With 25 employees and three full-service landscaping divisions in his company, it was important to Tim Lake, President of 17-year-old T. Lake Inc., to enhance his job management and accounting functions.

He had originally used Excel® and then tried QuickBooks® for a short time. But these options were too basic to effectively meet his needs. The company then upgraded to a stand-alone general-business accounting system. However, in less than a year he realized that this system was also inadequate. It lacked the ability to track, leave an audit trail, and provide the double-entry accounting system preferred by his controller and C.P.A.

Finally, in 2003, Lake reviewed half a dozen solutions, including enterprise-wide, heavy-duty accounting systems, software for the construction industry, and a few lower-level landscape-focused software solutions. But, among other deficiencies, not one of these other options fully linked every step of the business process together. Only Asset™ from Include Software met all of his criteria:

• Fully links sales leads, proposals, job management, invoices, and tracking of all activities by job and by individual
• Provides double-entry accounting capability
• Tracks sales by individual sales person
• Incorporates sophisticated reporting that provides a real-time view of all accounts and activities

Lake reported the results of the installation of Asset™. "Since we started using Include Software in 2003, our revenue has doubled. I can now keep my finger on everything I have to deal with and get the reports I need to make better business decisions. The folks at Include really understand our business. And my accountants love it."