Join your peers Take the survey now! You’ll get the inside scoop on what the Arizona construction industry provides in salary, benefits and company-owned vehicles to their staff. Results include breakdown details by category and employee size. Our goal is to reach every licensed contractor in Arizona.

Be more competitive in acquiring talent by joining the members of these construction associations in participating in the survey.

American Subcontractors Association of Arizona (ASA)
Arizona Builders’ Alliance (ABA)
Arizona Roofing Contractors Association (ARCA)
Arizona Utility Contractors Association (AZUCA)
Associated General Contractors of America (AGC)
Associated Minority Contractors of America (AMCA)
Construction Financial Management Association (CFMA)
Independent Electrical Contractors Association of Arizona (IECA)
National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC)
National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA)
Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association of Arizona (PHCC)

We appreciate your time and know that this will serve as a valuable resource for your financial, operations and human resources staff. Take the survey Now!

If you are the CEO, CFO, controller or HR Director of a general contractor, specialty trades (subcontractor) or highway/heavy/utilities contractor located in Arizona, you can get the full 2015 report for free. By simply completing the survey before October 31, 2015, you will receive a complimentary copy of the results (a $100 value).

The Construction Industry Compensation Survey is open October 1-31, 2015 and rest assured, your information is kept confidential as information is collected and analyzed by the
independent CPA firm of Hunter Hagan & Company, LTD. Take the survey

Should you want to receive a copy of the results without participating in the survey, or require additional copies of the survey, they can be purchased at a cost of $100 per copy through the Valley of the Sun CFMA Chapter website.

The post 2015 Arizona Construction Industry Compensation Survey appeared first on Hagen Business Systems.

Take the AZ Construction Salary Survey on-line: https://novisurvey.net/n/7g2.aspx

Many of the regional associations have been invited to participate including:

• Arizona Builders Alliance
• American Subcontractors Association
• Arizona Roofing Contractors Association
• Associated General Contractors of America
• Construction Financial Management Association
• Independent Electrical Contractors Association of Arizona
• National Association of Women in Construction
• National Electrical Contractors Association
• National Utility Contractors Association of Arizona
• Plumbing Heating Cooling Contractors Association of Arizona

The results will be broken down by company demographics: number of employees and type of contractor so you can make meaningful comparisons. There are questions on economic indicators, employee development, employee benefits and employee compensation.

View the questions before taking the survey: 2011 AZ Construction Salary Survey

All contractors (GCs, highway/heavy and trades) doing business in the state are welcome to participate. Every firm that completes the survey will receive a copy of the results for free in early 2012. Everyone else will have to pay $100. Deadline is December 15, 2011. Start the survey now on-line: https://novisurvey.net/n/7g2.aspx

Copies can be purchased on-line. For more information visit http://cafe.cfma.org/valleyofthesun/home/

Please share this with others in the industry as the more contractors who participate, the more valuable this construction resource will be.

The post Construction Budgeting Resource for Arizona appeared first on Hagen Business Systems.

Arizona Contractors In a Pickle?

Arizona’s economic recover has probably been deferred 6-8 months with the sales tax increase passed earlier this week by voters and sadly will put more strain on the construction industry. Mark Minter of the Arizona Builders Alliance (ABA) shared this with me to clarify when and how the tax will impact existing and future construction contracts, so I’m passing it onto my readers verbatim:

In yesterday’s election the voters of the State of Arizona overwhelmingly approved a temporary 1% increase in the sales tax rate. The higher rate goes into effect June 1st, 2010.

The ABA successfully lobbied a protection from increases such as this into state law several years ago. That statute reads:

ARS 42-5010 H. Any increase in the rate of tax that is imposed by this chapter and that is enacted by the legislature or by a vote of the people does not apply with respect to contracts entered into by prime contractors or pursuant to written bids made by prime contractors on or before the effective date of the legislation or the date of the election enacting the increase. To qualify for the exemption under this subsection, the prime contractor must maintain sufficient documentation, in a manner and form prescribed by the department, to verify the date of the contract or written bid.

Projects that are bid or contracted to prior May 18th are exempt from the sales tax increase.

What Impacts Your Bottom Line?
The sales tax increase ups the owner’s cost of building at a time where many contractors are still struggling to survive. As a construction company you will continue to keep your construction office overhead low. Recently I shared some ideas with ConstrucTech Magazine’s readers on what I’ve seen contractors do…some good ideas and a few things to avoid as it relates to computer systems and technology spending. Here’s a link to the May 2010 article “Technology Budgets in a Pickle”.

I’d love to hear what you’ve successfully implemented (click the comment option at the top of the blog) and feel free to share this with the construction industry as we all can use a little help.

The post Contractors in Arizona, the New Sales Tax and Your Bottom Line appeared first on Hagen Business Systems.

The survey will be available for purchase for non-participating firms online January 15, 2010 at http://chapters.cfma.org/ValleyOfTheSun/publications.html and the table of contents can also be viewed there.  The survey was open to all contractors, calls for participation were conducted with the help of numerous construction associations in the state of Arizona and the survey data was collected during November and early December 2009.

Thank you to the many associations and their members who participated in the survey for recognizing the value you add to the community. I was humbled by the expertise of my fellow survey committee volunteers and their dedication to the industry.

• Rayleen Colletti, CPA Chair  – Hunter Hagan & Company LTD
• Dave Goris – D. P. Electric Inc.
• Moni Lalonde – Lovitt & Touche’
• Gina Nelson – Hire Resolutions/Hire Impression
• Phil Taylor, CPA – Taylor, Duffy & Associates

A special thanks goes to PerfectForms and their employees who automated the data collection and made our efforts paperless and green.

I’d be interested in knowing if any other construction salary surveys have been conducted recently and if their numbers are congruent with the Arizona survey.  Please let me know if you run across other resources (local, regional or national) in the comments and share the links liberally.

The post Construction Salary Survey appeared first on Hagen Business Systems.

That’s what can be achieved over time according to “IT Savvy” by Peter Weill & Jeanne W. Ross.  Being obsessed with Fixing What’s Broken, Building a Digitized Platform and Exploiting the Platform for Profitable Growth is how they describe the IT Savvy firm.  Within the book, they outline the journey of becoming IT savvy as having four stages:  Localizing, Standardizing, Optimizing  and Reusing.

While only 2% surveyed have attained the Reusing stage, these firms enjoy a 20 % higher profit than their competitors and have an average IT budget that is 145% higher than the localized stage IT department.  What makes the Reusing stage distinct is that they continuously improve, are business agile and introduce product innovations.  They use IT strategically.   To tell where you are in the process, you’ll want to benchmark unit costs and compare yourself to competitors. The appendix of IT Savvy has a questionnaire to also help determine your current stage.  For construction firms metrics you may want to purchase CFMA’s Information Technology Survey, or peek at Intel’s performance measurements in their Information Technology 2008 Performance Report.

You may also want to read a recent global CIO study which states that “half of CIOs are expecting to implement completely standardized, low-cost business processes [over the next five years]”.  Their visionary plans include business intelligence & analytics, virtualization, risk management & compliance,  and business process management.  The CIO pragmatist enables corporate vision, makes working together easy and concentrates on core competencies.  This all happens while 14% of the CIOs time is looking for ways to cut costs.  Where do you spend your money & your time?

The post Where Does Your IT Budget Go? appeared first on Hagen Business Systems.