Everything You Need to Know: Progress Claim Management Software

The payment process in construction is manual and unorganized; general contractors say they spend most of their time pursing payments. Progress claims are a leading cause of delayed payments (and stress). Even though completing progress claims is time-consuming and complex, fewer than 1 in 3 general contractors use software to organize, send, and track payments and paperwork.

Payment requests aren’t as simple as sending an invoice. Instead, a payment application or progress claim is required.

Progress claims include documents that provide details on labor, materials, change orders, and other project specifics. Essentially, it’s a request for payment with supporting documents and images. You’ll find these documents in progress claims:

• Progress Claims Form
• Schedule of Values
• Change Orders
• Stat Decs
• Project Status & Schedules
• Additional Invoices & Receipts
• Visual Documentation

80% of general contractors spend a considerable amount of time chasing down payments… there’s got to be a more automated way. (There is!) Progress claims software.

What is Progress Claims Software?

To simplify payments between general contractors and their subcontractors, progress claim software solutions automate and standardize the construction payment process.

With progress claim management software, general contractors can:

• Easily create and exchange stat decs
• Organize and collect compliance documents
• Protect projects against delays
• Improve communication with subcontractors

Best-in-class construction payment software should integrate with your construction accounting software to save you time and make your payouts faster.

 

Who Uses Progress Claims Software?

General contractors and subcontractors everywhere benefit from progress claim software’s functionality. Vertical construction contractors who specialize in commercial or multifamily projects choose GCPay as their preferred construction payment software.

Whether you’re the CFO, controller, or financial analyst, you’ll use progress claims software to:

• Track project progress
• Review monthly statements
• Monitor payments
• Approve expenses
• Oversee financial operations
• Ensure project billings are issued and payments are collected and distributed
• Confirm compliance is met and stat decs are collected

 

Key Benefits of Construction Payment Software

Construction companies who have already implemented construction payment software ­­see advantages like increased efficiency, more control (less risk), and transparency.

 

How would you spend your time if you had automation that…

… Optimizes accounting tasks throughout the entire construction project lifecycle

…Connects information and systems, bringing together field teams with administration and accounting teams

…Provides insight into the financial health of individual construction projects or the entirety of your project portfolio

3 common reasons GCs love GCPay application for payment software:

» Time

“GCPay saved our accounts payable and project management teams hours of work since it’s simple for project managers to review.” –Riley G (Review)

» Compliance

“Quickly and easily see the SOVs from subs, approve/reject the billing breakdown, and automatically instantly alert the accounting team of the decisions. The process also allows for subs to be more accountable and responsible for their end of the process, and at the same time allows them to see that their documents have been in fact submitted.” –Sergio O (Review)

» Support

“The support is, without a doubt, the best aspect of GCPay. Even though their product is top-notch, their service component is what makes them special. I make mistakes and need guidance a few times a month, and the GCPay support staff is there to guide me without long waits on the phone or difficulty resolving my issue. When you call, their response time always seems to be 1-2 rings.” –User (Review)

 

ERP Integrations

It’s incredibly important for progress claims software to integrate with your construction accounting software or ERP system. As a single source of truth for your contract and job data, it’s vital to work from your ERP and pull information into your payment system.

GCPay software was created with this in mind.

GCPay integrates with Sage 300, Viewpoint Vista, and CMiC, as well as true cloud ERPs including Sage Intacct for Construction and Acumatica. These integrations mean less data entry, data transparency, accurate tracking, mobility, and improved payment process management.

Pivotal Payment Functionality

For GCPay, the stronghold is payment management, which provides unique functional advantages in the areas of billing, payments, stat decs, and compliance tracking.

More specifically, GCPay users can embed and enforce requirements throughout the billing process, whereas other system users are relegated to conditioning payment on the satisfaction of requirements.              

GCPay enables:

✓ Batch transactions

✓ Online notary services

✓ Conditional stat decs

✓ Owner billing

✓ Secure exchange of stat decs

✓ Audit trails

✓ Paperless payments & ACH transfers

✓ Reports on key metrics

Deep dive into some of GCPay’s functionality:

• Stat Decs: Generate custom templates. GCPay weaves stat dec management into the billing process itself. This is particularly helpful for exchanging conditional documents, as GCPay users can require stat decs for payment. GCPay generates and collects the unconditional or final document at the time of progress claims submission, then holds it in trust until payment has been received. This guarantees timely receipt of the stat dec.

• Owner Billing: Map subcontracted costs to their prime contract and automatically populate billing based on subcontracted costs.

• Reporting & Dashboards: See outstanding payments, schedules of value, stat decs, and compliance documents in the dashboard and reports tab. You can export any reports into Excel to filter anyway you need.

 

What About Construction Accounting Software?

Then, there’s construction accounting software which is different than construction progress claims management software.

Every construction project is like its own business. Construction accounting calls for specifics like change orders, progress billings, job costing – in addition to the standard accounting fundamentals. It’s full of anomalies.

G2 explains that construction accounting software reports on the profitability of each job and can even point out significant contributing factors to the profitability of a job. With construction payment software, you can track financial data of projects and attribute data to projects.

 

Other Popular Construction Software

Construction companies also turn to data analytics platforms and project management software for efficiency.

Construction data analytics software captures real-time data from construction projects and provides insights into the status and performance of projects.

Construction project management software provides an overview of an entire construction project. It bundles tasks, resources management, and team communication.