General Construction Company Improves Cash Flow with Accounting Workflow Management Software

General construction contractor specializing in telecommunications, Total Environmental & Power Systems, Inc., implemented DocuWare Cloud in their accounting department to improve invoice approval times for employees in the field. Now, invoices can be approved from any mobile device. The solution boosted the accuracy of their cost accounting procedures by 90%, sped up invoice turnaround time, and improved cash flow.

Total Environmental & Power Systems, Inc. (TEPS) is one of California and Nevada’s top telecommunications contractors, helping to build and maintain cell towers throughout that region. The company also provides general facility maintenance services that includes the building and maintaining of HVAC and AC/DC power systems, radio frequency systems, distributed antenna systems, hydrogen fuel cells, generators and battery backup systems. With a fleet of more than 50 one-ton, four-wheel drive trucks, and a Sno-Cat ATV vehicle with all-terrain tracks and certified drivers, the company can make on-site service calls to any location; in any season. 

Requirements

TEPS knew it was time to upgrade their accounting workflow to something electronic but the final push came when they received a request from a large customer for electronic copies of TEPS material invoices to better understand the material charges. In addition, almost 90% of the invoices TEPS received were digital and it just didn’t make sense to continue to print and process invoices in a paper-based format.

The company began looking for a solution that met these requirements: 1) mobile-ready and accessible from any device, 2) cloud-based and would not need to be tied to their server and 3) easy to implement and maintain.

Solution

After some research, TEPS choose to implement DocuWare Cloud in their accounting department as it fit all their requirements. The solution was configured and implemented remotely allowing for a quick go-live date.  Of the company’s 75 employees, about 18 people were trained to use the system.

Benefits

The new solution allowed TEPS to easily offer better customer service by quickly emailing requested supplier invoices to their clients.   The system turned out to be a huge time saver as well; TEPS has shaved off 20 man-hours a month which were spent on tracking down payable invoices out for approval.  With DocuWare in place, “approvers” that are in the field on job sites can now review and approve invoices on their mobile device keeping the accounting process flowing smoothly in a timely manner.

The company’s receivable invoice turnaround time has also been reduced by 2-3 days each month, creating better cash flow predictions in a real-time setting.  With total transparency, better business decisions can be made, and more critical tasks can be taken on as a result of implementing DocuWare.

“DocuWare Cloud allows us to do our jobs a lot faster. I can see where in the process each invoice is and easily know who I need to nudge to keep the system flowing,” said Pam Souza, Controller for Total Environmental & Power Systems, Inc.

Prior to implementing DocuWare Cloud, any invoice under $1,000 was paid with no review. With the new solution in place, every invoice is easily routed through a digital approval process, solidifying that every purchase is legitimate, the price is correct, and that the cost has been assigned to the right job number.

“We found that a lot of our invoices had inaccurate job numbers. With DocuWare Cloud, we simply have our project managers look at every invoice, large and small, and make sure everything is accurate. If the job number is wrong, the approver simply makes a digital note for us to change it. It is very important to apply our costs to the correct job and I’m happy to say we’ve improved the accuracy of our cost accounting by 90%,” stated Souza.

On the accounts receivable side, TEPS has enhanced their invoice turnaround time, narrowing the gap between completing a job and invoicing for the work, positively impacting their cash flow.

Conclusion

The owners of TEPS are very happy with the contribution DocuWare Cloud has made to their bottom line and look forward to expanding it to other departments.