Founded in 2021, Dayton Power & Controls quickly established itself as a leading electrical contractor specializing in data centers, industrial automation, and commercial projects. However, as the company experienced grew, their operational processes struggled to keep pace with demand.

"When we started Dayton Power & Controls, we knew our technical expertise would differentiate us in the market, but we didn't anticipate how quickly admin challenges would become a bottleneck for our growth," says Rhys, co-founder.

For Rhys, the most significant pain point was the company's quoting and estimating process. The team found themselves drowning in messy spreadsheets, manually calculating profits, and struggling to maintain accurate, up-to-date material pricing information.

"I was spending all of my free time on weekends just quoting jobs and making revisions," says Rhys. "The frustrating part was never being certain if our estimates were accurate based on current material prices. We tried several general contractor estimating tools, but none addressed the specific needs of electrical work. I was manually calculating profit margins which was incredibly time-consuming and left room for error."

Another major challenge was creating professional-looking estimates that included all the necessary terms, conditions, and exclusions. "Our estimates looked inconsistent and unprofessional compared to what larger competitors were providing," Rhys explains. "We were losing opportunities to companies that simply looked more established on paper, even though our pricing and expertise were superior."

This inefficient process not only consumed valuable time that could have been spent on business development but also created uncertainty around project profitability and pricing accuracy—a critical concern for a growing electrical contracting business.