with any small consulting business, and can therefore
be met by nearly any standard accounting software.
There are several areas where our business is unique, justifying the investment in software to meet
our needs:
- Each of our consultants reports the hours they work, in support of the billing process. In addition
to tracking time by client, project and consultant, we track time by task so that we can manage our project
at the task level. Reported time is reviewed and approved by the managers of each project, before our
main office prints and mails client invoices.
- Our consultants have financial incentives to encourage them to participate in all aspects of our work
including not only billable work for clients but also marketing, project management and various internal
initiatives. It is also in our staff's financial interest to ensure that clients are pleased with our work.
Our administrative systems need to support this compensation strategy.
- Since we are a distributed office, all consulting-related portions of our system need to work at every
branch office, so it is accessible wherever our consultant happens to be.
After considering our options, we chose to address our needs with a semi-custom solution as follows: |
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| Unique Requirements |
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Off-the-Shelf Solution |
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| We are addressing our unique requirements by developing a custom application which we call DAISy in Delphi,
using a Microsoft SQL database. The core of our system is a central Rolodex which is accessible via our Windows
client, via the Web and via Palm PDAs. A complete contact management system is integrated with this central Rolodex,
providing clear visibility to our pipeline of upcoming and proposed projects. Consultants enter their work into a
time/billing module, which generates invoices and feeds financial and payroll information to the accounting system.
An integrated project planning and tracking system helps us develop project plans and track progress as consultants
complete their tasks. Our plan is to continue to invest in this custom solution as our business continues to grow. |
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We selected the Adapta accounting software, and purchased a license with source code for
their general ledger, accounts payable and payroll modules. Adapta was also written in Delphi and uses a Microsoft SQL
database, simplifying integration between DAISy and Adapta. Vendor payments are entered directly into Adapta, while payroll
entries and revenue figures are passed to Adapta by DAISy eliminating the need for duplicate entry. The only customization
which we required in Adapta is the formatting of the vendor and payroll checks and the development of a payroll report which
we use for tax reporting. We don't expect to need any major enhancements to Adapta, but we will be making minor adjustments as our business grows. |
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