How a 300-Person Minnesota Contractor Streamlined Payroll Across 20+ Unions

Company Overview

Muska Companies has been a trusted provider of construction services in Minnesota for over a century. Muska has grown from a local family-owned business to operating across seven states with approximately 300 employees (50 in the office and 250 union field workers). The company focuses on large commercial contract work for clients like Costco, Target, and Amazon distribution centers with about an 80/20 split between electrical and plumbing/HVAC work. After first reaching $100 million in revenue two years ago, Muska growth has only accelerated.

Key Takeaways

• Muska’s 40-year-old legacy system couldn’t keep up with managing payroll for 300 employees across 20+ unions and seven states, creating “payroll fatigue” and making expansion difficult.
• Muska partnered with Miter as part of a complete tech stack overhaul, implementing the modern, cloud-based platform purpose-built for construction union payroll.
• Responsive implementation support and a true partnership approach delivered custom solutions to address Muska’s specific business needs.
• Automated union payroll reduced union setup from an hour per union to minutes, with certified payroll and job-based tax calculations running automatically.
• Transformed expense management with credit card transactions that auto-populate, saving accounting staff hours of weekly follow-up.
• The intuitive platform has delivered time savings across the board and is built to support Muska’s continued growth.
• Miter eliminated manual intervention at every turn, giving Muska the “firepower” to scale beyond $100 million with confidence.

The Challenge: Manual Intervention at Every Turn

Muska’s 40-year-old legacy accounting system couldn’t keep pace with its growth or complexity. Managing payroll for 20+ unions across multiple states meant countless hours of manual data entry and oversight.

“Every step of the way was manual intervention,” recalls David Claridge, Controller at Muska.

In the old system, setting up a new union took close to an hour. And as Muska expanded into new states like Florida, Colorado, New York, South Dakota, California, and Oklahoma, the system simply couldn’t handle the growing complexity.

The team was experiencing what they call “systems Jenga,” navigating all of their separate manual workflows. They were constantly chasing timesheets, correcting errors, and manually applying different rules for certified payroll, shift premiums, and state-specific tax calculations.

The Solution: A Complete Tech Stack Overhaul

Muska made the decision to modernize their operations with a complete tech stack overhaul. The 15-month implementation included three new integrated systems: Miter for HR, payroll, and expense management, BuildOps for service and project management, and Sage Intacct for financial reporting.

The BuildOps team recommended Miter, specifically for its ability to handle union complexity. After seeing a demo, the decision was immediate.

What stood out was Miter’s purpose-built approach to construction union payroll, its modern cloud-based platform, and strong integration capabilities with BuildOps and Sage Intacct.

Outcome #1: A True Partnership Approach 

Undergoing a complete tech stack overhaul in 14 months is no easy feat, so Muska needed more than just another software provider. They needed a true partner who understood their business and would help solve problems as they came up.

The implementation support they received from the Miter team made the entire process feel manageable. “Throughout our 15 months of implementing three systems, it almost felt like Miter was on the back burner because things were going so smoothly,” David says.

The Miter team’s understanding of union complexities and unique construction situations helped Muska find solutions tailored to their specific business needs.

They were especially impressed with their Miter implementation manager, Sara. “Sara blew everybody out of the water with her knowledge, general problem solving, and taking the business needs we had and helping us find solutions for everything,” adds David.

The Muska team has also appreciated Miter’s responsiveness and openness to customer feedback throughout the process. When Muska identified a need for custom shift premium functionality, Miter’s developers delivered a solution within a month.

The integration between Miter and BuildOps continues to improve based on customer feedback, with both teams working together to enhance functionality.

Outcome #2: Automated Union Payroll

One of the biggest changes is how Muska manages union payroll. Setting up a new union used to take an hour, but with Miter, it now only takes minutes. Miter also streamlines rate management, automatically accounting for job location, union rules – including overtime and shift differentials – and prevailing wage rates, ensuring employees are paid correctly without manual calculations. 

Certified Payroll on Autopilot
When a job is marked as certified, Miter automatically applies the correct rates, eliminating the need for manual, person-by-person updates. “The ability to easily set up unions, automate a lot of our certified payroll – both pay and the reporting – has been huge. We’re 95% of the way there with payroll automation,” says David. The team can also instantly generate certified payroll reports with Miter. “Our person that does the certified reporting was blown away by what Miter can do,” says David.

Job-Based Tax Intelligence
Miter recognizes each job’s location and automatically applies the correct tax withholdings. From Florida jobs with no state tax to out-of-state work assignments and varying shift premiums, the Miter system handles it all correctly based on the job and union settings.

Error Corrections Made Simple
When payroll mistakes happen, Miter automatically voids the incorrect run, calculates the difference between what was paid and what should have been paid, and manages all the tax calculations for allowances and deductions. The team can re-run payroll and the system generates corrections automatically.

Outcome #3: Transformed Expense Management

Muska’s expense management process has greatly improved with Miter. They’ve gone from hours of weekly follow-up reminding employees to submit expenses to a system that practically runs itself.

Credit card transactions automatically pull into Miter so when employees need to submit a receipt, the vendor, amount, and date are already there. All they need to do is select the category and job and save it. The entire process now takes two seconds on mobile.

And in case they forget, the system automatically notifies employees when they have outstanding receipts. This now saves accounting staff hours of manual follow-up each week.

Outcome #4: A Platform Built for Growth

Moving from a legacy system to a modern, cloud-based platform has delivered time savings across the board. “Pick basically any section of Miter and I could tell you we’re saving time there,” says David.

Everything is streamlined, from union reporting to employee self-service for pay stubs and withholdings. Miter has also made onboarding easier for new employees. New hires can complete their I-9, withholdings, and general setup online, with information flowing automatically to their employee profile so they don’t have to manually duplicate data entry.

“Miter functions like any website you go to,” David says. “It’s intuitive. It feels user-friendly, almost like I’m plugging around on an iPad.”

The team has found that the mobile app requires almost no instruction to get employees started. And when questions do come up, Miter’s AI chatbot provides step-by-step guides.

The Impact: Efficiency Gains and Future-Ready Operations

Miter didn’t just solve Muska’s payroll challenges, it has transformed how the Muska team works. By automating certified payroll and union management, Miter has helped the company scale without the stress that once defined payroll week.

The team has moved from defensive troubleshooting to proactive management, from “payroll fatigue” to automation. When asked what they’d tell other contractors considering Miter, David’s recommendation is clear: “Get Miter immediately and get Sara as your implementation manager.”

Muska can now confidently expand into new states, knowing they can add new unions and easily handle the complexity. The company is positioned to continue growing beyond the $100 million mark.

With Miter, Muska has the systems and the partner in place to support its next chapter of growth.