Case study · ERP
Perfect Finish
A custom ERP for a six-company construction group, replacing HCSS HeavyBid and the Access database the business was built on.
Player 1 · RedSky · Stage 3
Final score
Run for Perfect Finish
- 1 Systems consolidated A hand-built Access program, HeavyBid, Device Magic, ClockShark, Smartsheet, spreadsheets and the glue between them.
- 7
- 2 Sets of books Six affiliated companies that trade work with each other, running on one system of record.
- 6
- 3 Legacy tables The size of the Access database GroundOps was specified against, roughly a gigabyte of live data.
- 206
- ERP software development
- UX/UI design
- Mobile app development
The run
Two worlds. One boss.
World 1 · Stage 1 · The vision
One unbroken chain from the bid to the books, across six companies
Perfect Finish had every part of a working business and no line between them. An estimate was built in one tool, the job ran in another, hours lived in a third, and the numbers were re-keyed by hand on the way to accounting. The goal was a single chain: bid, job, field hours, cost, invoice, with the entity attached at every step.
World 1 · Stage 2 · Boss · The challenge
The estimating tool they trusted could not talk to the system that held their numbers
Estimators worked in HCSS HeavyBid because it is fast and it fits how heavy civil work gets priced. But it was tied to three licenses on specific machines, and it had no link to accounting at all.
The Access program had that link, plus jobs, purchase orders, pay applications, change orders, HR and equipment. It was hand-built over many years, and it could not follow a crew into the field. Enter RedSky Engineering.
World 2
How RedSky delivered
A custom ERP across four applications: estimating and pricing, a web admin platform, an offline mobile field app, and bridges into the legacy systems.
World 2 · Stage 1
Architect
RedSky treated the client’s own Access database, 206 tables built in-house over many years, as the specification, because it is the system the business actually runs on. The estimating math was reverse-engineered from it and from HeavyBid: margin-based pricing, three sales-tax treatments, a full labor burden build-up, and an equipment rate built from rent plus operating cost.
World 2 · Stage 2
Build
GroundOps is four TypeScript applications sharing one generated typed contract from the database outward, which is why a small team maintains them together. HeavyBid’s fast single-screen estimating was rebuilt inside it rather than integrated with, so estimators keep the tool they like and gain the accounting link it never had. A forms platform and offline-first field app replaced the mobile forms tool.
World 2 · Stage 3
Deliver
The cutover is staged rather than a single switch. Estimating shipped first, complete with change orders, alternates and value engineering, and estimates feed back into the Access system automatically so purchasing, billing and reporting keep working. All 34 live field forms have been rebuilt and validated. HR and the equipment database are in development behind them.
Boss down 3 hits · Perfect Finish cleared
The outcome
The estimating engine is live, and the rest of the stack is being consolidated behind it
Perfect Finish estimates in GroundOps today, on a pricing engine that reprices every open bid when fuel prices change and locks a won bid so later rate changes cannot touch it.
Six companies now share one data model built around the fact that they trade with each other. The old forms tool is down to three seats, and the app replacing it runs offline in the crew’s hand.
Continue?
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