Why a $3M Construction Company Chose Sage Intacct

There may be errors in spelling, grammar, and accuracy in this machine-generated transcript.

Emily Madere: Okay. Well everybody, welcome to the unofficial and I mean unofficial Sage Intacct podcast. Um, today we have a pretty special episode planned for you. Um, we have we have a guest we like to, to have on guests, but, um. Josh, maybe. Do you want to introduce yourself?

Josh Smyser: Sure. Yeah. I'm Josh Smyser. Uh, TNT Tuckpointing building restoration, [00:00:30] uh, masonry contractor in, uh, Iowa. Illinois area. Yeah.

Emily Madere: Okay. And you are a Sage Intacct user.

Josh Smyser: Yeah. Correct. Yep. Uh, started doing, uh, we switched over to Sage Intacct in fall of 2022, I think it was. So we went live like January 1st, 2023. So it was, uh, it was still pretty new product for construction at that point. Um, so I think we were user number one for [00:01:00] our, uh, our var, you know, our value added reseller. Um, they, uh, did not tell me that that I was number one. Uh, they told me they have some people in the pipeline that are just starting on it. Um, but we were number one, but, uh, it it went really well, so I'm sure we'll probably dig into that a little bit later on. But, uh, you know, overall, yeah, we've, we've been on intact for a while and it's, it's pretty stable. It's, you know, we haven't really [00:01:30] had too many issues. So I've been really happy with it.

Matt Lescault: So I just have to wonder, like who twisted your arm and, and why did you agree to come on and talk to us?

Josh Smyser: I don't know, you guys seem like fun. Yeah. I listen to your podcast and I was like, this is a good time. Um, yeah. Somebody from, uh. So Sage reached out to, uh, to me. I'm on, uh, customer advisory board for Sage Intacct, where some of the different, uh, they get a whole slice of sectors. I'm honestly [00:02:00] probably one of the smallest contractors in that board, right? I go sit in on these meetings and they're like, there'll be people with, oh gosh, I can't even remember one guy. I think he was telling me they had like 30 different entities that all consolidated up into Sage Intacct, which is what it's really good at doing. And, you know, cost codes for every company and payroll. And you hear about this and I'm like, I'm really glad I have, you know, a two user, uh, company. My wife does all the back [00:02:30] office stuff, so she's like the accounts payable payroll. And, uh, I'm an inactive CPA now. Um, so, like, I'll do more, like, the CFO type stuff, uh, you know, some adjusting entries and and maybe correcting a few of the things that maybe my wife, you know, she doesn't make errors, but maybe.

Matt Lescault: Uh.

Josh Smyser: Yeah. Um.

Matt Lescault: Maybe we should get her on the podcast. We get the two of you guys on this. I heard that she was your marketing associate. Or do I have that wrong? [00:03:00]

Josh Smyser: That's my daughter.

Matt Lescault: That's your daughter?

Josh Smyser: Yeah. My daughter? Yep. So she's, uh. She just turned 15. So, like, trying to find ways for my kids to get in the business. So she was supposed to be, like my social media girl this summer. I think she helped me with one post so far. Um. It is. It's a funny thing because, uh.

Matt Lescault: Social media for my dad's company friends. Her.

Josh Smyser: Yeah, right. If it was her own social media, like posting her hauls of going shopping or something that's really [00:03:30] up her alley, but building's not much.

Matt Lescault: So I really expected you to come on this. And I know it's a podcast, but we do, uh, video this that's on it's on YouTube and so forth. But your LinkedIn picture has a ball cap, so I really expect you to come on, you know, with your I don't know if it's a TNT ball cap, but your gray ball cap on right now. So I was like, yeah.

Josh Smyser: A lot of times I do. Yeah I've got hats hanging all over my office, but. Yeah.

Matt Lescault: Well, and to be fair, I mean, we lucked [00:04:00] out. This is not your first podcast.

Josh Smyser: No. It's not.

Matt Lescault: Now, I know the one that you did with the builder upper show, but is that do you have other podcasts running around out there?

Josh Smyser: No, that was it. And then um, Bangor, which is our, our Sage partner, had done like a big video thing where he initially came up from, uh, Kansas City and said, do you want to do a little video? I didn't know what to expect out of it. And yeah, he came on with like full production stuff. [00:04:30] He had the lights, you know, multiple cameras set up it, actually.

Emily Madere: So you asked. You asked me for my autograph? No. Like, maybe we should be getting your autograph.

Josh Smyser: Oh, geez. Yeah. No, it's okay now. It's been fun, though, I. I enjoy this kind of stuff. Right. You guys are fun to talk to.

Matt Lescault: Well, see, I find it surprising, like, most CPAs would be like, nah, I don't I don't need to talk. So, like, I think you got your CPA, but you are truly an entrepreneur at heart. That's really where you know what your your calling was. And [00:05:00] you know, with that, I did get to listen to a little bit about your background. I thought it was a pretty interesting story. So I'm just really jump in here and say, hey, Josh, give us a little bit of background about you, how you got into TNT. Talk to me. Talk to me a little about your journey.

Josh Smyser: Okay. Yeah, yeah. So basically, uh, it's kind of forced into it. So my dad started the company when I was, uh, when I was 12 is when I started working. And, uh, you know, I'm a young kid. At that point, I [00:05:30] had a brother that was ten years younger than me. So really, you know, I'm the main one, dad. Every weekend that makes me go out and start working with him. And, you know, I enjoy that as much as any 12 year old does, which is not very much. Right. Um, and so, look, the whole time I'm thinking, I'm not doing this, you know, I'm going to go to school, I'm going to be an accountant. You know, I've always enjoyed that, so I did. I went to, uh, University of Northern Iowa and I became an accountant, a CPA. But every summer [00:06:00] I worked with my dad, you know, so the plan was always to have a backup plan. So I knew how to do the trade, and I. And I honestly liked it. I the part I just didn't like is it's tough, like dealing with family dynamics. So we were really small and it was just my dad and another guy and then me. Really.

Matt Lescault: Can I ask you like, yeah, 12 years old. What was like the first tasks that your dad made you do in the company?

Josh Smyser: Well, it was always mixing mortar, carrying brick, [00:06:30] you know, just anything like that. And I, and I remember lots of times where, um, you know, my dad is very much like me. I'm pretty driven, too. And I bring my kids with. So they're going to have these same sort of memories, maybe not quite as harsh. Um, but I have, I have triplet boys that are 11, so I bring them along with me and do this same kind of stuff. But I remember times where my dads got me mixing mortar, doing all this stuff at 12 years old and I'm like, dad, I'm really hungry. When's lunch? [00:07:00] And he'd be like, we're not going to lunch until we get this done. Well, you know, here, you know, 12 year old kid, I'm starving. So, you know, we don't we can't text, but I steal my dad's phone for a little bit and call my mom. Hey, bring me lunch. You know, where, you know, like, where are you at? And I'm like, I don't, I don't know, I'm 12. I'm in Davenport, Iowa somewhere.

Matt Lescault: Wait. Hold on. I'm having a gauge here. So how old are you now?

Josh Smyser: So I'm 43 now.

Matt Lescault: Okay. I'm 42, about the same [00:07:30] age. So at 12, cell phones were just coming on. So this isn't. We're not even at Nextel yet, you know. Mom. Yeah.

Josh Smyser: This is like the this is like the Nokia, right? The old school snake on like those type.

Matt Lescault: Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay.

Emily Madere: So okay, so you were working at 12. I'm hoping your dad gave you maybe, like, some dollars. What did you do? You remember what you bought with your first paycheck or, like, your couple dollars?

Matt Lescault: Oh, yeah. Well, first of all, did he give you a paycheck [00:08:00] or was all under the table.

Josh Smyser: At that point? Yeah, it's all cash, but it was like $2 an hour. I mean, it was like nothing. What can you buy? I mean, I guess you could. I remember buying, like, baseball cards. That was a thing for me back then.

Matt Lescault: Yeah.

Josh Smyser: Um, baseball cards or. My dad was just, like, a funny, had a funny way about him. So, like, I decided I wanted to go golfing so he'd go to a pawn shop, get some golf clubs, and, you know, maybe most dads would be like, hey, I bought these for [00:08:30] you. My dad's way of, like, saying it was, hey, I bought these for you. You owe me $500 and then I'd have to work it off. So it was his way of like, I'm gonna buy you this, but now I've got you hooked. That you have to be, uh. You're my labor now.

Matt Lescault: So this. This is how you became an entrepreneur because he he basically forced it into because you're like, okay, I don't actually get presents, right? I get bills on payment terms. So I'm going to become an accountant. So [00:09:00] I make sure I don't get like my.

Josh Smyser: Yeah.

Matt Lescault: Yeah.

Josh Smyser: So like at at 12 two, like one of the other things I, you know, as a 12 year old with a bank loan, there aren't very many like that. Um, I wanted to do a paper route. Um, so I grew up in bluegrass, Iowa, real small town. And so in my neighborhood, um, it was like a five mile paper route. So when I first signed up for this route at 12 years old, I'm thinking, oh, yeah, I'll just. My grandma had one of those bikes with baskets on the front. You know, I was going to put all [00:09:30] the newspapers in there and then go deliver them, like in the Paper Boy video game from way back in the 90s. Right. Um, the very first day, which is like Sunday, Sunday newspapers used to be huge, right? So I had like a hundred newspapers. I was I was dead in the first and it started pouring rain. So it's raining. I've got all these newspapers to go deliver. Five mile route. Um, probably like 30 minutes into it. I had to get help. My grandma started [00:10:00] driving me. She was my next door neighbor. Um, my grandma drove me around and did the route. And then after that weekend, um, we went to the bank and I got a loan to buy a ATV, a four Wheeler, which is still illegal, right, to drive that around. But, you know, it's small town Iowa. So like, we had a cop on our route and he knew I was working, so he didn't care. And, uh, so, yeah, I had a I had a four Wheeler. That's basically what my paper route paid for was the four Wheeler, my loan payment. And then I think [00:10:30] I made, uh, probably about 200 bucks a month.

Matt Lescault: I love this, this, this this is all adding up of how somebody goes from being a CPA into an entrepreneur that then decides to grow their company, get it in tech. Let's let's get back to that story. But in a great frame for this I love.

Josh Smyser: Yeah, that's kind of like the the side route. So yeah, I grew up with my dad. So then I went and became an accountant. Um. I [00:11:00] had the unusual, so I went Big Four I went I worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers coming out of college. And I always joke around that, uh, you know, I was probably the lowest GPA guy they had on the team, right? You know, like at the you know, I'm coming from a background where neither one of my parents went to college. My dad didn't even graduate high school. Right. Very smart guy, but he got kicked out of school. And, you know, I'm going through college, and I don't realize, you know, it's a big deal to go to the big four firms. Um, I just happened to kind [00:11:30] of stumble into it, and I think they liked, like, the work background and all that stuff. And so then I go work at PwC in Minneapolis. You know, I really like it. There's a great company and everything. Then we decide we want to move back home. So then I worked for Deloitte in the Quad Cities here, where John Deere was my client. And uh, and right around that time is like when my dad gets sick. So 2000, um, it's probably like 2008, 2009. And so then [00:12:00] while I was at Deloitte, I approached them and said, hey, I gotta run my dad's family business. Um, I got to keep things going. So they were really good with me. They, they worked with me that I could, uh, I could run that business while I was working at Deloitte. And at this time, I'm just like a senior associate. And so, like, I would, I'd go do my auditing thing at Deere and then, you know, I'd step out for an hour or so, make some calls, do some bidding, do all this kind of stuff. Um, Deloitte didn't care as long as you gave them their [00:12:30] 60 hours a week or whatever you had to do. Right.

Matt Lescault: As long as you had the billable utilization and then you're getting the bill. They're good. Right? Right.

Josh Smyser: And this is summer, right? So it's off peak time anyways. Um, but then like around July of that year is when I decided, you know, I want to spend this time with with my dad. I thought at that point he'd have like two more years. So I left, left Deloitte and worked full time at our construction business. And at this time, I think he's doing like top line revenues, like 200,000 [00:13:00] a year. So not a very big company at all. Um, but I keep it going for him for a while. Um, again, I think I have two years, but he actually ends up dying in September. So it was only two months later. And so I was trying to relearn, like, relearn the business and then really, um, preparing for like, the next phases. I thought, you know, it would have been cool to grow it with him for the next couple years because my dad was a fantastic craftsman [00:13:30] and, um, he was very personable. So he's really good with people, and he was really good with the trade. He just didn't like the business end of it. And that's why he never grew his company very big.

Matt Lescault: And that's tough for. I mean, I lost my father around the same time, July of 2007. Um, you know, so similar ages. And that's just, you know, tough thing to do. And I just started my company at that time, and, and so just like what you're dealing with, that's just, I mean, that's that's tough for a, for a young, [00:14:00] young adult, you know, just trying to pave their own way, try to figure it out and deal with all those emotions. I can't, can't imagine like just every situation is different. The, the battle that that that caused for you.

Josh Smyser: Yeah. Yeah I would like well you you you got it too. You know, it was going on and then my backup plan was so and I said there was three of us. It was me and another guy and, and my dad. Um, so the other guy, his name was Donnie, and he had worked for us for 17 years. So he [00:14:30] was like another dad to me. Like, I grew up with both of these guys, you know, having lunch every day with them and stuff in the summers. And, uh, the crazy part of that story was after my dad died. I go to like World of Concrete over the winter, and I bring Donnie with me and I'm like, hey, you know, I'm going to really rely on you. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to grow it. We're going to do all this stuff. So come March is when our season starts back up because we're seasonal here in Iowa. Um, so like one week before we get started, [00:15:00] I talked to Donnie and he goes, he came back from his big ice fishing trip. Calling, checking in, how that went. He said, oh, yeah, normally gain about 10 pounds. All we do is drink beer and eat fried fish. Um, but he, uh, he actually lost 5 pounds on that trip. And so he's like, I gotta go to the doctor. Well, he ends up with, uh, bone cancer. My dad died from lung cancer as a smoker, but Donnie gets bone cancer, and he never works another day. So he dies like, two, three months later. So within six [00:15:30] months of quitting my job, you know, in a good career at at Deloitte, um, I'm now stuck basically having to restart, right? Because then all we had was the one guy that I had trained the previous year. But, you know, I have cumulatively like, you know, maybe five years experience at this point. Well, so it was it was definitely, uh, it was not the most fun way to start the first seven years. I was like, why did I ever do this? But the the answer was.

Matt Lescault: I'm doing my math right. I'm doing [00:16:00] my math right. In that time period, probably three years into it, you have your first kid, right? Because your daughter's 15.

Josh Smyser: Yeah. Correct.

Matt Lescault: So you're balancing becoming a new father? It's. That's a lot. Okay.

Josh Smyser: Starting over all that stuff. Yeah, but but the goal was when when I went, I go back to like I wanted. I wanted more time to spend with my dad working because that's really where our best relationship was when we were working. And then I knew I wanted to have kids in the future [00:16:30] coming up, and so I really wanted my kids to grow up in a family business because you learn work ethic and it prepares you for whatever else you do, right? And so, um, and this was also my way to give my mom a way out of the business when my dad was going to pass away. Right? Because otherwise you're just stuck selling assets and all that. So, uh, the legacy part of it is what I think really got me [00:17:00] excited about why I want to grow the business. And, and as a way, like, every single day I put on, like, my T and t shirt, I still think about my dad, you know, all those years later. I mean, it's 16 years later and it's still like I'll still get emotional. Like when I go. Occasionally I'll use, like, his old hand tools. Right. And, uh, you know, those are the things. That's what I like. And I and I can share some of those memories with my kids who never got to meet them.

Matt Lescault: And I just want to stop here for a second. And I want to [00:17:30] say, like, anybody's listening to this right now might be thinking, well, what does this have to do with intact? And I think there's something that's really important here is that adversity. People either propel or crumble under adversity, but when people propel. What I find is that they become, uh, a different type of person in the sense of how they are able to just go and achieve the goals that they're looking at, because they've seen these moments [00:18:00] of of pure struggle and not knowing whether they can get by to the next thing. But once you you get past that, you start to really understand what your ability is, and then you start to lose that fear and you start gaining that ability. And I think where we're going to go in this story, I don't know this for a fact is sort of like those challenges that you kept on facing and solving and intact. Potentially being one of those things in a very minute component has no comparison to some of this stuff, [00:18:30] but kind of what that journey is. And so I just want to take a step back and say, like, this is the kind of story I love to talk about, because it talks about how somebody's mentality really shifts and changes their decision making, and how they allow that to help them grow. Because I know where this story is going from a revenue perspective, at least as of 2024. Um, and it's I think it's great. I just want to stop there and sort of frame this up because, uh, it's really important.

Josh Smyser: Yeah. Yeah. So, so yeah. That's where. So then Danny, you [00:19:00] know, he passes away, unfortunately. And for the next seven years, I'm kind of wearing, uh, estimator, project manager, accountant. Uh, foreman. I'm in the field every day for the first seven ish years. Right. And then, um, as the business goes along, I keep thinking about it's really hard to get out of the weeds and, like, stop doing what you do every single day, right? It's really easy to just keep doing the same thing over and over and over [00:19:30] and keep expecting something different. But then, you know, you realize you hit a plateau and you're like, what do I need to get to, like the next level? How do I get out of this? And so, um, around then I had to, you know, like, bring on one of my, uh, one of my field guys, have him be a foreman, lead the job, and then I start putting on a different hat of being more of a project manager and estimator. And I did for for quite a few years. I would still trying to think probably, maybe the next five years I [00:20:00] would have, um, one foreman that would run like one main crew. Right. And then, um, I would run another group myself sometimes. And then we kind of kept growing it a few more. Foreman and then I would step back in on the most important jobs or things that I felt like the client was really valuable, that we needed to make sure we put our best foot forward or risky in that. Like maybe it's like high safety risk or like high financial risk of, like not getting done in time. [00:20:30] I would step back in and I want to say that I did really good at that. But there was times too, like, I, I messed up just as bad as the next guy. Um.

Matt Lescault: Can I ask a question here? I, I don't know if this is the case for you, but I found that a lot of business owners have a hard time making those steps, because to hire a foreman in your circumstance probably meant that you had to take money out of your pocket initially to invest in that person, to then grow, to put the money back in [00:21:00] your pocket. And I find that this is a big differentiator between business owners that that do successfully grow, and business owners that end up plateauing. Talk to me about sort of that mentality that you had and why and why you decided to go and and take money out of your own pocket, risk your, your livelihood and probably livelihood that your, your wife and kids relied on and things of that nature. You know, talk me through that mentality.

Josh Smyser: Yeah. You're right. It's it's, uh. You [00:21:30] have to really, um, you have to really buy into, like, what you're trying to get to. You gotta think about what that next goal, what it's going to get you, you know, what are you building towards? Because I think my hardest part was not necessarily financially paying somebody to be like the foreman or buying this software or that software, whatever's going to help me get to that next level. Really, it was the time that I have to invest in training that person that is really that is the hardest part because you know, you're comfortable, like, hey, I'm the one [00:22:00] in charge. This is what I do. If I'm going to train you to do my job, it's going to take you a while to be successful.

Emily Madere: Yeah.

Josh Smyser: Um, and I ran into that, like, when I. So the, my first foreman that I brought in, I eventually turned him into a project manager and estimator. So it's just him and I that do most of it. Um, that took like a good two years to really make it where, okay, this freed up a lot more of my time. Um, but you know that first [00:22:30] because especially you got somebody coming in from the field. And so you gotta learn like a lot of tech stuff and just a lot of things. Um, so those are I think that's really the hardest part. And you have to mentally be like, I know I'm going to keep pushing through it. I'm going to keep investing. I know it's not what I want right now, but gosh darn, we're going to get there. And so, yeah, it's, uh, it's a challenge. And then I keep thinking about that in other ways. So managing people is this this sounds bad, but it's like my least favorite part. [00:23:00] I just I just don't like that part of it. Right. Um, so I'm always looking for where.

Matt Lescault: I've known a couple business owners that say, um, owning a business is great, except for the employees. Yeah. Which I think is silly, a silly statement, but I've heard that. And, uh, it is challenging. I mean, people are challenging.

Josh Smyser: Yeah. And and so even when, like, with respect to people like, I really don't like hiring and doing all that stuff [00:23:30] very much. So we have a great team now, and so it makes it sound like I don't like my team. No, I like my team. I actually like them in the roles they are. And it's it's uncomfortable to move them up because now I got to fill all I got to backfill all these roles with people that I got to retrain or people that I don't feel as comfortable with. So that that also becomes a challenge as a business owner, like when you get to a certain level of success, um, and things are going really well, it's tough to be willing to put yourself in that uncomfortable, uncomfortable spot [00:24:00] to grow again. Like I'm actually preparing to do that now. We think 2026 will be a big year for us. So we've been preparing for like a year and a half for that. And so, uh, like I said, mentally preparing me and my wife really to she really doesn't like, uh, more more payroll, more AP bills, all this stuff.

Emily Madere: So what does the company look like in 2025?

Josh Smyser: Uh, [00:24:30] so 2025. So it's it's a we have an unusual situation, like one of our largest competitors that we deal with is facing a really large lawsuit that there is going to be, uh, it goes to trial early next year. So I've known that for a year and a half. And so, you know, whether they have a judgment against them or not, which seems likely to me, but I'm not a I'm not a lawyer. Right. But that will present significant possibilities to raise. So these guys tend to be like the low cost [00:25:00] guy in the, in the, in the, uh, market. So in a public bid environment, they win almost everything, right? But if if they get lose their bonding capacity or they go away, uh, I mean, sales could go up pretty easily.

Matt Lescault: Or if there's just a lack of confidence, I mean, that that that can cause its own own. So, so from Emily's questions like what's your revenue today? What's the number of employees that you have today? Yeah. Um.

Josh Smyser: Oh, yeah. So I'll give you it's all kind of back [00:25:30] into that question a little bit. So last year was fantastic. So two years ago, if we backed up two years ago, we did maybe like I think 4.8 million in sales. Um, last year we did over 6 million. Um, and then you go into this year we're thinking, oh, this is going to be super strong. But that that main competitor that is facing some of these legal challenges started dropping the bottom out of the market. We're talking like cutting price like 30%. So they won like every large project. Uh, so it [00:26:00] it became a mindset adjustment. I don't you know, there's only so much you can do. And then the president had these tariffs right going through which held back. So here on public work I can't win public work because these guys are dropping price below cost. Right. And private market becomes tough because the tariffs got um private industry wanting to wait till, you know I want to wait three, four months and see. So the first six months were brutal for us. I think we did like 1.3 million [00:26:30] in sales, you know, so coming off of what would have been 3 million at that point last year. But we got to keep everybody because as everybody in the construction industry knows, like your people are your most valuable asset, there is not skilled labor out there that are anywhere near productive. Um, yeah. So we had to keep everybody and and keep everything.

Emily Madere: So this was 2024.

Josh Smyser: That's this year.

Emily Madere: That's this year okay.

Josh Smyser: Yeah. Yeah. So last year was great. [00:27:00] Uh, 21st six months of 2025 were brutal. So now then July things open up again because we had a bunch of people that are like, oh, you know, like private colleges and stuff that will say, oh, well, you know, our new fiscal year is in July. We can do work. Then we were even offering in, in, uh, in April. We were saying, hey, you know, we'll go do the work now. I get that it's your funding issue. Why don't we do this $200,000 contract and then you just pay us in July? [00:27:30] You know we'll do it. No money down. All this stuff, uh, it it wasn't enough for people to to jump. And even when when I threw out there, too, I was like, yeah, I'm. I'm actually holding my price from the previous year. After July. We have to raise it, you know, 15,000. They're like, yep, it is what it is. We can't do the work till July. Um, we know it's going to cost more money, and we appreciate that you're willing to do 0% financing basically for us. But so [00:28:00] that's what we encountered this spring.

Matt Lescault: Uh, I mean, it's tough. And I think that you said you moved into intact in 2022.

Josh Smyser: 2022, end of 2022. Yep.

Matt Lescault: What was your revenue then?

Josh Smyser: Uh, revenue then was probably probably like mid 3 million somewhere around there.

Matt Lescault: And just side note, let me tell you. Yeah, I've dealt with, uh, many of companies that have dealt with that low, you know, [00:28:30] like taking the bottom out of the market, doing it for less than cost. It's unsustainable. It's probably why they're in the in the situation they are. And most organizations that can manage through that come out ahead. It's just a really tough time. So, um, I just want I just I just want to give you kudos for, for getting through it and, you know, getting on the other side of, of, of July. And I think that you will have a lot of success moving forward. I just want to throw that out there to you.

Josh Smyser: Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. So [00:29:00] like going after July things change. Right. So then a lot of these are private negotiated projects. So where you know, maybe some of these other competitors might be lower priced than us, but these are private customers don't have to take low bid. So now we're getting into an environment where we're we're we're winning projects at second place when everyone else is still, like, super fearful and dropping their prices still, because, you know, this guy was running around there taking all that work. So other [00:29:30] competitors started following suit and dropping price. Well, we we hold our price because it's not sustainable going forward. Right.

Emily Madere: Mhm.

Josh Smyser: Um, and so we've been really lucky that you know like for example, we've got a, we've got a project that we just won where schedules super important. Like we can get a project done this fall. Um, where the um it's a different competitor. Where the other competitor, um, the construction manager, has concerns that they would they wouldn't be able to get it done, [00:30:00] but we're $100,000 more. Most owners are going to look at the 100 grand and be like, I'm I've got to take that. Um, even though there's a huge risk that you don't get your project done on time and, you know, it delays everything else. But luckily, this was a design team and an owner that understood the value of higher quality and hitting your timelines. Um, so so we did end up winning a project like that. And then we've got another, um, uh, really significant [00:30:30] project that we're going to be working on, um, for, uh, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. So Brigham Young's house in Nauvoo, we're we're starting that up. Um, that that was super, super cool. I'm not, you know, part of the LDS church or anything, but I learned a lot about, you know, how important Brigham Young was to their faith.

Josh Smyser: He's the one that leads them out to Utah. Um, so that has been I've been working on that project for [00:31:00] about a year now. We're finally getting ready to get started next month. And we briefly touched on about like, you know, bringing your kids in, like projects like that are that's really what I like to do. So my I've been able to bring my my, my daughters 15 and my. I have triplet boys that are 11 and whenever I go down there, which is about every week or two, I was doing samples and just a lot of coordination. This thing requires a lot of hands on work. My kids have been involved with a [00:31:30] lot of that, so they're getting like a lot of really cool memories of they're going to be part of this very important restoration. And then our client is talking about, you know, potentially that we would do work down there for the next 20 years as they restore all these other buildings from the 18.

Emily Madere: Congratulations.

Matt Lescault: That's amazing.

Josh Smyser: Thanks.

Emily Madere: You know that that's huge for you and your family.

Josh Smyser: Yeah. I think it's fun.

Matt Lescault: You know, negotiate their their tuition through this. Yeah.

Josh Smyser: Right. There you.

Emily Madere: Go. Yes. Yeah. Right. [00:32:00] I get your daughter to post more on social media, right.

Josh Smyser: Yeah. So that one those are the kinds of jobs at least we're getting into. Right. We're getting out of the low bid stuff where relationships quality and schedule matter, right? And we always say, like when you're trying to pitch yourself for marketing, we always say we're the best value. We're not the lowest cost, but we're not the highest either. Like I think we have a really good value proposition. Normally once a once somebody's worked with [00:32:30] us, they really don't go anywhere else. But just getting that first opportunity is tough.

Matt Lescault: Yeah, that makes sense. I love all this and I hate to do this, but I think I do need to bring it back into the accounting world.

Josh Smyser: Yeah, sure.

Matt Lescault: Bring it to the camera a little bit. So I have to ask in 2021 what kind of we're using.

Josh Smyser: Yeah. So in 2021, like, uh, we were on Sage 100.

Emily Madere: Okay. I was, I was thinking I was like, is he going to say QuickBooks or [00:33:00] Sage 100?

Josh Smyser: Yep. And you kind of see where this is going. So actually we had went from QuickBooks to Sage 100 maybe like 2 or 3, maybe three years ago before that. Right.

Matt Lescault: Quickbooks Live 18 ish. Let's say you went from Quebec to Sage. Let's let's just talk about the thought, the thought process that you had. So you're in QuickBooks. What were the big pain points that you had that you moved over? Because a lot of people, you know, think multi entity and things of that nature, I actually think your story is going to talk a little bit more about the intricacies [00:33:30] of it and your and your experience as a CPA probably drove this a lot, but what were the pain points that moved you from QuickBooks to 100 as the first part? Yeah.

Josh Smyser: So go on QuickBooks two 100. A lot of it was um, just the limitations of the reporting for construction. It's a, you know, QuickBooks isn't really built for construction. And then I didn't really like, you know, not having like good change logs or any like anyway, like it's really all.

Emily Madere: Online or desktop. Desktop.

Josh Smyser: Yeah. Desktop. [00:34:00] And I can't remember like there's a contractor version where you could have.

Matt Lescault: Yeah whatever job costing but. Right. Change logs you didn't have true whip. You didn't have any of that kind of stuff that you're probably looking at. So.

Josh Smyser: Yeah. And so I was just looking at and you know, I, I like I'm a tech guy. So I like software and all this stuff. So it was my idea of like, yeah, we're going to let's try this 100 or let's say my wife's an awesome, you know, she's my life partner. We've been together since we were in high school, so we've [00:34:30] grown up together. But she gets drug along for the ride for this stuff. Like, if she could, she would have stayed doing the exact same thing. So she had to do the implementation with 100. So I learned in 100 what I do not did not want in an implementation. Right. That's just as valuable sometimes on what.

Matt Lescault: It should.

Josh Smyser: Look like. So we had more what I think is more a traditional implementation where we had an implementation manager, they sat down with my wife and did most of the setup [00:35:00] and all that, but the issues we kept running into was that everything went slower than expected. You know, it just I want. I come from construction and, you know, being an entrepreneur, I want to move fast and get things done. Traditional implementations do not go that way. They're like, this is a six month process. I don't care how small of a company you have, you know? Um, so eventually I kept stepping in there every once in a while and be like, hey, what [00:35:30] can we do to get let's get AP AR running next month, you know, what's it going to take? And like, oh, you gotta have we do one one hour session a week or whatever the heck it was. So it just went too slow. So anyways, fast forward, we get it up and operational enough. At that point I just say, you know what? I'll do fixed assets on my own. I implement it myself. I just kind of figure it out and I'm really disheartened from ever wanting to do another implementation. Right.

Matt Lescault: A lot of people [00:36:00] that have experience are just like, stick what they have. Like, I'm not going through this again.

Emily Madere: Yeah. And so how long did it take you like from the start of the implementation to like when you kind of handle it yourself?

Josh Smyser: I think I mean, it was still like probably 3 or 4 months.

Emily Madere: Yeah. So okay.

Josh Smyser: Not horrible, but I didn't realize, like, I should have been the one in the room setting it up for my wife to be the user of it, right? Instead, we were having the user with the consultant [00:36:30] thinking the consultant is bringing a lot, but there's a lot of there's a lot of setup questions you need to be asked of the person that's really the designer and the.

Matt Lescault: Yep.

Josh Smyser: You know what I'm saying? Like there'd be later on, I'd be like, why is this set up this way? I have no idea why they did this. And then my wife wouldn't be able to explain it because she didn't have an accounting background. Really, you know. And actually, I think I even ran into that before with our implementation guy. Like, even even she didn't have like a true [00:37:00] accounting background. Oh yeah. Because that's what I would try to get into. I'd be like, I don't understand what's going on here. Tell me, what are the entries that are happening. What's the debit? What's the credit like. Well it's. On screen five for two. And then it goes from this screen to here I'm like no. Tell me let's talk accounting. Like don't you know like don't talk to me. About what. Screens I have to do things on I don't it didn't help me. So I realized I just in. The future I needed to be more hands on. And then I saw [00:37:30] we moved into like we had had procore for quite a few years. So at this point we have Procore and we did 100 contractor. We had an implementation of the two, um, our integration, um, it worked pretty well. Um, and Procore is like a great construction management software. Um, so.

Emily Madere: We knew the, the top one.

Josh Smyser: Yeah. Yeah. Again, you're going to probably find like we for our size company, I've always prioritized spending getting the better [00:38:00] software. And that's kind of where our story ends up going is we're always looking for best of breed because I don't want to compromise on something and and start building all these processes around something that, you know, maybe has limitations that I, you know, I'm just accepting.

Matt Lescault: And so for when you made the decision to go to intact, what was it that really shine for intact that made you decide to make that investment? Because, I mean, it's not a small investment to do the invitation. [00:38:30] Everything else?

Emily Madere: No. And especially with with Procore and intact. Those are like those are two, like you said, best in breed systems. Those are heavy hitters.

Josh Smyser: Yep. Yeah. So the so as I started seeing intact and I saw kind of the way the future was going of alright, 100 contractor even though we just did this, I think I need to prepare my wife that we're going to change again. Um, the reason why was I was seeing, you know, the modern infrastructure of like, those API calls and all this stuff. Um, I'm not [00:39:00] super technical. I just know what kind of stuff I need to look for, um, to build these AI type systems. And so intact was definitely the new modern architecture. And that's where all the money was going for Sage. So any of those type of products where, you know, that is what they're pushing, even though in 2022 it's not what it was. Now, now it's even a lot more fully baked. It's it's a really good system. 2022 was it was good, but I knew it was going to be way better [00:39:30] in the coming years. Um, so I was willing to make that investment. And the time frame is always a big part for me. So we're seasonal. So, uh, at the end of Thanksgiving is when my guys are off for the winter and they come back late February. So in those, like, three months is when I really I spend a lot of time working on the business. And so Intech came out in our, uh, I don't know, I did a demo in maybe like September, October and our, [00:40:00] our VAR had, uh, had said they had this new model they were doing. So we used Bangert. Now, now they have a really great process where, uh, they had this enablement where you could go watch a video, follow along, and then you do all the setup yourself.

Josh Smyser: Because when I said before, when I did my implementation, the issue was that, you know, the setup I felt was not done correctly. Now I had like a guided way to do it, and I could make [00:40:30] the choices that I wanted as I went along. Um, so we were we were the first one doing it, so I, I went really quick. I think like in the first like two weeks, I got a lot of stuff set up and we ran through like what their content was even ready yet. Um, so then we just started having ad hoc meetings that they, you know, they would record it so that they could use it for their training stuff later. But it was great. Like, actually me and the consultants were still, you know, figuring things out at this [00:41:00] point. Um, but it it makes it sound like I guess I should back up and say Bangert always said they were going to be very careful about who was the first person, right? And so they knew I was willing to take that things weren't necessarily going to be perfect in the beginning. Right. That and I deal with the small enough company. It's easier to do it for me than somebody that has that does 100,000,004 hundred employees. We could we would know we had no hourly payroll for [00:41:30] the month of December. So it gave us time to get like payroll set up. We just had some salaried guys.

Emily Madere: So you're using, uh Sage Intacct. For your payroll as well. Are you using, like, an outside party?

Josh Smyser: Yeah. So we even did the payroll, right? So so we we started doing our implementation October. By January 1st, we were pretty much live. So January 1st, we went live even on payroll. And their payroll system definitely had some issues back then. Now it's now it's really good. But we're [00:42:00] using Sage. Um, the native payroll. I can't remember who actually does it, but, um, our consultant was really good. He had, uh, he really did some handholding there because, you know, construction accounting can be difficult for payroll when you're dealing with prevailing wage and multiple states.

Emily Madere: And construction accounting in general can be difficult.

Josh Smyser: Yeah. So, um, so it went pretty well.

Matt Lescault: So I kind of wanted to know, like your [00:42:30] life before and after Intacct like, how has it changed? Good, bad or indifferent? Like, I want the the real the real scoop. Like.

Josh Smyser: Yeah.

Matt Lescault: Talk to me about about how the company works on it, how it's changed your, you know, internal operations. Sort of. Give me that, that, that, uh, that playbook.

Josh Smyser: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Let me back and say one of the other parts I didn't tell you of, like why I wanted to when we were switching to we talked about the modern infrastructure, [00:43:00] and at that point to that year, I had just started a second company, right. One. So we we did where we made a separate company for operating, um, to hold all the assets. Right. And then we had the operating company. So I was wanting a way to consolidate those two very easily and intact. Does that great with multi-level reporting. And so that was currently. Yep. Just two entities okay. Yeah. But it's nice to be able to run a report and see those two together and actually know what the real picture [00:43:30] was, because we were kind of running a little bit blind there.

Matt Lescault: Okay.

Josh Smyser: Um, but, uh, how does life different now? Um, I think so. There's it's been easy to have a lot of other integrations, um, with intact, like we use ramp for our credit cards, and that was a game changer. I learned about that at one of the Sage conferences, and that is fantastic to be able to just code your [00:44:00] code, your expenses and push them right through. Um, that's great.

Matt Lescault: We use bands, I use ramp for my company, so I'm right there.

Josh Smyser: Yeah, I would say, I mean for anybody, I think, Holy crap, that that was a huge time saver. I mean, just for me because I am those are the bad parts of like coming from the accounting side. Like I am a little bit of a control freak when it comes to the financial stuff. Like, I really believe garbage in, garbage out. Yeah. And so like.

Emily Madere: Always. [00:44:30]

Josh Smyser: I do approve the the credit cards and the bills. Um, I'm, I'm still that approver so that I know it's posted. Right. So I'm not correcting things later on. And so um, ramp made that super easy. And uh, we do um, we did try some, you know, and everybody has some pitfalls, right? I don't like throwing companies under the bus, but here we go. Busses going um HH2 was [00:45:00] used to be great. We had them under Sage 100, but then when the the Sage Intacct integration we used two and it was, it was garbage. Uh, it really was. Their AP side was garbage. I've been told, you know, it's clean house and it's way better, but you know what I mean. Once you've been burned, like, there was like, I want to say it was a two week period. We couldn't even get AP bills in the system. Wow. So we were.

Emily Madere: I've never even heard of heard of HH2.

Josh Smyser: Oh, okay. Yeah. So they have [00:45:30] you Matthew. Yeah. Oh, really? Okay. So they're really big banger pushed them a lot. Um, they had used, they were good for, uh, kind of like timber scan, right. Isn't that another one like one of these AP routing systems?

Emily Madere: Okay. Yeah, maybe. Okay. Yeah.

Matt Lescault: There's a lot of them out there. To be fair.

Emily Madere: There is. You can throw a rock and hit an AP company.

Josh Smyser: Yeah. There you go. So that that's what we had before at Sage 100. We had them and then we did the intake thing and it was it [00:46:00] was a disaster. So as soon as I could get away from them, I could. We used the native, um, Sage Intacct AP um, um, AP automation.

Matt Lescault: Yeah, yeah.

Josh Smyser: You know, it works fine for us where we just, like, email in the invoices and.

Emily Madere: Then it reads it.

Matt Lescault: Are you using to do the checks and. Ach. So it's it's automatic because you already using Ram. You could use them just for that final mile. I.

Josh Smyser: You know, I want [00:46:30] to my wife the change agent person right. That doesn't love.

Emily Madere: Change.

Josh Smyser: I've sent her the videos on how to do it quite a few times in about every three four months. I'd be like, hey, you think? You think you're about ready to implement the bill? Pay part of it. Oh, I need to look at those videos. So it's a winter project, like when I could be more hands on and help her. And to be fair. Right? Like, you know, we got four kids. She got drug into this business way more than I did, right? She was an elementary education teacher. Oh, [00:47:00] wow. And, um, decided to be a stay at home mom and do our, you know, bookkeeping. So, um, she doesn't have the passion for it that I do. So I have and I recognize that because I want to stay married.

Emily Madere: Well, I, I do I do want to kind of start to wrap things up because we're, we're kind of going on time here. So any final thoughts? Matt?

Josh Smyser: Josh I think for me I think the most important. So it's super important [00:47:30] to be thinking like we didn't really touch on this at all, but like the way AI is going and planning for what kind of systems you need. And so to me, Sage Intacct is is a big part to that, because if you are thinking about, you know, building your company with AI in mind, you don't want to build it off like, you know, the Sage 300 or you know, any of the other systems in my mind, right? If you're going through all the effort of doing an implementation and just planning for AI, you need modern systems. [00:48:00] And the more and more I've dug into this, like that's a that's a big thing. So we've been uh, and I, I've. Go ahead Matt.

Matt Lescault: I was gonna say, Emily, I just think we need to do, like, another episode with Josh. We just talked about how he's deploying AI, how intact supporting that, and everything else. I just think that, uh oh. Part two. Why not? Yeah.

Emily Madere: Yeah.

Josh Smyser: Yeah, because the part we're doing, like a year ago, like when I said my competitor was going to potentially go under, um, that's when I implemented Salesforce [00:48:30] and implemented a CRM and realized Salesforce is is another overwhelming thing. You need consultants to help with that. But anyways, we went down this road of I'm really trying to think through this AI infrastructure. So now we have Salesforce and we have Procore and intact, and then we have other systems that all integrate as well. But to get ready for like the Agentic AI now we even have Salesforce MuleSoft like so like a middleware solution that we're planning [00:49:00] on connecting all of these to. So I have a company, um, that's helping me with that implementation. Right now we're just doing Salesforce to Procore and making sure that all that stuff syncs up that can get automated, um, you know, create new projects and make sure all these things are in the loop. But then the next thing is, is linking intact back to Salesforce. So, you know, all this duplicate entry stuff is, is crazy [00:49:30] when you have all the APIs that you can make all these things work well.

Matt Lescault: How you integrate it, it might be like Salesforce to Procore to Ntac for certain things and Salesforce to intact for another subset of data and so forth. Yeah, we definitely should have you back on gone through the store chatting around that. I think you know my thought just real quickly. And Emily always gives me a hard time for talking too much. So, you know, bear with me.

Emily Madere: Um, you only brought up South Africa [00:50:00] once.

Matt Lescault: I did that before we started. Um, I just I think this is a great testament of understanding that intact is built for any size organization. It really has to do with the organizations that and the leaders that want to drive positive change and really drive the ability for scalability. And, uh, you [00:50:30] know, when we talk about organization at 3.5 million in 2022, when you started, now, you know, hoping that 2026 is probably in the 6 million range, something like put words in Josh's mouth. I mean, that would be on the lower end of the spectrum for for a lot of what people would assume would be an impact. But I believe that you made a great decision that it's obviously impacted your business in a very positive way. And I don't think you'd be sitting here on, on this podcast if you if you regretted that, regretted [00:51:00] that decision. So I think that's a testament to what businesses should be thinking about from from a decision making process. It's not all about the dollars and cents, and today it's about the dollars and cents of tomorrow.

Emily Madere: Yeah, yeah. Okay. Josh, um, thank you so much for spending some time with us. I know we're kind of some minutes over, so thank you so much for sharing your history and the legacy that you're building for you and your family. Um, we like to end these podcasts with a dad [00:51:30] joke. So do you happen to have one prepared?

Josh Smyser: No, not a very good appropriate one, but I'll throw it out there. Um, so this is the one my boys enjoy. But. So remember, they're 11 years old, right? They're triplets. They're 11. So we the the saying is, you know, there's an ancient Chinese proverb. Go to bed, itchy, but wake up stinky finger. So that is what they go around saying all the time.

Matt Lescault: That [00:52:00] joke, I like it.

Emily Madere: Yes, that was a good one.

Josh Smyser: So not exactly a clean joke.

Matt Lescault: No, no.

Emily Madere: 11 years old. Love it.

Matt Lescault: That's one way to go. Okay. In the shower. Right?

Josh Smyser: Yeah, right.

Matt Lescault: Yeah.

Emily Madere: Okay. Well, thank you for joining us again. Uh, Josh, um, wish you the best. Try to stay cool. Where you at? And, um. Well, maybe we'll get you on for a part two.

Josh Smyser: Sounds great. Had a blast talking to you.

Matt Lescault: It's been wonderful. Really appreciate it. Love the [00:52:30] story. And, uh, yeah, I'd love to get you back on.

Josh Smyser: Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.