How This Construction Company Achieved +90% Customer Adoption for Online Payments

Incomplete account statements caused customer confusion

Before Implementing Versapay

• 5: The steps required to send a single paper invoice
• 2: The number of systems used to find purchase orders and statements
• 75%: The share of workload spent on mailings, calls, and manual collections

Combined, this family of companies makes up the largest independently owned insulation company in the United States. They work on both commercial and residential projects.

They use Sage Intacct. The accounting department likes Intacct for its behind-the-scenes financial reporting. Yet, the company’s credit managers (who handle cash application and collections) were frustrated by the ERP software’s AR limitations. They needed an integrated solution for Intacct to provide critical AR automation.

For example, customers would often call the collections team to ask them what date they needed to pay by. Or what amount was due. When this happened, they were forced to figure it out by hand.

Unsurprisingly, the company’s manual processes were slow, and actually created extra work for the AR team. Worse, this made it difficult for them to help customers quickly. Sending invoices was just as frustrating. It involved pulling data from yet another system, exporting the reports as PDFs, printing, and sending them via mail. All up, the credit management team was spending 75% of its time on paper mailings, customer calls, and manual collections.

Giving high-performing credit managers what they need to shine

Credit management is critical to every construction company, and this one was no different. Their hard-working accountants and credit managers knew that they needed a digital solution to cut their manual, time-consuming processes so they could gain efficiency and serve their customers better.

That they were spending three quarters of their time on manual collections activities wasn’t right. They wanted a system that could deliver more seamless workflows for AR professionals. While they were able to track against KPIs using data found within Intacct, they needed an alternative solution to more easily identify what customers owed, and automate pushing out invoices.

Delivering industry-leading payment and collections experiences

Since Implementing Versapay

• 90%: The share of customers now securely making online payments
• 24/7: Customers can pay by credit card online, around-the-clock
• 75%: The percentage of time saved on manual collections tasks

A key objective for company leaders was to instill customer confidence amid the broad uncertainty facing the construction industry mid-pandemic. And they wanted to do this with a seamless payment process, one that gave them certainty and confidence when handing over their credit card and bank account information. Lastly, the solution had to integrate with Sage Intacct.

When evaluating options, they wanted to establish a single source of truth about accounts receivable collections. They wanted all activity—from their customer's open AR to detailed reporting—housed within one system, and to better understand the effectiveness of their collections efforts. The solution also had to help their busy customers make payments and check for information about their invoice balances around the clock.

After taking all of these factors into consideration as they evaluated options, they chose Versapay. Here are the results.

1. Tedious, manual billing and collections work dropped by 75%

Since implementing Versapay, they have been able to filter account information across builders, lots, and orders. Now, when customers ask the AR team a question about purchase orders or invoices, they can answer instantly. Meanwhile, digital invoicing has become fast and efficient. They just click and choose which invoices and statements they need to send right away.

This has helped them speed up how it is reconciling payments with Sage Intacct. They can now also accelerate collection times with click-to-pay invoices sent automatically from the ERP.

2. Better handling of multiple purchase orders and invoices

The company has accomplished much more than time savings. They’re now operating more efficiently and are using the time they’ve gained to perform more strategic AR activities. For example, Versapay’s accounts receivable automation solution allows them to maintain accurate notes on every single customer account. And it sends automated reminders about invoices and overdue payments. The AR collections team has been using these notes to stay on top of their daily action items.

They’ve found a better fit for their multiple insulation projects across development lots, too. Before Versapay, this company lacked a payment portal, and all payments were done over the phone or by mail. Invoices couldn’t be sent in batches either. Each had to be sent individually. The company also struggled with properly applying payments to the correct invoices when customers made single check or credit card payments that applied to multiple invoices.

Now they can collate all invoices in one go and send them out quickly. Customers in turn can access a cloud-based payment portal and select which invoices they'd like to pay for, using their preferred payment methods.

3. Customers can make card payments on-the-go

The flexibility Versapay provides for making payments has boosted the company’s customer service reputation. The timing is perfect as they rolled out Versapay as the pandemic forced businesses away from paper checks and cash.

This company has achieved more than 90% adoption of Versapay’s online payment portal, a big achievement for a construction company. And it’s paying off. They’ve done this, by explaining the portal’s benefits to customers who were frustrated with waiting on paper checks to arrive and clear.

Busy contractors who work on weekends can now make fast and secure online payments around the clock. This is a significant benefit for their customers. Many of them are busy working across different construction sites with little access to nearby banks.

Driving elite performance by eliminating manual, repetitive AR tasks

This construction company knew that inefficient, manual processes were preventing their team from doing their best work. They became fed up with time-consuming, manual billing and collections processes. And with preventable customer inquiries about invoice due dates, balances, and paper checks.

They used Versapay to promote widespread adoption of online payments among their customers. This enables consistently high performance across important metrics, such as DSO.

With Versapay, they have reduced 75% of time spent on manual, repetitive AR tasks. And they’re not stopping there. The company has set its sights on using Versapay to create more collaborative AR experiences, too. They will soon allow customers on busy construction projects to make advance payments and prepayments on purchase orders.

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Discover Versapay’s accounts receivable automation platform. Talk to us about how we can help your team maintain consistent receivables and cut down the time you spend on repetitive AR tasks.