Building the foundation for success
What began as a steel fabrication business has evolved into a multifaceted enterprise with divisions in transport, cranes, coatings, roofing and, recently, new commercial developments. Based in Queensland, CSF Industries is a family-owned and operated business with 180 employees and an annual turnover of $40 million.
Business Operations Manager Karina Adams’ father founded the company in 1979. But, for the past 20 years, she and her husband, Managing Director Sean Adams, have been at the helm of the business. They share how MYOB Advanced Construction provides them with a clear, birds-eye view of all CSF Industries — and how that’s enabled them to start a new division in property development and commercial construction.
Sean explains: “Our focus has always been on diversifying the business. To do that, we need to invest in new technology that continually improves how we work.”
Too many disconnected systems
Before MYOB Advanced Construction, CSF Industries was facing several operational challenges.
Its accounting, project management and purchasing systems weren’t integrated, so extracting information like profit and loss or divisional reports was tricky. Making any business decision would often take weeks of data analysis and pulling numbers from disconnected systems.
"We just didn’t have real-time visibility of how the business was doing."
- Sean Adams, Managing Director, CSF Industries
This also meant that teams within the business often lacked access to the data they needed. As a result, there was a lot of back and forth to triple-check whether the information they were working with was up to date.
Karina explains that when you’re a $40 million turnover business dealing with hundreds of invoices per week, manual processes can quickly slow down any progress.
“We have that many invoices that come into the business – it’s insane,” she says. “The way our staff had to complete their tasks every day, month, week and year – everything was laborious.”
MYOB Advanced Construction: a business management platform for CSF Industries
For many years, CSF Industries has been using MYOB AccountRight. Sean says it did a great job as an accounting system, but as the business grew, it primarily needed a system that could provide divisional reporting.
The company considered several different options, including MYOB Advanced Construction. Initially, the goal was only to upgrade the finance system. But as the business dug deeper into the capabilities of MYOB Advanced Construction, it realised the platform’s versatility could house all of CSF Industries in one enterprise resource planning solution.
"The more we looked at it, the more it made sense to bring our finance, construction, project management and payroll together, and MYOB Advanced Construction allowed us to do that."
- Sean Adams, Managing Director, CSF Industries
CSF Industries worked with MYOB Enterprise Partner of the Year 2022, Momentum Software Solutions, to implement MYOB Advanced Construction. It was a big job, with 40 years of data that needed migrating.
“There was a lot to do, and Momentum Software Solutions was able to sort through and clean everything up during the implementation,” says Karina.
Improved workflows: no more worrying about “basic stuff”
MYOB Advanced Construction has completely transformed how CSF Industries operates, mainly how teams across the separate divisions work together, Karina says. For example, team members can now drag and drop documents into the platform, eliminating any data double-ups, and many of their admin processes are now automated — like client payment schedules.
“It’s such a small thing, but before, client payment schedules were maybe stored on someone’s computer or in their emails. Now, they’re dropped straight into MYOB Advanced Construction, so if anybody has a question, they can go straight into the claim,” explains Karina.
The company has been able to reassign people from the office to other parts of the business, and it now works with an external accountant — changes that wouldn’t have been possible without an integrated business management platform.
“MYOB Advanced Construction makes everything so transparent. We’ve noticed fewer people asking where to find things – everyone can get on with their jobs,” Karina adds.
Data insights from one integrated platform
Previously, CSF Industries used an Excel-based project management system, making managing job costings and budgets difficult.
"We used to have spreadsheets for everything, and it was always difficult to keep them accurate when they passed through so many hands,” Sean explains.
“Now, you just push a button, and all the information moves to the next stage. There’s no having to input it somewhere else,” adds Karina.
With MYOB Advanced Construction, teams can access real-time information on any device. As a result, they can manage customers, budgets, project teams and schedules all on one platform — no spreadsheets! – and that’s having some significant business benefits.
“We’ve got visibility which means we can identify if something’s gone pear-shaped way quicker than before,” says Sean. “Project managers can see which jobs perform and what tenders we win. Overall, we’ve got our finger on the financial pulse of the business a lot better.”
CSF Industries can now identify and focus on which clients are most profitable.
"MYOB Advanced Construction gives us more insight into our clients – and it’s shown us where to invest our attention,” Sean says.
Scalable and streamlined: Cloud-based payroll
CSF Industries also migrated its payroll system from MYOB Exo to MYOB Advanced Payroll. The transition from an on-premise solution to the cloud came with benefits: no more server hardware to maintain and access real-time company data from any device with an internet connection. But the most significant perk was bringing the payroll function onto the MYOB Advanced platform.
“I don’t deal with the payroll on a day-to-day basis anymore – that is an improvement,” laughs Karina.
Expanding into new territory
Over the last 12 months, CSF Industries has been busy launching its latest business venture in property development and commercial construction. It’s been a big goal for Karina and Sean, and they say that without MYOB Advanced Construction, it would have been much harder to do.
"MYOB Advanced Construction has given us more fluidity to move into new areas. It will be a big growth facilitator for us moving forward.”
Improvements since implementing MYOB Advanced Construction and Advanced Payroll:
Greater financial visibility means better decision-making and forecasting.
Real-time project tracking — CSF Industries can focus on more profitable opportunities.
Consolidation – one source of data truth for all CSF Industries’ divisions.
Automated workflows — teams can do their jobs more efficiently.
Cloud-based, streamlined payroll processes.
