AFTER USING OPERATOR AND ALLOCATE FOR MORE THAN TWO YEARS, THE SUNSHINE COAST’S BEBROK EXCAVATIONS HAS STREAMLINED ITS OPERATIONS AND SEEN PRODUCTIVITY SOAR.

When Sunshine Coast local Michael Bebbington founded Bebrok Excavations in 2006, he had a wealth of industry experience and a dream: to become one of the most trusted excavation and earthmoving hire companies in South East Queensland.

More than 15 years later, Michael has achieved his vision and then some. With an extensive fleet of machinery and more than 100 professional contractors, Bebrok Excavations has become an industry leader. In 2012, Bebrok won the Sunshine Coast Building/Manufacturing Small Business Award and has been a finalist several other times.

Not only does Bebrok provide hire services for residential and commercial projects of all sizes, it has also become one of the leading suppliers for councils and governments across the Sunshine Coast. Clients include the Sunshine Coast Council, Moreton Bay Council, Gympie Council, Noosa Council, Unity Water and Energex.

COPING WITH EXPONENTIAL GROWTH

In 2019, Michael realised he urgently needed to upgrade Bebrok’s management system. “I’d been searching for software tailored to the earthmoving industry for a long time, but I wasn’t able to find an off-the-shelf package that suited our needs and worked with our accounting program,” he says. “At that stage, we were processing 100 to 120 dockets a day which was a lot of work for our admin team and our accounting software just couldn’t cope with that amount of sales transactions.”

Michael put a call-out to his mates in the industry and one of them suggested EQUIPR Software. “We met with the EQUIPR team and we knew straight away that this was the software solution for us,” he says. “We were just about to start a new accounting program called MYOB Advanced as well and EQUIPR told us they would sync their software with it.”

Bebrok rolled out Allocate, Operator and MYOB Advanced in one go in early 2020. “It was a big financial hit and a bit of a risk to roll them all out at once, but Anthony and the EQUIPR team were so efficient in helping us fix any issues that came up along the way,” says Michael. “There was a bit of an initial pushback from some of our subcontractors who didn’t want to take up the software, but my 69-year-old dad said, ‘If I can do it, you can do it,’ and we gave them the training and support they needed. They’ve all taken to it really well now.”

GOING FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH

Two years on, Bebrok’s operations are running more smoothly than ever and their sales figures have gone up. “The biggest advantage of EQUIPR’s software has been streamlining our invoicing,” says Michael. “We used to do our accounts every two weeks. If the boys worked from the first to the 15th of the month, they would then have a week to get their dockets in and there were always stragglers. The admin team had to chase them and then spend the next week inputting the dockets and sending them out. It just wasn’t efficient. Now, we easily send out 120 to 140 dockets every single day.”

Bebrok’s allocation process has also improved exponentially. “In the past, our allocation process involved a computer program and manually written data sheets,” Michael explains. “We had about eight pages with all the different drivers on them and we would have to manually write everything in and white it out when there were cancellations. With Allocate, we have the ability for all four or five guys in the allocation department to enter jobs at the same time and see what’s happening on the screens – even if some of them are working from home. We can allocate jobs weeks and months in advance.”

Keeping track of a client’s individual requirements is also much easier with EQUIPR’s software. “If a client needs a specific attachment or piece of equipment, we can put those requirements into the system and it’ll immediately tell us which operators have it,” says Michael. “Whereas we used to have four or five different ways of entering a job, we can now incorporate it all into the one program. It’s a one-stop shop that makes training new staff so much easier.”

When it comes to meeting stringent safety regulations for top-tier government entities, Operator keeps all the documentation in one easily accessible place. “It’s really helped our safety officer stay on top of our compliance,” says Michael. “And if a client like the Sunshine Coast Regional Council needs a special induction, we can easily see which drivers have it in the system. It’s really streamlined our allocation of machines and operators.”

Michael also loves the detailed monthly reports that allow him to see exactly where Bebrok stands. “The report tells you what has been your biggest driver asset-wise and who’s done the highest number of jobs for the month,” he says. “You can also see all your costs and make adjustments if needed. When the price of fuel went up recently, we couldn’t hold the cost anymore and we had to pass it on to our clients. Within two days, the EQUIPR team had set it up so the expense was automatically added to our invoices. Now that fuel prices have gone down again, they’ve adjusted it down for us. It’s amazing to have that flexibility and peace of mind.”