Curran Young Construction

The Company: About Curran Young Construction

Founded by construction veterans Chris Curran and Bruce Young, Curran Young Construction is a general contractor in southwest Florida specializing in industrial, healthcare, and mixed-use commercial projects. The founders bring 35 years of experience and $2 billion in combined project work. 

The Situation: Back Office Technology

Curran Young launched with ambitious plans to capitalize on Florida’s construction boom, where industrial vacancy rates hover around 1 percent and healthcare providers are building freestanding emergency rooms, urgent care centers, and new hospitals. CEO Chris Curran wanted a company that could scale fast and deliver excellent customer service without constant upgrades or major infrastructure spending.

As the founders evaluated the systems construction firms typically use, they noticed a pattern. The industry readily invests in project-side technology like BIM, virtual reality, and 3D printing, but rarely modernizes its back office. ​“For the most part, it’s still a bricks and sticks industry run on Excel,” says Bruce Young, President and Co-Founder. ​“Instead of examining fundamentals to create greater efficiencies, most firms still get through with grit.”

Curran and Young wanted mobile tools that would let their team serve customers and support vendors directly from the job site. They considered Sage and other construction financial software they had used at previous firms, along with the traditional suite of point solutions typically used for subcontractor payments. 

Their requirements were clear. Any financial system had to integrate with Procore and other specialized applications, offer customized reporting for different levels of the organization, and be easy to use. ​“It needed to be intuitive, because we’re not accountants,” Young says.

The Solution: Acumatica Construction Edition

Once Curran Young decided to go to the cloud, the choice was simple. ​“Other software couldn’t compare to Acumatica’s Construction Edition,” Young says. ​“Being cloud-based takes away the necessity of having servers and infrastructure and their associated operating costs.”

Acumatica’s unlimited user pricing was another deciding factor. Young projects the firm could grow to 60 people within five years, and Acumatica’s licensing model means that growth won’t drive up software costs. ​“It’s great to know Acumatica is not pay-to-play software,” he says. ​“That gives us one less thing to worry about when forecasting our future costs.”

Along with core financials, Acumatica Construction Edition gave Curran Young job costing, project management, contract and change order management, and subcontractor bidding and payment. It also integrates with specialty tools the team relies on, including Procore, Smartsheet, and Office 365. With help from implementation partner Alliance, Curran Young went from decision to go-live in just five weeks, configuring the system around how it planned to do business. That included a custom project numbering system that captures project type and provides a historical index of past costs by year.

The Results: Acumatica Cloud ERP Implementation Benefits

Working in one system instead of several has given Young back a significant share of his day. ​“I’m saving 30 to 35 percent of my time, so I’m able to be much more efficient,” he says. ​“Navigation is just a click of a button and information is now all in one place. I don’t need to change applications to approve different items. Because of that, I’m less likely to have something fall through the cracks.”

Integration keeps the field and office aligned. Data flows between Procore and Acumatica, helping teams deliver projects on schedule and on budget. ​“In construction there are a lot of pieces and moving parts, multiple vendors and subcontractors, and different expenses and financial controls that need to be tracked and communicated in multiple places,” Young says. ​“Integration is essential.”

Cloud access means the team can resolve vendor payment questions, execute change orders, check subcontractor rosters, and approve paperwork from a job site, a customer location, or home. Young no longer has to return to the office for approvals, and field staff with the right permissions can answer customer questions without routing them through accounting. Built-in expense capture and coding also spared Curran Young from buying a separate expense tool.

The system’s ease of use made for a fast start. 

With its financial foundation in place, Curran Young is ready for rapid growth. ​“We are all about efficiency, which is why we compare ourselves to a Formula E car,” says Curran. ​“Everything in the product is efficient, available at your fingertips, and the flow of information and accessibility is incredibly powerful.”

Key Benefits

• Went live in five weeks
• Saved 30 to 35 percent of leadership time by working in one system
• Avoided on-premises server and infrastructure costs
• Eliminated per-user costs with unlimited user licensing
• Integrated with Procore, Smartsheet, and Office 365
• Enabled mobile approvals, change orders, and vendor support from the job site
• Built in expense management without a separate application
• Customized project numbering with a historical cost index