CHARLESTON SC, March 4, 2009: Charleston-based electrical contractor Metro Electric Co., Inc. ( www.metroelec.net) can characterize its unexpected IRS audit in two words: no sweat. What could have been a stress-inducing, time-consuming ordeal was essentially a breeze, according to Paulette Gobel, Metro Electric accounting supervisor. Gobel credits the document imaging component of Metro Electric’s construction management software, which enabled Gobel and her staff to easily locate and give to the IRS auditor the myriad documents she was seeking—saving time and aggravation in the process.

“Document imaging not only saved a lot of time, because we didn’t have to hunt through paper files for a document, pull it out, make a copy and put it back,” Gobel explained. “But it also helped with the actual audit. I really believe that the fact we could easily just give the auditor whatever she wanted helped her know that our records are straight and that we’re upfront. It really made us look good.”

Metro Electric had been using the Document Imaging component of Dexter + Chaney’s ( www.dexterchaney.com) Spectrum(R) Construction Software for three years before the IRS announced the audit in 2008. Metro Electric passed the audit, which took place over a three-month period. “Without document imaging, it would have taken us at least three times the amount of time to hunt through files to find a document, put it on the copier and return it to the file,” Gobel explained. “That would have been a nightmare. But with document imaging, all the documents were right there.”

Metro Electric employs Spectrum Document Imaging for archiving job-related documents, time and materials billing, electronic invoice approval and other everyday activities. Gobel explains that Metro Electric “scans just about everything” into document imaging, including A/P invoices, payroll timecards, human resources information, vendor information, change order documents and subcontracts.

She notes that, over the years, a 400 percent increase in monthly billings at Metro Electric has required only a 20 percent increase in the company’s five-person office staff. “Document imaging has made our daily processes much more streamlined and efficient,” Gobel explains.

A smooth IRS audit was, in essence, a document imaging “bonus” for Metro Electric, after using the product for years. “I can’t tell you how much easier document imaging made the audit,” Gobel says. “We were able to give the IRS auditor any document that she requested in a very timely and organized manner. I’m just glad that the audit occurred after we’d installed document imaging. The biggest thing going through my mind during the entire process was, ‘This is easy.’ It was always easy to just say, ‘Oh, you want that? OK, here it is.’”

ABOUT DEXTER + CHANEY
More than 1,000 construction companies throughout the United States use Dexter + Chaney’s Spectrum(R) Construction Software. Spectrum includes 30 integrated modules that handle project management, construction accounting, equipment management, human resources, document imaging, service management, remote connectivity and data sharing tasks. Contractors who use Spectrum report they have improved profitability and have grown their businesses more than 300 percent without adding financial staff.

More than 7,500 total users make use of Spectrum’s Document Imaging software, which addresses a typically painful problem for construction contractors: giving management, office staff and project managers the fast, electronic access they need to important documents like contracts, change orders, time cards, invoices and others.

For more information about Dexter + Chaney or Spectrum, contact Brad Mathews, Vice President of Marketing, Dexter + Chaney, 9700 Lake City Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115-2347; phone: 800-875-1400 or 206-364-1400; fax: 206-367-9613; e-mail: Email Contact; http://www.dexterchaney.com.

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