Profile:

Founded in 1938, Escondido, CA based Baker Electric is a full service, fourth-generation, family-owned and operated electrical contracting company, serving as both a prime and a subcontractor. Baker Electric is one of California’s largest electrical contractors.

Objective:

The Baker Leadership team learned about Accretive’s Expense Savings Assessment process from Junior Achievement, where CEO, Ted Baker serves on the Board of JA. Several areas where the CFO did not have the personal bandwidth to seek out potential cost savings were initially chosen. Baker elected to pre-allocate 10% of any realized savings back to JA and Accretive agreed to give 15% of any share of savings it earned to JA as well.

Recap of Savings Areas:

• Accounts payable recovery audit: Approximately $20-25,000 has been (or will be) recovered on sales tax credit and other items as a result of a 3-year accounts payable audit Accretive’s subject matter expert firm uncovered. In addition, some procedures were modified to prevent or minimize recurrence of the inadvertent overpayments in the future.

Savings areas for future implementation:

• Copier equipment costs: Accretive recommended a review of our copier leases. Approximately $34,000 in projected savings was discovered, which will be realized upon the expiration of the current copier leases in 2015.

Areas we are still assessing with Accretive (March 2014):

• Health insurance
• Property & Casualty insurance
• Certain technology areas

Areas validated (immaterial or no savings):

Accretive assessed the following areas but determined that Baker is doing a very good job in these areas or the estimated savings were not material enough to pursue or implement. This is also considered a positive outcome since it validated the team’s efforts to contain cost and improve efficiency:

• 3rd party Fleet Management Services
• Enterprise Zone Credits
• Telecom costs

“My staff and I were very pleased with Accretive’s process. They let us “drive” and did not force their ideas and suggestions on us. We learned a few new things, saved some money and are looking at a few more cost areas. We also were able to pat ourselves on the back (at no cost) for some expense areas where we were doing a good job but we wanted to verify it!”

Brian Miliate, CFO, Baker Electric