Discuss your projectEmployee-owners at every level see the job, branch, and company numbers that drive the business, read from the same records leadership uses. Every location follows one documented process, and each modernization step is scoped in writing so the board and the trustee can review the decision behind it.
Illustration of an operating scorecard built by Baybloom for an employee-owned company: jobs grouped by how they track against plan, with branch and company views drawn from the same records.
CEOs, CFOs, COOs, and operations leaders at companies held wholly or partly through an employee stock plan or an employee trust, often in engineering, construction, distribution, and manufacturing. Leadership wants employee-owners to understand and act on the numbers that move the business, a founder or long-time leadership team is often handing over after the ESOP sale, and a board and a trustee expect prudent, documented decisions about what the company spends on systems.
The workflow
The steps we see most often in this kind of operation.
What we build
Job, branch, and company measures in plain language, shown at the level each person works, with the records behind every figure one click away.
Revenue, margin, backlog, and utilization defined once and applied the same way at every location, so every meeting argues about the business, not the numbers.
One documented process for jobs, orders, or service calls, with the local variations leadership allows configured instead of rebuilt.
Workflows, rules, systems, and administrator access documented and moved off personal tools, so a new leadership team inherits what it needs.
Operating packs for the board and trustee built from the same records the company runs on, instead of assembled by hand.
Scheduled, validated extracts of the operating records finance provides to the plan administrator and valuation advisor.
Your first release
How the work runs
We start with the people doing the work and the systems around it, then write down the first release: what it includes, what it leaves for later, the integration decisions, and the acceptance criteria. Nothing is built until that scope is agreed.
We build in releases you can review as the work takes shape, using realistic data. Every release carries tests, a security review, and documentation. Integrations are tested against real records, with exceptions visible.
Your team receives the documentation, the runbooks, and the training to run the system, and we stay on for continued engineering when you want it.
Scope and price
Every project is priced from a written scope. These are the factors that move it most.
Each ERP, project accounting, payroll, and branch tool is a separate connection with separate mapping, testing, and failure handling.
Measures such as margin and backlog are often calculated differently by branch, and settling one definition takes work with finance and operations.
Views for crews, managers, leadership, and the board need careful rules by role and location, especially around sensitive figures.
Each branch or division that adopts a shared workflow needs its variations reviewed, its data brought across, and its people trained.
Employee-held engineering and construction firm
In an engineering and construction firm held through an ESOP, leadership shares company results at an all-hands meeting, but project managers and crews rarely see how their jobs compare. A first release connects the project accounting system to a scorecard with plain definitions of margin, backlog, and utilization. Crews see their jobs, managers see their office, and leadership sees the firm. The same records feed the extracts finance sends to the plan’s advisors. A shared job workflow across offices and a board pack are natural next phases.
Questions
What leaders in this industry ask us first.
Those belong with the plan’s administrator, valuation firm, trustee, and legal and tax advisors. Our work is the operating software: the systems that run jobs, orders, and locations, and the operating records finance draws on when those advisors ask for data. Any change to what the plan receives is agreed with finance and the advisors first.
Start with a few measures people can influence, defined in plain language, shown at the level each person works: the job for a crew, the branch for a manager, the company for leadership. Each figure links to the records behind it, so questions can be answered from the data instead of from a spreadsheet.
Leadership decides, and the software applies it. Permissions are set by role and location, sensitive figures such as individual pay stay restricted, and every export is logged. The rules are written down during scoping and reviewed with leadership before any view goes live.
Usually with the workflows and systems that depend most on that person. We map how the work moves, document the rules and access, and move the most fragile workflow onto shared software, so the next leadership team inherits something it can run and explain.
Each phase starts with a written scope: the problem, the options considered, what is included and left out, and the price. That document, together with release notes and documentation, gives the board a clear record of what was approved and why. Whether a decision meets any legal standard is a question for your advisors.
No. The shared workflow covers the steps that should be the same everywhere, and the variations each location genuinely needs are configured rather than built separately. Rolling out branch by branch lets each location adopt the standard with support.
Often not at first. If the ERP handles the transactions well, connecting it to shared reporting and workflows is usually the prudent start. Where replacement is justified, it is planned in phases, each scoped and approved separately, with the old and new systems running side by side until the team trusts the new one.