Adams Electric Company + Rhumbix: Transforming Field Operations

How a 97-Year-Old Electrical Contractor Modernized Timekeeping and Workforce Management

Company Overview

For 97 years, Adams Electric Company has been a cornerstone of electrical contracting excellence, building a reputation for quality workmanship and project execution across the Southeast. From their corporate headquarters in North Carolina, the company has established itself as a trusted partner for complex electrical installations, earning numerous awards for excellence in construction.

The impressive collection of awards displayed in their conference room tells only part of the story. Behind the accolades lies a company that has experienced dramatic growth, doubling its workforce to approximately 1,000 field employees and 1,150 total employees over just 18 months. This rapid expansion brought the company to a critical inflection point: their manual processes for time collection and workforce management, which had served them for decades, were no longer sustainable at their new scale of operations.

Adams Electric’s portfolio spans a diverse range of projects, from routine installations to large-scale commercial and industrial work. Their largest projects can employ 150-200 workers on a single job site, requiring sophisticated coordination and oversight. The company operates as an open-shop contractor, managing both direct employees and a substantial temporary labor force that represents approximately half of their field workforce.

The leadership team brings together deep operational experience with forward-thinking management. Joy Jones handles business development and workforce development initiatives, working closely with Tom Sonricker, the CFO with 14 years at the company. Stuart Edwards serves as General Superintendent, bringing extensive field experience to project oversight, while Ranko Ikic manages field operations as the Field Operations Manager.

The Challenge

We’ve talked about timekeeping for 97 years.

— Tom Sonricker, CFO, Adams Electric Company

Like many established contractors, Adams Electric had been discussing the timekeeping challenge throughout the company’s entire history. They had tried multiple approaches over the decades: handwritten timesheets, bell timesheet accumulations, and most recently, Spectrum’s PTE system rolled out to certain jobs over the past four to five years. Despite these efforts, none of the solutions had achieved widespread adoption or addressed the full scope of their needs.

Manual Processes at Breaking Point

The existing process placed an enormous burden on field superintendents and office staff. On projects with 50 to 100+ employees, workers would sign in and out on physical sheets daily. These handwritten timesheets would then be collected and sent to the General Superintendent, Stuart Edwards, who would manually enter the time into Excel spreadsheets—a process that consumed an hour and a half for just 150-200 workers and typically had to be done on weekends during his “quiet time.”

This manual process created multiple downstream problems. Time data wasn’t available in real-time, making it difficult to understand actual labor deployment across projects. The delay between work being performed and time being recorded meant that workforce development, safety tracking, and cost accounting were all working with outdated information.

The Temporary Labor Dilemma

The temporary labor component of Adams Electric’s workforce presented its own unique set of challenges. The company worked with multiple temp agencies to fill approximately half of their field positions, but capturing and processing temp labor time had become what Tom described as “always a sticking point.”

The existing workflow for temp labor was particularly cumbersome: crews would collect temp worker time in the field, send information to the temp agency, wait for the agency to process it and generate an invoice, and then process that invoice through accounts payable. This meant temp labor costs could lag one to two weeks behind actual work, severely limiting the ability to understand real-time project costs.

Key Challenges

• Manual data entry burden: 1.5 hours per weekend to process 150-200 worker timesheets
• Lack of real-time visibility: No way to know accurately how many people were in the field, where they were, or what jobs they were working on
• Temp labor delays: One to two week lag in posting temp labor costs to jobs, preventing timely project cost analysis
• Limited adoption: Previous technology solutions (PTE) had struggled to achieve user acceptance across the field organization
• System transition: PTE being sunset in favor of TrackSparer, which hadn’t impressed the team
• Workforce management complexity: Difficulty tracking workers across multiple projects and frequent crew adjustments

Technology Adoption Struggles

Tom’s candid admission that they had experienced difficulty getting people to accept and embrace PTE highlighted a critical challenge: technology alone doesn’t solve operational problems if the workforce won’t use it. After years of attempted rollout, the system hadn’t achieved the companywide adoption needed to deliver on its promised benefits.

The pending sunset of PTE in favor of TrackSparer added urgency to the situation. The team’s assessment of the replacement system was blunt: they “had not been very impressed with it.” Rather than migrate to another solution that might not meet their needs, leadership decided this was the moment to “rip the bandaid off” and find something that would work for the entire company.

Workforce Development Imperatives

My interest is from a workforce development standpoint from accurately being able to know how many people we have in the field, who they are, which job sites they are, and accurately knowing that.

— Joy Jones, Business Development, Adams Electric Company

Joy Jones’s perspective from workforce development added another critical dimension to the challenge. The company needed to accurately know how many people they had in the field at any given time, who those people were, and which job sites they were working at. This information was essential not just for operational efficiency, but for safety and compliance.

The Solution

When Adams Electric began evaluating new timekeeping and workforce management solutions, they brought a clear-eyed perspective shaped by decades of experience. They weren’t looking for the latest technology for its own sake—they were looking for a solution that would actually work for their field teams, integrate seamlessly with their existing systems, and provide the visibility and control their rapidly growing organization required.

An internal referral from Brett, an employee who had previously worked for a large electrical contractor in Ohio and had used Rhumbix on data center projects, put the platform on their radar. The recommendation from someone with direct field experience using the system carried significant weight with the team.

Key Capabilities:

1. Flexible Time Collection Approaches

What immediately differentiated Rhumbix was its flexibility in supporting multiple time collection methodologies within a single platform. Rather than forcing Adams Electric to choose one approach for all projects, Rhumbix could accommodate the reality of their diverse project portfolio:

• Foreman-Based Timekeeping: For many projects, foremen could quickly build their crew for the day, select cost codes, and allocate hours across their team from a mobile device
• Kiosk Mode: For larger projects with 100+ workers, iPads could be stationed at job trailers or entry points, allowing workers to clock in and out using a PIN or QR code, with photo verification and optional geofencing
• Individual Worker Entry: For service work or smaller crews, individual workers could log their own time directly from their personal devices, with supervisors reviewing and approving later

2. Seamless Spectrum Integration

Rhumbix’s bidirectional API integration with Spectrum addressed one of Adams Electric’s fundamental requirements. Spectrum would continue to serve as the source of truth for projects, budgets, cost codes, employee information, and trade classifications. This information would automatically push to Rhumbix based on a schedule the company controlled—whether once daily, twice daily, or continuously based on changes detected in Spectrum.

On the return path, Rhumbix could push approved time and production quantities back to Spectrum, posting either to the pre-time card module where Holly and her team were accustomed to reviewing time, or directly to the payroll module. The integration would respect Adams Electric’s existing approval workflows, with the ability to have multiple levels of review before time posted to Spectrum.

Critically, the integration could handle the complexity of temporary labor. By using employee ID fields to distinguish between Adams Electric employees and temp workers, Rhumbix could capture all worker time in a consistent manner while parsing the data appropriately when pushing back to Spectrum, allowing temp labor hours to be posted separately from direct employee hours.

3. Mobile-First Field Experience

Rhumbix’s mobile-first design addressed the technology adoption challenge that had plagued previous implementations. The platform works on both iOS and Android devices, whether company-provided or personal phones, with an intuitive interface designed specifically for field workers. Offline mode ensures that crews can continue working even in areas without cellular service—common in underground utility work or remote locations—with data automatically syncing when connectivity is restored.

The mobile app consolidates all field data collection in one place. Beyond basic timekeeping, foremen can capture production quantities, track equipment usage, report on materials consumed, complete safety forms, and even create T&M tickets—all without switching between multiple applications or platforms.

4. Multi-Level Approvals and Role-Based Access

Rhumbix’s approval workflow aligned with how Adams Electric actually operates. Time captured in the field flows through defined approval stages before posting to Spectrum:

• Field Submission: Foremen submit time daily, which locks out the ability to make changes at the crew level
• Superintendent Review: Stuart and other superintendents can review time for their projects, make adjustments if needed based on conversations with foremen, and mark time as supervisor approved
• Payroll Verification: Holly and her payroll team conduct final reviews, checking for anomalies, verifying shift extras, and making any necessary final adjustments before marking time as payroll approved
• Spectrum Integration: Once payroll approved, time automatically posts to Spectrum for processing

The Implementation

Adams Electric took a thoughtful approach to implementation that prioritized field team buy-in and seamless integration with existing workflows.

Pre-Contract Evaluation

Before committing to Rhumbix, the leadership team conducted comprehensive discovery calls to understand the platform’s capabilities and ensure it could meet their specific needs. The team’s prior experience with PTE had taught them the importance of thorough evaluation before implementation.

We decided this was time to rip the bandaid off and try to find something that will fit the entire company.

— Tom Sonricker, CFO, Adams Electric Company

The Results

Based on Rhumbix’s demonstrated capabilities and experience with similar contractors, Adams Electric can anticipate significant improvements across multiple dimensions of their operations.

Time Savings and Efficiency

Elimination of manual time entry: Stuart Edwards’s weekend ritual of spending 1.5 hours entering 150-200 worker timesheets into Excel is replaced by reviewing and approving time that’s already been captured digitally.

Faster payroll processing: Holly and her payroll team benefit from time flowing through structured approval workflows and arriving in a standardized format, with the ability to view time by employee or by project.

Real-time data availability: Time data is available immediately rather than waiting for weekend processing, enabling faster decision-making.

Real-Time Cost Visibility

Immediate labor cost tracking: Instead of waiting one to two weeks for temporary labor costs to be posted through accounts payable, supervisors and project managers can see all labor costs—both direct employees and temp labor—as work is performed.

Proactive project management: Real-time visibility enables more informed decision-making about labor deployment, crew sizing, and project performance.

Budget awareness: If a project is trending over budget on labor, the team can identify and address the issue immediately rather than discovering it weeks later when recovery options are limited.

Workforce Management and Safety

Real-time workforce visibility: Leadership can answer critical questions at any moment: How many people do we have in the field? Who are they? Where are they working?

Enhanced safety capabilities: In the event of an incident, Adams Electric can immediately identify everyone who was on site.

Compliance tracking: The ability to track certifications and qualifications ensures that workers with the appropriate credentials are assigned to jobs requiring them.

Key Takeaways

Flexibility Matters More Than Features

The ability to adapt to different project requirements and workflows proved more valuable than having one “perfect” approach for all scenarios. Adams Electric’s diverse project portfolio required a solution that could accommodate foreman-based time entry, kiosk mode for large projects, and individual worker entry for service work.

Integration Is Non-Negotiable

For established contractors with existing ERP systems, seamless bidirectional integration isn’t optional—it’s essential. Rhumbix’s ability to sync with Spectrum while respecting existing workflows was a critical factor in the decision.

Listen to Field Experience

An internal referral from Brett, who had actually used Rhumbix in similar work, carried more weight than any sales presentation. Real-world experience from someone who understands the company’s specific challenges provides invaluable validation.

User Adoption Requires User Consideration

Previous technology failures highlighted the importance of choosing tools that field workers will actually use, not just systems that look good in demos. Rhumbix’s mobile-first design and intuitive interface address this critical requirement.

Scale Changes Everything

Processes that work at 500 employees often break at 1,000+ employees. Adams Electric’s rapid growth required anticipating future needs, not just solving current problems. The platform needed to scale with the company’s continued expansion.

Complexity Requires Sophistication

Managing both direct employees and temporary labor, tracking workers across multiple projects, and supporting varied work schedules demands a platform designed for construction’s real-world complexity. Simple time clock solutions couldn’t address Adams Electric’s multifaceted requirements.

Looking Ahead

Adams Electric’s journey from manual timesheets to evaluating comprehensive digital field data collection platforms illustrates the transformation underway across the construction industry. For 97 years, the company had “talked about timekeeping”—trying various approaches, struggling with adoption, and never quite solving the problem comprehensively.

Beyond Initial Implementation

Once core timekeeping and production tracking capabilities are established, Adams Electric has a clear path for expanding their use of Rhumbix:

• Enhanced Production Tracking: As production data accumulates, develop sophisticated understanding of actual productivity rates and identify opportunities for improvement
• Field Forms Expansion: Digitizing daily reports, safety forms, and other documentation eliminates paper management burden
• Advanced Analytics: Leverage accumulated data to improve estimating accuracy and project planning

Competitive Differentiation

In a competitive regional market, contractors increasingly differentiate themselves not just through quality work but through operational sophistication. Adams Electric’s investment in Rhumbix positions them to meet and exceed client expectations for real-time project status, accurate billing, comprehensive documentation, and proactive project management.

Scaling Operations

While Adams Electric has already experienced dramatic growth, successful contractors often face additional expansion spurts. The infrastructure Rhumbix provides standardized data collection, consistent reporting, multi-project visibility, scales far more easily than paper-based processes.

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