Force Electric
A PE-backed electrical contractor replaced QuickBooks with NetSuite and BlueCollar Projects and went live just 10 weeks after kickoff
ClientForce Electric
IndustryElectrical Construction
LocationTulsa, Oklahoma
Key SolutionNetSuite ERP, BlueCollar Projects
PartnerBlueCollar Cloud
10
weeks from kickoff to go-live
3
lines of business unified
2x
repeat customer — chose BlueCollar again
QB→NS
off QuickBooks onto NetSuite
Overview
Force Electric is an electrical contractor working across three lines of business — distribution, transmission, and substation — out of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Following a private-equity investment, the company set out to add entities and scale, and the finance organization quickly hit the limits of its existing tools. Force Electric partnered with BlueCollar Cloud to move onto NetSuite and BlueCollar Projects, going live ten weeks after the kickoff meeting.
The challenge
QuickBooks had become a ceiling. As a multi-entity contractor running jobs that range from days to a full year, Force Electric needed genuine project accounting that its existing stack could not support:
NO TRUE JOB COSTINGQuickBooks could handle the accounting, but not budgets, cost codes, or committed-versus-actual cost tracking at the project level
- MANUAL PROGRESS BILLING
Progress and AIA-style billing with retainage lived outside the system, adding effort and risk to every billing cycle
- NO WIP OR REVENUE RECOGNITION
Work-in-progress reporting and percentage-of-completion revenue recognition were not possible on the existing platform
- MULTI-ENTITY GROWTH PLANS
An acquisition-minded ownership group needed a system that could add entities and scale with the business
- GENERALIST IMPLEMENTATION PARTNERS
Leadership wanted a partner who had lived the work of a construction back office, not a consultant learning the industry on their dime
With BlueCollar, we achieved go-live just 10 weeks after kickoff, a timeline I believe sets a new benchmark for construction ERP implementations.
Jay Smith
CFO, Force Electric
Why BlueCollar — again
For Jay Smith, Force Electric's CFO, the decision was informed by experience. He had been introduced to the BlueCollar platform at a previous company, where the BlueCollar team walked him through the original setup. When he stepped into his new role, he advocated for bringing the same partner in.
That made Force Electric a repeat customer — a company choosing BlueCollar a second time, at a new organization, because the team had already proven it could deliver construction-grade financials on NetSuite.
BlueCollar matched our pace, exceeded our expectations, and delivered every step of the way.
Jay Smith
CFO, Force Electric
The solution
BlueCollar brought Force Electric live on NetSuite and BlueCollar Projects ten weeks after the kickoff meeting — while training the billing, AP, and project teams on their day-to-day workflows and migrating the priority transmission and substation projects that drive the company's WIP reporting. What was delivered:
- MULTI-ENTITY NETSUITE FINANCIALS
One platform replacing QuickBooks across every legal entity
- JOB COSTING AND BUDGETS
Phases, cost codes, and cost types with committed-versus-actual cost visibility
- PROGRESS AND AIA BILLING
AIA-style billing with retainage handling built into the system
- WIP AND REVENUE
Work-in-progress reporting and percentage-of-completion revenue recognition
- PROJECT REPORTING
Project Balance Sheet and Project Income Statement reporting, with payroll cost data imported and tied back to projects
Great implementations aren't defined by software, they're defined by execution. The BlueCollar team executed at an exceptional level from kickoff through go-live.
Jay Smith
CFO, Force Electric
The results
Coming out of go-live, Force Electric has the project-level visibility, costing, and financial reporting it was missing on QuickBooks — across all three lines of business and multiple entities:
“For the first time, management could see accurate project profitability while work was still in progress, not months later.”
— Jay Smith, CFO, Force Electric
Record-Speed Go-Live
“Ten weeks from kickoff to NetSuite go-live with BC Projects. Record speed, exceptional execution.”
In-Progress Profitability
Accurate project profitability visible while work is still in progress, not months after the fact
WIP and Rev Rec in One System
WIP reporting and percentage-of-completion revenue recognition run alongside the general ledger
A Platform Built to Scale
Multi-entity financials ready to absorb the next phase of PE-backed growth
BlueCollar gave us the project-level visibility we were missing to manage a growing private equity-backed construction company.
Jay Smith
CFO, Force Electric
Continuous partnership
Force Electric is a repeat BlueCollar customer — a contractor who had already seen the team deliver once and chose the same partner again at a new organization. As Jay Smith put it at go-live: “Big thanks goes out to the BlueCollar team — they kept up with my pace every step of the way.”
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