Watch: Clean Energy Services on outgrowing QuickBooks
The COO and co-founder of CES explains how moving from QuickBooks to Acumatica changed their financial visibility, project management and back office. Their takeaway: the implementation partner matters as much as the software.
- Real-time project financial analysis in place of data cleanup
- Automated AP approval workflows
- Faster monthly close with Velixo reporting
- Efficient operation with fewer staff, thanks to automation
Clean Energy Services launched in 2022 and was pre-revenue when it implemented Acumatica Construction Edition. The company now runs roughly 400 field personnel nationwide on the same foundation it started with, having never accumulated the point tools, spreadsheet habits or migration debt that most contractors spend an implementation unwinding.
Clean Energy Services
Clean Energy Services launched in 2022 and was pre-revenue when the engagement began. Today it runs roughly 400 field personnel nationwide.
Almost every company we work with is unwinding something. This one is the exception, and it is worth studying for that reason: the systems went in before the growth, so there was never a stack of point tools to dismantle or a set of spreadsheet habits to break.
The cost of doing it in this order is that you are paying for capacity before you need it. The cost of doing it the other way is every implementation on this page.
Building the operating layer before the revenue
A new company has no legacy data problem and no entrenched habits. What it has instead is no operating history to configure against, and a growth curve nobody can size in advance.
A foundation sized for where the business was going
Acumatica Construction Edition configured for a field-heavy clean energy operation, designed against the growth curve rather than the starting headcount.
Roughly 400 field personnel and no rebuild
Standing the systems up before the growth arrived meant the back office never became the thing that capped it, and nothing had to be unwound along the way.
Scaled to ~400 field personnel
Nationwide operation grown on the original foundation.
No legacy cleanup
No unapplied cash, no out-of-balance subledgers, no migration debt.
Field habits set correctly
Time captured at the source from the first job onward.
Reporting from day one
Financial and job-level visibility in place before it was urgent.
No mid-growth replatform
The system that started the business is still the system running it.
Capacity ahead of demand
Growth absorbed rather than survived.
Questions about this implementation
Why implement an ERP before there is revenue?
Because the alternative is paying for it later. A company that grows first accumulates point tools, spreadsheet workarounds and unreconciled data, and the eventual implementation becomes an unwinding exercise. Clean Energy Services had no legacy cleanup, no unapplied cash and no out-of-balance subledgers.
What is the tradeoff of implementing early?
You pay for capacity before you need it, and you configure against a growth curve nobody can size in advance. That is a real cost. The cost of the other order is visible in every other case study on this site.
What scale does the original implementation support?
Approximately 400 field personnel nationwide, on the system the business started with. There was no mid-growth replatform.
