Westland construction's customer story
Westland Improves Efficiency & Connections With GCPay's Payment Management
Westland Construction is a commercial based general contracting firm with operations all over the world. They are known for establishing strong partnerships throughout the supply chain and delivering projects that exceed industry standards.
We recently connected with James Streeter, Westland’s Accounts Payable Manager, to discover how technology has impacted their subcontractor payment processing. In our conversation with James, we learned about the manual process they left behind and what they’ve accomplished with a more streamlined subcontractor payment workflow.
James Streeter
Accounts Payable Manager
Company Info
Founded in 1992
Headquarted in Orem, UT
The Challenge
Before the Westland team discovered GCPay, their subcontractor payment processing was a manual process and, according to James, it was painful. They would track each contract in a spreadsheet, meaning they’d have to comb through each billing manually to ensure the invoice was not attempting to overbill. They’d have to double check change orders to be sure they were approved and accounted for in each billing.
Plus, as James points out, spreadsheet errors are super common. Sometimes an error would go unnoticed until the last minute, increasing the risk for further mistakes. Lien waivers were also managed in a spreadsheet and had to be uploaded manually.
Having all of that data in one place presented its own risks that were not ideal. More than anything, the spreadsheet system involved a ton of back and forth communication between James and the accounts team and the project management team. If the PMs and subcontractors disagreed, the accounts team was left in the middle to figure out how to proceed.
It created a bottleneck in payment processing that needed to be addressed.
GCPay + Viewpoint Vista
GCPay and Viewpoint have been integration partners since 2012. This partnership allows for information within Vista relating to subcontracts, change orders, and compliance to sync automatically with GCPay. The integration ensures subcontractor invoices and change orders are detailed properly and processed accordingly, plus eliminates the need to enter contract and invoice data twice.
Decision Making
James and the Westland team found GCPay when they went searching for a solution. Having recently switched to Viewpoint Vista for their accounting system, they knew they wanted something that would integrate directly with them. When they did some research they found more expensive platforms, but ultimately decided GCPay was more reasonable and offered them the exact solution they needed.
Onboarding was done in phases for the Westland team as they were also bringing on Vista at the same time. Once they got up and running with both Vista and GCPay, they saw the benefits of the direct integration right away. “Now that it’s set up right,” James tells us, “It just auto-plays itself from there. It’s so easy.” James was also glad that the onboarding process included subcontractor training so they could get up to speed right away. “The subs got on board really quickly,” James tells us.
He says the team knew right away that they had found something really valuable in GCPay
Solutions & Results
The most significant improvement for James and the Westland team has been the time savings. He used to spend 5-6 days a month going through billing for all the jobs, but now he can do all that work in less than day with GCPay. “We’ve changed every aspect of how we bill and how we collect waivers,” James says. “It’s all thanks to GCPay for showing us a better way to do things.”
The team at Westland also feels that they are building stronger business relationships as a result of GCPay. “It makes everyone’s lives so much easier,” James tell us. The centralized location for all the billing and contract data has really benefitted both sides. “They trust it and we trust it, so there’s no more back and forth communication needed,” he says.
The single source of truth makes it easier for invoices to be processed quickly and accurately, while also building trust between Westland and their many subcontractors. Another key part of Westland’s positive experience with GCPay has been the reporting functionality. If their owners want to see more than just the invoice data, James can pull waivers, draws and other data from GCPay directly. “We used to have to organize, scan, and compile all this data and give it to the owner. Now I can click once and they have it in hand.”
Another great report is the contact report which allows James to contact subcontractors across all projects for any important information he wants to share.
James says he uses the reports function more than he expected and he’s thankful to have it.
