equalconstruction.com Blog

Spotlight on Diversity: JAT Consulting, Inc.

January 7, 2009 on 5:05 pm | In General |

By Tiffany Wright

In recent months many commercial construction and related companies have experienced a drop in sales or, at the least, a drastic reduction in their backlog due to a general slowdown in the sector in Georgia. However, JAT Consulting, Inc. has been busier in the economic downturn. Why? According to JoAnn Tuttle, founder and CEO of JAT Consulting, “Many companies look at their internal operations in a downturn. If they don’t have the ability to access capital or a line of credit” they may have issues. She continued, “Firms are looking at what they need to do to weather the storm. At their cash flow management. More firms pursue government work and need to ensure everything is in order.”

Government work, with its reliance on FAR regulations, is JAT’s specialty. JAT assists architecture, construction, and engineering companies in managing their financial operations to make them more efficient and helps them understand federal government regulations. The firm and its employees are very knowledgeable in the FAR requirements and are thus well-positioned to help firms structure their financial and accounting systems (finance management) systems to produce the information in the format mandated in FAR. This specialized knowledge also enables JAT to be very helpful in helping companies pass government (per FAR regulations) audits. JAT sets up customers’ books for to get them through government audits such as those administered by GDOT. Customers such as PEQ, GOTS and GeoStat all use JAT for audit assistance.

JAT Consulting, Inc. has been in business since 1994. The founder, JoAnn Tuttle, previously worked for HNTB (Howard Needles Tammen Bergandoff) handling financial task orders. However, when she married one of the HNTB partners, Jim Tuttle, the firm’s management thought it best that she seek employment elsewhere . Joanne had worked in architecture and engineering and construction for much of her career so she thought, “I should continue doing this via my own business. Having my own firm will also provide me with some flexibility.” What she then started as a home-based, 1-person firm has now grown into a successful business with 15 employees and a Kennesaw office. However, the flexibility vision didn’t quite work out. Ms. Tuttle starts her day at the same time many morning television hosts do –at 3am – responding to and sending emails from her home office. This early start is a necessity since she is typically in meetings or traveling from 8am. She uses the wee hours of the morning to be “productive and responsive”.

JAT Consulting now has 40-50 clients. These are both monthly clients and as-needed, project-based clients. For monthly clients, JAT handles all of the operational financial management and reporting responsibilities for these customers including all of the accounting, payroll, job reports, monthly financial statements, and invoices, among others. One thing JAT does NOT do is taxes. They save that for the accountants as JAT’s focus is providing the continual financial management, overview and insight that helps a firm manage its operating income and net income – and thus maximize its bottom line performance. For its as-needed basis clients, JAT provides an in-depth review of these customers’ accounts and financial systems. This includes the review but also incorporates an analysis of what the client is doing well and what the recommendations for improvement are, specifically what steps must be taken to achieve their operational objectives. Those clients that want JAT to implement the recommendations become monthly clients. Occasionally, some other clients just want a review of the Schedule of Indirect Costs, a FAR requirement.

Relationships are key to JAT’s business. Through work as a subcontractor to HJ Russell on a small contract with Fulton County, JoAnn received a call from Michael Russell to be part of the airport’s management team. That was a key example of how to leverage exemplary performance on a small job into a much larger contract. Almost all of JAT’s clients have come to them through word-of-mouth and referrals. “It just comes”, said Ms. Tuttle. “There is no active solicitation.”

Reflective of its focus on relationships, what JAT enjoys most is working on large construction management and project management teams. These teams are the company’s best clients due to their large size, comprehensive scope, and long-term duration. JoAnn commented, “When I team with large primes, I think of trust. Two-way trust is important. You can be successful as a team if you trust each other. This is crucial. It’s not just winning a job.”
IAC is JAT’s largest client. Involved with the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport as a member of the IAC team since it began its aggressive expansion program, JAT developed the invoice processing system for contract compliance for the airport. The airport wanted to ensure that it could include small businesses –mainly as subcontractors - in its contract awarding so payment terms were very important. Many small businesses do not have the credit lines and other financial relationships and backing to handle the 90-day payment schedules that government entities have occasionally been known for. Consequently JAT set up the process for the airport that reviews and approves invoice submissions and, on an approved basis, pays contractors within 30 days. JAT also ensures that everyone gets paid.

JAT also handles invoice administration for other management teams including the A&E joint venture teams of both Jacobs, Pratt, and PBS&J and JJG, Stan King & Associates, and EDT. JAT also counts the joint venture of MWH and Khafra for the City of Atlanta Watershed Department as a client and teaches at the Small Business Institute that they put on each summer. As part of yet another team in a non construction-related but still government-related capacity, the company was a subconsultant to CH2M Hill for the new city of Sandy Springs in 2005 in which JAT acted as the Director of Finance, Director of Purchasing, and Director of Administration Management. The company was also shortlisted as part of a team that responded to the 2008 new city of Dunwoody Financial and Administration RFP.

JAT has traditionally focused on Georgia and the southeast but is now expanding to other areas due to customer requests. For example, the company is helping a firm in Minnesota revamp their financial management system in light of the slowdown in the commercial construction sector. Ms. Tuttle met the company’s management when she conducted an educational training seminar in Chicago for ACEC.

JAT believes in giving back to the community. Joann provides training – pro bono – to the Construction Business Management Institute (CBMI) held by the Greater Atlanta Economic Alliance (GAEA) and has done so since CBMI’s inception. Her training must be good. A former trainee, Mary Parker of All-in-One Security, is now a JAT client.

JoAnn has a message for those clients that her firm helped turn around. These construction and A&E firms should “use this time to ensure everything from accounting to operations is in order and that they have listened to what I taught. If a firm is not profitable, then the owner should go get a job. They then wouldn’t have (the additional responsibilities of) payroll taxes and managing people” and could go back to doing what they enjoy.
For illustration purposes Joann discussed how JAT is often hired to provide overview of salaries. She said, “Salaries are often not allocated. They’re just listed as salaries. They’re not even broken down into ; direct vs. indirect.” Many of the clients did not have a good grasp of their business opportunities and business needs. According to Joann, companies should ask specific questions about salaries and personnel, such as “What is their business utilization rate? They may think the employee is 85-90% job chargable. However, if the project is slowing down, now the project manager is only 30% job chargable. The owner must think of converting the PM to part-time or reducing staff.” JAT itself is 80% billable.

Looking to the future, Joann wants to spend more time with her husband Jim. Over the next 15-18 months she will develop the management team to do more business development and relationship management. This will both free up her time and begin the succession planning for when she ultimately retires.
According to Joann, “One of my best resources is my employees. Make sure that individuals you put around you are qualified. You respect them and the employees will respect you.” JAT Consulting and JoAnn Tuttle recently received the Small Business Award from the GAEA on November 12. When giving her acceptance speech, Joann asked her employees to stand while she acknowledged and thanked them for their significations contributions . Joann was one of only two recipients that did so. An individual sitting at my table at the Awards Luncheon even commented, “Look at the hand her employees are giving her. She sure has some happy employees! She’s a great boss.” Joann has repeatedly stated that without her team the awards are not possible.

JAT Consulting practices the same financial management and oversight that it provides on behalf of its clients. It has never missed a payroll or missed paying payroll taxes. It has credit lines in place. Although it has a $100,000 monthly payroll (“A little scary but great!”, Joann commented), the company’s “house is in order so we will be fine”, said Joann. In addition, the company has collected 100% of its accounts receivables since inception!
Joann also discussed how her husband has played a major role in her success. As a former partner in HNTB he’s an excellent sounding board. “He’s supportive,” said Joann. “He takes me to the airport and picks me up” which gives us time together on days that I travel.

JAT Consulting, Inc. is a female-owned small business. It is certified as such with GDOT, City of Atlanta, and countless other agencies throughout Georgia and the southeast. The company has garnered recognition and won a number or awards including being named one of the Top 25 Small Businesses of the Year by Cobb County in 2006 and receiving the FBE Phoenix Trailblazer Award presented by Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and Hartsfield-Jackson Airport General Manager Ben DeCosta in 2004.