Audem Electrical

Audem Electrical company logo
Headshot of Michael Barram

“Since starting with Simpro, we’ve done 15,000 jobs, 11,000 quotes and a continual growth of 30% YOY.”

Michael Barram, COO

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Headquarters

Queensland, Australia

icon industry

Industry

Electrical/Data

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Employees

24

With the experience of two previous electrical businesses and a desire to work for themselves, brothers Michael and Matthew Barram formed Audem Electrical in 2021. With Michael on the tools and Matthew on software, the pair started with smoke alarm installations and quickly expanded their scope.

Today, Audem's range of residential and commercial services has grown far beyond smoke alarms, encompassing dishwasher, appliance and oven installations, test-and-tagging, thermal scanning, fit-outs, renovations, security lighting and more.

Michael and Matthew’s previous forays into business ownership and working for other companies taught them that the business needed a trustworthy field service management system from the start. 

Starting the Journey with Simpro

After experiencing challenges with another software that impacted their business and customer relationships, Michael was determined not to repeat past mistakes. From the outset, he wanted a reliable solution, and Simpro offered the support and features the business needed. 

Simpro’s ability to work on mobile and desktops, with seamless communication between devices, appealed to Michael, as did its ability to easily add licenses as the team grew. 

By partnering with Simpro from day one, Audem Electrical grew rapidly, quickly branching out into a wide array of services and specializations.

Aware of the Challenges

Michael is no stranger to the difficulties of running a business. While manually handling processes may work with a small team, it quickly becomes a barrier to scaling and team growth.

The wide variety of services Audem provides brings in plenty of potential work, but early on, the differing scope of each job slowed down Michael’s quoting process. An accurate quote for a valuable job could take hours, leaving many potential leads unserviced and resulting in a maximum of only five quotes per day. 

Invoicing needed to be swift and accurate to ensure payments came in as soon as possible. However, in roles before starting Audem, Michael found that standard invoices could ‘be a nightmare,’ taking up to five minutes to produce manually and another 15 minutes to find payment details. Michael wanted to find a better solution to keep cash flow consistent. 

Check payments slowed invoice processing, as they needed to be physically delivered to the bank and processed manually. This, in turn, slowed down reporting and job analysis. In the early days of Audem, cancellations grew, and interest rate rises drove down demand.

Growth from the Get-Go

Since partnering with Simpro, the Audem team has grown exponentially. Starting with Michael as the sole tech, Audem has grown to 20 core staff. The efficiency savings from the get-go meant that Audem Electrical only needed to hire 1 additional office staff member to manage a much bigger crew. 

  • Field Team Autonomy: The entire team loves using the Simpro mobile app. Its easily accessible job histories and schedules mean the team organizes itself as soon as they arrive in the morning. Techs like that all the features are mobile-accessible and that everyone can clock in and out with a tap on the Simpro app. 
  • Safety & Compliance: Audem has implemented an automatic safety form that runs when the crew clocks in for a job. Safe work method statements (SWMS) are integrated directly through Simpro, finished quickly, and done digitally on a mobile device. The team loves Simpro Mobile and ‘can’t believe we used to do it on paper.’ Digital cloud-based document management means no chance of losing essential paperwork.
  • Insurance Reports: Audem’s insurance work connects them with insurance companies’ panels of builders. Insurance work requires exact details and relevant photos corresponding to jobs to be packaged in a digestible report. Reports are extremely specific, and Audem’s third-party software, which connects directly to Simpro, caters to this need. The integration works seamlessly with all essential job information, from simple notes about moving a power switch, to a full report generated with AI that is then supplied back to Simpro. Seamless integrations with Zapier, Xero, and FlatRateNow mean Audem Electrical always has access to the tools they need.
  • Efficient Quotes and Invoicing: Simpro’s selection of invoice templates and pre-built quote scripts solved the challenge of complex and varied quotes and invoices. Michael can create quotes and invoices matching the job and client with a few clicks. Thanks to 10x faster invoicing, the team impresses customers, and Michael says that quick turnaround ‘wins us a lot of business.’
  • Empowering Payments: Quick quotes and immediate invoices are paired with flexible payment options in the field, giving customers more choices. Thanks to Simpro Payments, check payments have been reduced from 10-20 a month to a flat zero. With Simpro’s payment options, Audem started taking deposits upon booking. Simpro’s invoice software automatically applies deposit amounts to invoices, so there’s no stress about overcharging customers. Thanks to deposits, Audem has seen a 60% cancellation reduction, as customers are more likely to keep bookings they’ve partially paid for. 
  • Streamlined Pre-Build: Simpro pre-builds have sped up the quoting process and provided Michael with essential costing data. ‘It’s more accurate than what I could do by hand,’ Michael says, thanks to the direct link to supplier prices and data through Simpro’s software. Simpro pre-build means he can track the parts and labor and maintain a 30% net margin at the same time. Thanks to Simpro’s pre-build feature, estimate creation is 8x faster, and Michael can make 2x as many quotes each day.
  • Accurate Job Costing: The constant flow of valuable data into Simpro provided Audem with the raw numbers to analyze and pick apart their job costing and profitability. With these insights, Matt and Michael discovered that Audem was losing money on a specific job: small air conditioning installations. ‘There’s no way we would’ve known that if we weren’t able to analyze it job-by-job with Simpro.’ After adjusting the prices, these installation jobs became profitable again. 
  • Profitability: Simpro’s powerful analysis tools mean a bad month becomes an opportunity to pick apart job profitability and where the business is losing money. Instead of charging ahead with losses, Audem can regroup, adjust prices and improve profitability. From the start of 2024 to the end, Audem enjoyed a 5x profitability increase by utilizing Simpro. 

Supercharged Business Growth

Audem Electrical’s journey is a testament to the power of the right tools paired with the right mindset.

What began with smoke alarms has transformed into a thriving residential and commercial powerhouse. Since adopting Simpro, Michael and Matt Barram have streamlined operations, tracked profitability, and grown Audem by 30%. With over 15,000 jobs completed and 11,000 quotes issued—all without a single job slipping through the cracks—the results speak for themselves.

In 2024, Audem Electrical was named Master Electricians’ Emerging Business of the Year for Queensland, a milestone Michael credits to Simpro’s powerful features and seamless processes.

Reflecting on their decision to partner with Simpro, Michael sums it up best:

"It’s what the big dogs use, and we knew it would work for us."

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