Hardy Mechanical Services

Background

Based in North Vancouver, Hardy Mechanical Services is an HVAC & Mechanical services provider serving retail stores, restaurants, office spaces, and light industrial buildings across the Lower Mainland. Experienced in HVAC, refrigeration & mechanical systems for their full life, they manage everything from the design to construction and maintenance, repair and replacement for their customers.

Building a Strong Foundation with D365 Business Central

Kwixand Solutions helped Andy build a strong foundation for his company with Dynamics 365 Business Central, setting him for future success. “We needed an ERP system, and that’s why I reached out to Kwixand Solutions,” says Andy Rankin, Owner and President of Hardy Mechanical Services. As a new business, Andy was looking for an enterprise management solution that was easy to use, could be customized, and scale easily as his business grew. He ended up selecting Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central as it fit the bill. “I like the fact that Business Central is very customizable and that we can make it work around our business, instead of trying to make our business fit the software,” says Andy.

Gaining Full Visibility into Business Operations

One of the main things Hardy Mechanical Services needed to do well was track projects, which included elements such as multiple suppliers, subcontractors, along with the hours their technicians put in. For the client-side, they needed to keep track of the equipment they were servicing and the hours put in, to invoice based on time and materials. By implementing the jobs functionality within Business Central, Andy can create a job and track all of the revenue and expenses against that. He can track whether it is a time and materials job or a fixed price job and track what billings and milestones have been done against the job. Essentially, he has full job visibility into how his company is operating. “What Kwixand Solutions has done is help set up my projects so that everything is streamlined and can be easily viewed,” says Andy.

Streamlining Time & Expense Tracking with Power Apps

Hardy Mechanical needed to address a growing pain to find an efficient way for their technicians in the field to record their hours and any expenses they occurred. Previously, this was being done via email and had to be manually recorded. To alleviate this, the Kwixand team created a custom Power App for Hardy Mechanical’s technicians which they could access easily in the field through their mobile phones. First off, it allows them to record their hours, the start and end times, the job they worked on and recommended suggestions for improvement. It also lets them record their expenses. If they need to pick up supplies for a job, all they have to do is take a picture of the receipt, and it gets recorded in the app. Once verified, it is recorded against the right job. And all this information is directly sent to Business Central, eliminating the need for manual data entry.

Fresh Approach to Problem Solving

Andy has high praise for the team at Kwixand Solutions, noting his appreciation for the team’s out-of-the-box thinking when it comes to solving his business challenges and issues. “A lot of other partners don’t necessarily put in that time to solve a problem; they just try to take the easy route. But Kwixand team really puts in the effort to figure out a problem and dig into it.” He also adds that he is happy with the partnership and is looking to continue it in the future.