Whether she was buried behind mountains of paperwork and mazes of filing cabinets, or worked remotely thanks to the advancement of technology, Randine Indelicato has made sure the invoices of Dawson companies have been paid for nearly 20 years.
In 2005, Indelicato was hired to as the Accounts Payable Assistant. Back then, anytime Dawson Construction, Eagle Rock Construction, IRL Idealease, Interior Roads Limited, Shuswap Rock Products and Metro Aggregates Ltd. did any business, the invoices ended up on her desk.
“I came to Dawson with an accounting background. I had to learn more about this company and the exciting work we did more than I had to do at other jobs, which was fine because the work was very interesting and everyone has been so nice, helpful and understanding along the way,” said Indelicato. “I just needed to come up with my own process for getting things done.”
When she first arrived, baskets and filing cabinets populated her workspace.
In order to keep her work running smoothly, Indelicato would sit at her desk and begin writing aprons – which are documents containing the vendor number, invoice number, date and accounting period – to go with each purchase order (PO) she received from former Dawson Construction Purchaser, Len Leeuw. She had one basket of POs and another basket of invoices and aprons, both organized alphabetically. After a signature of approval from the required business leads, the aprons and POs were returned to Indelicato, where she sent them over to Mitch Leeuw (Controller), where they were filed in Dawson’s accounting system, Sage.
“We were constantly transferring paperwork, but it’s what we had to do at the time to make sure everything and everyone got paid for the work we did,” said Indelicato. “It was craziness; never ending baskets of paper.”
Nearly a decade ago, Dawson Group incorporated TimberScan, an electronic program that helped obtain signatures and store invoices, dramatically cutting down the amount of paperwork at the corporate office. The approval process stayed the same, but the amount of paper used and storage facilities required was greatly reduced (there are now three offices and six other cubicles for employees where there once was mountains of filing cabinets).
“Paper or electronically, I have been making sure the bills have been paid so we can continue to do work,” said Indelicato.
Left to right: Randine Indelicato, Garrett Blom, Amanda Fulton, Bob Moore and Lena Secord at a mobile blood donation event.
Regardless of how busy she has been at times, her relentless effort to drop what she is doing to help others has shown no boundaries.
“Her workload has increased over the last few years, but you could never tell based on her productivity,” said Bill Pohl, Chief Financial Officer. “I’ve seen lineups of her customers at her desk, needing assistance. She helps them all and still manages to tackle her day-to-day work. Most of us have no idea know how long and how hard she works.”
Her People First approach was on display during the Bella Coola floods in 2010. For Indelicato, it hit somewhat close to home, as she previously lived in Bella Coola and Alexis Creek, and still has friends in the area.
While she didn’t have boots on the ground repairing washed out highway systems, she contributed to the flood repair effort by making the billing in Service Area 17 her No. 1 priority. Working with the finance team, Indelicato helped organize, approve and submit invoices to the government in order to keep the job running in order to get that natural disaster under control.
Randine’s family. From left to right: Daniel Indelicato, Sam Campbell, Randine, John Indelicato, Tyler Campbell and Kristin Indelicato. Dan and Kristin’s grandmother, Grace La Bossiere worked for Dawson as a Contract Administrator.
“If someone comes to me with an issue, I am going to help them out as best I can. It’s just what I do,” said Indelicato.
As her career at Dawson progressed, she never thought she would be working with one of her four children. That was until a recent summer when she was enjoying Silver Beach on Shuswap Lake when she fielded a call from operations, letting her know that her son, Daniel had been hired to join one of the paving crews.
“I never forced him into working with Dawson, he kind of did it behind my back and surprised me. It’s great having him work for the same company as I do, even if our paths rarely cross,” said Randine.
Randine has been incredibly hard working and helpful over her 17 years with the company. Along the way, Dawson has added more companies and increased its workload, which has made life busy for Randine. Nevertheless, she is dependable as always when it comes to making sure all the bills get paid and keep accounts in order.
On our 100th Anniversary, Dawson Group extends its sincerest gratitude to Randine Indelicato for her 18 years of dedicated service. Her contributions helped us achieve this significant milestone and lay the groundwork for our promising future.