How One of Florida’s Biggest GCs Modernized Their Back Office with Miter

Company Overview

Kaufman Lynn Construction is one of Florida’s largest general contractors, ranked #232 on the ENR 400. Headquartered in Delray Beach, the company specializes in multifamily residential and municipal projects – including high-profile jobs like the Miami World Center and a $150 million park in Doral.

Over the last decade, Kaufman Lynn has averaged 25% annual growth. Much of that success, CFO Doug Simms says, is driven by strong client relationships: “Eighty percent of our work is with repeat customers.”

Kaufman Lynn is also 100% employee-owned through an ESOP, which means company performance directly impacts employee wealth. “The better we perform, the better the stock price does,” Doug says. “Our team sees the statements every year, and their shares are continuing to grow.”

He adds: “There’s a survey that goes out every year to test employee satisfaction, and we’ve been very successful at creating a culture where people want to come to work. They enjoy it here, they have fun, and they feel like they’ve accomplished something at the end of the day. It’s a great place to work.”

The Challenge: Disconnected Systems and Disorganized Processes

As Kaufman Lynn grew, the limitations of their back-office systems became harder to ignore. Key functions like payroll, job costing, and HR were fragmented across tools that didn’t talk to each other. Payroll and job costing ran through Sage 300 CRE, while HR and compliance were managed in spreadsheets. Teams were duplicating work, approvals were handled over email – or even paper – and documents were often out of sync or saved in different places.

“It was an organized, disorganized process,” says Tayler Kirsch, Director of HR. “It didn’t feel like the data I was working with was true. I spent so much time in Excel just trying to keep things updated.”

Disconnected systems led to repeated mistakes, especially when it came to timesheets. Employees would reuse old timesheets without updating project information, and errors often weren’t caught until long after payroll had run.

“A lot of people would just copy the same timesheet they had last period,” recalls CFO Doug Simms. “Three months later, they’d want to replace a month’s worth of payroll to another job. We had to do a journal entry, back out the hours, and repost them. It was a real pain.”

Beyond timesheets, nearly every part of payroll was manual – from calculating taxes to year-end reporting.

This growing complexity created bottlenecks across departments and signaled the need for a modern, integrated system that could scale with the company’s needs.

The Solution: One Central Platform to Run HR and Payroll

Kaufman Lynn spent three months assessing payroll systems to pair with Sage Intacct after making the decision to migrate off of Sage 300 in 2023. They dove deep into each option, assessing their capabilities, customer support, and growth potential.

Miter quickly emerged as the frontrunner – both from their own investigation and as a recommendation from their tech consultant. The decision was easy. “It didn’t feel like a sales pitch,” said Doug. “The Miter team let the system speak for itself.” 

After selecting Miter, the implementation process exceeded expectations. “It was probably the best onboarding process I’ve ever had in my career,” Doug said. 

Miter became the single source of truth for onboarding, time tracking, payroll, and reporting. Now HR and accounting work out of one system. Information stays in sync, and changes take effect immediately. 

“We all work out of Miter,” Tayler says. “No longer do I have to email three different people to update things on their own systems. I have the ability to make a change and it just ends right there.”

Outcome #1: Time Savings Across the Board

One of the most immediate benefits Kaufman Lynn experienced with Miter was significant time savings across teams. Manual data entry was replaced by automated workflows. Repetitive, error-prone processes were streamlined. And tasks that used to take hours – or days – now happen in minutes.

“Payroll used to take three days. Now it’s immediate,” Doug says. But the time savings extend far beyond payroll. “Everyone has time back in their day. Project accountants can focus on jobs, not data entry. Project managers can focus on delivering work on time and on budget.”

Tayler noted how Miter eliminated much of the Excel wrangling and manual reporting that used to dominate her day.

“In the last year and a half since we got Miter, we’ve been functioning much more efficiently. I don’t have to spend time doing VLOOKUPs in Excel or running three different reports and combining them into one anymore,” she says. “It saves me time and makes life so much easier.”

For Doug, this shift freed him up to focus on higher-level priorities.

Outcome #2: Bulletproof Compliance and Reporting

As a company working on municipal projects and operating an ESOP, Kaufman Lynn needed a platform that could manage complex compliance requirements without creating additional overhead. Miter delivered – with reliable automation and clean, audit-ready reports.

Before Miter, ESOP census reporting was a time-consuming, manual process that stretched across weeks. Today, it’s as easy as clicking export.

“Now Miter makes it possible for me to hit export on a report and automatically send that to our auditors,” Tayler says. “That saves myself and Doug about a month of work.”

Miter also helps Kaufman Lynn stay compliant on prevailing wage and certified payroll requirements – ensuring the right rates are paid and reported without relying on manual calculations or spreadsheets.

Outcome #3: Unified HR and Accounting Workflows

Before Miter, HR and accounting worked in parallel but disconnected systems – leading to frequent delays, redundant communication, and avoidable errors. Whether it was updating a compensation change, entering per diem info, or managing onboarding forms, everything involved multiple steps and back-and-forth emails.

“Previously, for per diem and comp changes, we were sending emails, filling out forms on Word, uploading them, and then asking our accounting manager to make the change in Sage,” Tayler says. “Now I’m able to make a change in Miter and it’s applied right away.”

That same centralization now extends to employees too. With Miter’s self-service tools, team members no longer need to go through HR for everyday updates like changing addresses or adding new bank accounts.

“The fact that it’s a self-service portal, that they can see their own PTO… it’s very exciting,” Tayler says.

By connecting people, payroll, and projects in one system, Miter gave Kaufman Lynn a much cleaner, more collaborative way to work.

Outcome #4: A Partner, Not Just a Vendor

Kaufman Lynn didn’t just need software – they needed a team that understood the unique demands of their business and could grow alongside them. Miter’s approach to customer support and product development made a lasting impression from the very beginning.

“It’s never, ‘We’ll get back to you in a few days.’ It’s, ‘We’ll get back to you by the end of the day. We’ll set up a meeting. We’ll set up a video call and solve your problem today or tomorrow,’” Doug says.

Beyond support, Tayler emphasized Miter’s openness to product feedback – and their willingness to act on it.

“Miter is constantly changing. Right now, our team is helping give feedback to software engineers to help improve the applicant tracking system,” Tayler says. “That flexibility sets them apart from other softwares.”

With Miter, Kaufman Lynn found more than a vendor – they found a partner who listens, adapts, and delivers.

Impact: A Back Office Built for the Future

Miter didn’t just solve Kaufman Lynn’s back-office challenges – it set them up for future growth. By centralizing operations, reducing manual work, and empowering teams with the right tools, Miter helped the company scale without increasing administrative overhead.

“The most impactful part about Miter has been our time saving throughout the company,” Doug says. “HR, the onboarding process, project accountants, the field people – they’ve gotten time back in their day to be able to do their jobs better.”

That time savings translated into better project outcomes and stronger client relationships – freeing up leaders and teams to focus on what matters most.

Miter also brought a bit of delight into an area of the business that’s often thankless.

“My favorite part about Miter is the exciting confetti that we get to send off when we get approved for payroll,” Tayler says. “We all gather around a computer and watch the confetti go off.”

With Miter in place, Kaufman Lynn has the systems – and the partner – to support its next decade of growth.