How Peterson Electric Increased Profit Margins 23% in 6 Months
Electrical Contracting
15 employees
Dallas, TX
Company Overview
Founded in 2012, Peterson Electric is a full-service electrical contracting company based in Dallas, Texas, specializing in commercial and residential electrical work. With 15 employees including 10 field technicians, they handle everything from routine maintenance and service calls to complete electrical installations for new construction projects.
Services: Commercial electrical, residential electrical, emergency service calls, panel upgrades, lighting installations
The Challenge: Flying Blind on Profitability
The Spreadsheet Juggling Act
Like many growing contractors, Peterson Electric had outgrown their basic tools but hadn’t found the right solution to replace them. Owner Mike Peterson and his team were managing the business with a patchwork of disconnected systems:
- QuickBooks for basic accounting and invoicing
- Excel spreadsheets for project tracking and estimates
- Paper forms for field technicians to log time and materials
- WhatsApp groups for crew coordination
- Google Calendar for scheduling
“Every Monday morning felt like detective work,” Peterson recalls. “I’d spend 3-4 hours just trying to figure out where we stood on active jobs. Which ones were making money? Which crews were behind schedule? I had no idea until invoices went out—and by then it was too late to fix anything.”
The Hidden Profit Killers
The fragmented system created several critical problems:
1. Zero Real-Time Visibility Peterson had no way to track actual costs as projects progressed. Labor hours sat on paper timesheets for days before being entered into spreadsheets. Material purchases were scattered across multiple vendor accounts with no immediate project allocation.
“We’d finish a job thinking we made good money, then two weeks later when all the bills came in, we’d realize we barely broke even—or worse, lost money,” Peterson says.
2. Administrative Time Drain Office manager Sarah Chen spent 20+ hours weekly on manual data entry:
- Transcribing paper timesheets into Excel
- Matching material receipts to projects
- Creating invoices from multiple data sources
- Chasing down missing information from field crews
“I felt like a data entry clerk instead of an office manager,” Chen explains. “And even after all that work, the numbers still didn’t give us clear answers.”
3. Delayed Invoicing = Cash Flow Problems The manual process meant invoices went out 7-10 days after work completion. For a business doing 40-50 jobs monthly, this created significant cash flow gaps.
“We were essentially financing our customers’ projects,” Peterson notes. “We’d complete work on the 1st but not get paid until the 30th because our invoicing was so slow.”
4. Field Communication Breakdown Technicians filled out paper forms at job sites, but critical information often got lost or was illegible. Photos were scattered across personal phones. Customer signatures were on carbon-copy forms that sometimes went missing.
Lead technician James Rodriguez remembers the frustration: “I’d finish a job, fill out the paperwork, hand it in—then get a call three days later asking me to remember exactly what materials I used because the form was unclear. It was ridiculous.”
The Breaking Point
The crisis came during a large commercial project in early 2024. Peterson Electric bid $45,000 for a complete electrical installation in a new office building. The job seemed profitable at 30% margin based on their estimate.
Three months later, when all bills were in, they’d actually lost $3,200 on the project.
“That was my wake-up call,” Peterson says. “If we were losing money on big jobs and didn’t know it, how many service calls were underwater too? I realized we couldn’t grow this business without real visibility into job costs.”
Peterson started researching contractor software solutions but kept hitting walls:
- ServiceTitan wanted $7,200/month plus a $50,000 implementation fee with a 2-year contract
- Procore was designed for much larger construction companies
- Buildertrend focused mainly on residential construction
- Basic tools like Contractor Foreman lacked the financial depth he needed
“I needed something that could handle both our service work and project work, give me real financial visibility, but not cost a fortune or take months to implement,” Peterson explains. “That’s when I found Sitewise.”
“Sitewise showed us which service calls were actually profitable. We had no idea we were losing money on some of our ‘best’ customers.” Mike Peterson – Owner, Peterson Electric
The Solution: Complete Visibility in 48 Hours
Why Sitewise?
Peterson was initially skeptical of Sitewise’s promise to get his team operational in 2-3 days. After years of hearing vendor promises, he’d learned to be cautious.
But three things convinced him to try:
- Transparent pricing – $139/user/month with no hidden fees or long-term contract
- Complete platform – handled CRM, projects, job costing, field service, and financials in one system
- 30-day trial – he could test it thoroughly before committing
“The pricing alone was compelling,” Peterson says. “For 15 users, Sitewise cost $2,085/month versus ServiceTitan’s $7,200+. That $5,000+ monthly difference pays for a lot of other business needs.”
Implementation: Day 1
Morning Session (9am-12pm): Foundation Setup
Peterson Electric’s Sitewise implementation began with a kickoff call with Customer Success Manager Rachel Kim. The three-hour morning session covered:
Company Setup (45 minutes)
- Company information and branding
- Logo upload for professional estimates and invoices
- User account creation for all 15 team members
- Role assignment (owner, project managers, field techs, office admin)
Service Configuration (90 minutes)
- Selected “Electrical Contractor” industry template
- Reviewed pre-loaded service categories (residential, commercial, emergency, etc.)
- Customized pricing for Peterson’s specific services
- Set up common task templates for typical electrical jobs
Financial Configuration (45 minutes)
- Fiscal year and tax settings
- Payment terms (Net 30)
- Labor overhead rate (38% including benefits, insurance, vehicles)
- Expense categories
- Invoice numbering sequences
“The template approach was brilliant,” Peterson recalls. “We didn’t have to build everything from scratch. Sitewise knew electrical contractors, so 80% of what we needed was already there. We just customized the last 20%.”
Afternoon Session (1pm-4pm): Integration & Data
QuickBooks Integration (1 hour) Rachel walked Peterson through connecting Sitewise to their existing QuickBooks Online account. Within 20 minutes, customer and vendor data began syncing automatically.
“Seeing our customer list populate automatically was the first ‘wow’ moment,” Chen remembers. “I thought we’d spend days manually entering data.”
Active Projects Import (2 hours) Peterson Electric had 12 active projects at implementation. Using Sitewise’s Excel import template, Chen imported:
- Project names and customer information
- Budget amounts and current status
- Start dates and estimated completion
- Assigned project managers
The import tool flagged three projects with missing information and prevented import errors.
Team Training Basics (1 hour) The final hour covered basic navigation and workflows:
- Creating estimates and converting to projects
- Basic project tracking
- How field teams would use the mobile app
- Where to find key reports
Implementation: Day 2
Morning Session (9am-12pm): Mobile App Setup
Day 2 focused on getting the field teams comfortable with mobile technology. This was Peterson’s biggest concern.
“Half my techs are in their 50s,” he explains. “They’re excellent electricians but not tech-savvy. I was worried about resistance.”
Rachel scheduled a hands-on training session with all field technicians. Each tech downloaded the Sitewise mobile app and practiced:
Work Order Walkthrough (90 minutes)
- Viewing assigned work orders
- Checking into job sites with GPS
- Logging materials used
- Capturing before/after photos
- Getting customer signatures
- Marking work complete
Rodriguez, initially skeptical, became a convert during training: “I thought it would be complicated, but it’s actually easier than paper. Clock in, do the work, take photos, get signature, done. And it works without cell signal—that was huge for us since we work in a lot of basements and metal buildings.”
Time Tracking Practice (90 minutes) The team practiced the GPS time tracking feature:
- Clocking in when arriving at job site
- Switching between multiple jobs in one day
- Adding breaks
- Reviewing daily time logs
“The GPS feature was initially concerning to some guys,” Peterson admits. “But once I explained it protects them—proves they were on site if a customer ever questions it—they got comfortable. It’s not about surveillance; it’s about accuracy.”
Afternoon Session (1pm-3pm): First Real Transactions
With training complete, Peterson’s team processed their first real work in Sitewise:
Live Test – Service Call Peterson assigned Rodriguez a real emergency service call through Sitewise. The team watched as:
- Rodriguez received the work order on his phone
- He clocked in at the customer location
- Took photos of the electrical panel issue
- Logged materials used (breaker, wire, connectors)
- Captured customer signature
- Marked work complete
Back at the office, Chen immediately saw:
- Time tracked: 2.5 hours
- Materials cost: $87
- Labor cost: $95 (including overhead)
- Total job cost: $182
- Invoice ready to send: $450
- Profit margin: 59%
“That moment sold everyone,” Peterson says. “We saw the complete loop in real-time. Work done, costs tracked, invoice ready, profit calculated—all automatic. Sarah didn’t enter a single piece of data manually.”
Implementation: Day 3 – Go Live
Final Configuration (Morning)
- Customized approval workflows (estimates over $10,000 need owner approval)
- Email templates for invoices and customer communications
- Automated reminders for overdue payments
- Dashboard customization for different user roles
Team Q&A and Polish (Afternoon)
- Addressed remaining questions
- Fine-tuned settings based on first real use
- Reviewed reporting dashboards
- Created first week success plan
Go-Live Checklist Completion ✓ All users trained and comfortable
✓ Active projects tracked in system
✓ Mobile app working in field
✓ First invoice generated and sent
✓ QuickBooks sync verified
✓ Support contacts saved
“By end of day three, we were live,” Peterson confirms. “Not ‘sort of’ live or ‘partially’ live—fully operational. I’ve never seen software implementation move that fast.”
The Results: Transformation in 6 Months
Month 1: Immediate Operational Wins
Administrative Time Savings Within the first month, Chen’s weekly administrative hours dropped from 20+ hours to less than 5:
| Before Sitewise: | After Sitewise: | |
| 8 hours: Manual timesheet entry | Time entry: Automatic from mobile app | |
| 4 hours: Material cost tracking | Material costs: Auto-allocated when purchased | |
| 3 hours: Invoice creation | Invoices: Generated with one click | |
| 3 hours: Matching receipts to projects | Receipt matching: Happens in real-time | |
| 2 hours: Customer follow-ups | Customer follow-ups: Automated reminders | |
| Total: 20 hours / week | Chen's time: 5 hours/week on exceptions only |
“I got 15 hours back every week,” Chen says. “Now I actually do office management—improving processes, building customer relationships, analyzing data—instead of just data entry.”
Invoicing Speed Invoice delivery time dropped from 7-10 days to same-day or next-day:
- Work completed in field
- Tech marks complete on mobile
- Invoice auto-generated with actual costs
- Chen reviews and sends within hours
“Our average time to invoice went from 8 days to less than 1 day,” Peterson notes. “That’s essentially a 700% improvement in billing speed.”
Cash Flow Impact The faster invoicing immediately improved cash flow:
- Previous average: Payment 37 days after work completion (8 days to invoice + 30 day terms + 7 day average delay)
- New average: Payment 32 days after work completion (1 day to invoice + 30 day terms)
- 5-day improvement might seem small, but on $230,000 monthly revenue, that’s $38,000 freed up
Month 2-3: The Profitability Awakening
Real-Time Job Costing Reveals Truth
With two months of accurate job costing data, Peterson started seeing patterns that shocked him.
Service Call Analysis: Sitewise’s profitability reports revealed their service calls fell into three categories:
- Highly Profitable (45% margin+): 30% of service calls
- Emergency after-hours work
- Specialized troubleshooting
- Panel upgrades
- Moderately Profitable (20-35% margin): 45% of service calls
- Routine maintenance
- Standard installations
- Outlet/switch work
- Low/No Profit (0-15% margin): 25% of service calls
- “Quick favor” calls for long-time customers
- Warranty work that exceeded estimates
- Underpriced routine service for specific customer segments
“I always thought our commercial property management customers were our best because they gave us steady work,” Peterson admits. “Turns out they were some of our worst from a profitability standpoint. We’d built relationships but never actually calculated if the work was profitable.”
The $67/hour Discovery
Sitewise’s labor cost tracking showed Peterson’s actual loaded labor rate was $67/hour (including wages, benefits, insurance, truck costs, tools). But they were billing routine service calls at $85/hour—only an 18% margin after overhead.
“We thought $85/hour was good because it seemed high,” Peterson explains. “But when you account for drive time, administrative overhead, and all the real costs, we were barely making money on standard service calls.”
Armed with real data, Peterson made decisive changes:
- Increased service call rates to $115/hour (42% margin)
- Created premium pricing for after-hours/emergency (3 $165/hour)
- Renegotiated contracts with low-profit customers
- Focused sales efforts on high-margin work
Project Cost Overrun Alerts
On an ongoing commercial project, Sitewise’s budget alerts flagged a problem in week 3:
Alert: “Project #1847 is 18% over labor budget”
Peterson investigated and discovered his crew was spending excessive time due to unexpected issues with old wiring. Rather than absorb the costs, he:
- Documented the extra work with photos (already in Sitewise from field techs)
- Created a change order for the additional scope
- Got customer approval within 24 hours
- Turned a potential $3,800 loss into a $1,200 profit
“Before Sitewise, I wouldn’t have known we were over budget until the project finished,” Peterson says. “By then, it’s too late to do anything. Real-time alerts let us manage projects proactively instead of reactively.”
Month 4-6: Business Transformation
The 23% Profit Margin Increase
By month 6, Peterson Electric’s financial transformation was complete:
Before Sitewise (6-month average):
- Revenue: $1,380,000
- Gross Profit: $386,400
- Gross Margin: 28%
After Sitewise (6-month average):
- Revenue: $1,410,000 (+2%)
- Gross Profit: $719,100
- Gross Margin: 51% (+23 percentage points)
The margin improvement came from multiple sources:
- Better pricing: Data-driven rates increased revenue per job
- Faster problem detection: Budget alerts prevented cost overruns
- Smarter work selection: Focused on high-margin jobs
- Eliminated profit leaks: Caught unbilled materials and time
- Reduced administrative costs: 15 hours/week savings = $39,000/year
“That 23% margin improvement translated to an extra $332,700 in gross profit over six months,” Peterson notes. “Sitewise essentially paid for itself 160 times over in half a year.”
Customer Experience Improvements
The benefits weren’t just internal. Customers noticed improvements:
- Faster response: Mobile dispatch meant techs got work orders instantly
- Better communication: Automatic updates when techs were en route
- Professional documentation: Photo evidence of all work completed
- Faster invoicing: Customers received detailed invoices same-day
- Transparent pricing: Clear breakdown of labor and materials
“We got three unsolicited Google reviews in month 4 specifically mentioning our ‘professional processes’ and ‘detailed documentation,'” Peterson says. “That never happened before Sitewise.”
Team Morale Boost
Perhaps unexpectedly, field technician satisfaction improved significantly.
Rodriguez explains: “The mobile app made us look professional. Customers were impressed when we had everything on a tablet—work orders, customer history, photos, signature. It elevated our image. Plus, no more paper forms that got lost or illegible. Everything was clear and organized.”
Chen agrees from the office perspective: “I went from drowning in paperwork to actually enjoying my job. I’m doing meaningful work now instead of being a glorified data entry person.”
Current State: 6 Months Post-Implementation
By the Numbers:
- Monthly revenue: $235,000 (up from $230,000)
- Gross margin: 51% (up from 28%)
- Admin time saved: 60 hours/month
- Invoice delivery: 0.8 days average (down from 8 days)
- Customer satisfaction: 4.8/5 stars (up from 4.2/5)
- Employee retention: 100% (up from 73% annual rate)
New Capabilities:
- Real-time profitability visibility on every job
- Proactive project management with budget alerts
- Mobile field operations that work offline
- Automatic QuickBooks sync (zero manual entry)
- Professional customer-facing documents
- Data-driven business decisions
Key Takeaways
What Made This Successful
1. Complete Platform Approach “We didn’t want to integrate five different tools,” Peterson emphasizes. “Sitewise handled everything—CRM, projects, job costing, field service, financials—in one system. That integration is what made the real-time visibility possible.”
2. Implementation Speed “The 3-day implementation was crucial. If they’d said ‘3 months,’ we probably wouldn’t have done it. We can’t shut down for months to implement software. The fast timeline meant minimal disruption.”
3. Mobile-First for Field Teams “The mobile app working offline was essential. Our guys work in metal buildings, basements, areas with no signal. If the app required WiFi, it would have failed.”
4. Honest Pricing “At $2,085/month for our team size, the ROI was obvious. We saved that much in administrative time alone, before counting all the profit improvements. With ServiceTitan at $7,200/month, the math wouldn’t have worked.”
5. Real Support “Rachel didn’t disappear after implementation. We still have monthly check-ins. When we have questions, response time is under 2 hours. That support made us confident trying new features.”
Advice for Other Contractors
Peterson offers guidance for contractors considering similar moves:
“Don’t wait until you’re in crisis mode.” “I wish we’d made this change a year earlier. We lost money on jobs we didn’t need to lose money on. The sooner you get visibility, the sooner you can fix problems.”
“Your techs will adapt faster than you think.” “I was worried about tech adoption. Turns out, the mobile app is so simple that even our most tech-resistant guys picked it up in a day. Don’t let that fear hold you back.”
“Real-time data changes everything.” “When you can see job costs as they happen—not weeks later—you manage your business differently. You catch problems early. You make better decisions. You stop flying blind.”
“The integration is what matters.” “Standalone tools are fine, but real power comes from everything working together. When your field app, job costing, and accounting all talk to each other automatically, that’s when you get true business visibility.”
Conclusion
Six months after implementing Sitewise, Peterson Electric has transformed from a company that didn’t know which jobs were profitable into a data-driven operation with clear visibility into every aspect of the business.
The 23% margin improvement, 15 hours weekly time savings, and 40% faster invoicing are impressive metrics. But the real transformation is qualitative: Peterson now makes decisions based on data instead of gut feel, catches problems while they’re still manageable, and runs a more professional operation that both customers and employees appreciate.
“Sitewise didn’t just give us software,” Peterson reflects. “It gave us control of our business. For the first time in 12 years, I actually know what’s happening in real-time. That clarity is priceless.”
Total Investment: $12,510 (6 months at $2,085/month)
Gross Profit Improvement: $332,700
ROI: 2,559%
Payback Period: 4.3 days
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