BAPKO Metal Inc. is a self-performing contractor specializing in miscellaneous steel and architectural metal fabrication and installation. After many years of managing their finances in Sage 300 CRE, they decided to switch to Sage Intacct Construction. The rigid reports within Sage 300 CRE were holding back their growth. Sage Intacct Construction offered a cloud-based solution and more flexible reporting capabilities that would support their growth. Plus, staying inside the Sage software ecosystem meant they could work with a VAR they already knew and trusted — helping to minimize the business disruption of the transition. 

Internal Accounting and Operational Workflows Required Historical Data 

For BAPKO Metal, a Sage Intacct implementation with trial balances only wouldn’t have supported their business model. They depend on their financial team for some of the tasks that other companies might assign to project managers, so having all of the project info in Sage Intacct Construction would allow them to continue generating the reports they needed efficiently.  

“Bringing over as much of the job history as possible was important because it would mean less effort to see the full picture of our ongoing jobs,” says Eric Ogawa, one of BAPKO Metal’s financial team leaders. “We wanted the combined data for the life of the project to be all in Sage Intacct Construction.” 

Outsourcing the Data Migration Provided Valuable Platform-Specific Expertise and Documented Processes 

The BAPKO Metal team quickly determined that they didn’t have the internal bandwidth to take on such a comprehensive data migration project. But they also knew it was critical to find a migration team with a deep understanding of Sage 300 CRE.  

BAPKO Metal hired Platform Transition to migrate their historical construction accounting data from Sage 300 CRE to Sage Intacct Construction, including rebuilding all of their project level reporting info, with their cost codes and cost types, along with purchase orders, sales orders, retainage, and more.  

Ogawa notes that he was impressed with Platform Transition’s knowledge of the ins and outs of both Sage 300 CRE and Sage Intacct Construction, which helped anticipate potential issues they might have otherwise faced with their migration.  

“Sage Intacct Construction accepts data very easily, but unless you have the in-house resources to dedicate the time to do it on your own, I would strongly recommend a third-party,” Ogawa says. “And Platform Transition has extensive knowledge of Sage 300 CRE.”  

The BAPKO Metal team was also impressed with Platform Transition’s robust and well-documented data migration processes.  

Migration of Historical Data Improves Reporting Capabilities

By migrating their historical data into Sage Intacct Construction, BAPKO Metal achieved a level of reporting flexibility that would have been impossible in Sage 300 CRE. They’re better positioned for growth and have software that aligns with the skillsets of the current labor pool.  

“You guys were very thorough,” Ogawa says. “That was very clear in the quality of the work, the uploads, the extractions. I have nothing but good things to say about that.”