The Challenge
Prior to Procore, Cumby Group was managing their invoicing process like many contractors still do today, via email, excel spreadsheets, and disparate documents and attachments. This translated to hours of ping ponging emails back and forth to subcontractors to track down revisions, manual data entry across multiple systems, and wasted time spent in correcting mistakes and rework. As Senior Information Technology and Human Resources Manager, Kardi Barton, recalls "I remember subcontractors sending in their invoices via excel spreadsheets with incorrect calculations, pieces of paper, and even paper napkins”.
The team was looking for a solution to not only help them streamline the process, saving time and costly errors, but also to improve visibility and collaboration across teams, including their subcontractors.
The Solution
Greater Transparency and Accuracy in Billing
Since Cumby Group began using Procore’s Invoice Management product two years ago, they’ve been able to simplify and streamline their invoicing process by having subcontractors create and revise invoices, based off of existing contracts directly in Procore. No longer are accounting teams having to troubleshoot pay apps in excel. By enabling subs to enter invoices in Procore based off of commitment line items, they’ve made it more transparent and easier to ensure accuracy. There is no confusion about what’s been billed previously and with invoices linked directly to their commitments, overbilling is a thing of the past.
“Once they log in the first time, it’s easy to use and we see more usage across the platform - plan updates, contracts, invoices, all of it.”
Cameron Pumphrey
Vp Business Operations
Improved Collaboration with Subcontractors
With Procore, Cumby Group has improved communication and collaboration across their teams - internal and external. Accounting and project management teams can review, approve, and send invoices in the same system, improving visibility and saving countless hours spent in emails, excel, and data entry.
Cumby Group has also seen a large increase in collaboration with subcontractors in Procore. They’ve created a lightweight, branded onboarding guide to help get subcontractors started using Procore and now have the vast majority of their subs billing directly in the system.
"Typically once we get subcontractors to log into Procore and submit their first invoice, they see the value in terms of greater visibility, easy access to payment status, etc. Once they log in the first time, it’s easy to use and we see more usage across the platform - plan updates, contracts, invoices, all of it." - Cameron Pumphrey, VP Business Operations
Enhanced Value with Integrated Systems and Analytics
When evaluating Invoice Management, Cumby Group teams were already familiar with Procore, using many of the other Project Management tools to enhance their processes. The ease of use and the connectivity across the platform made purchasing Invoice Management a natural choice. They were able to leverage many of Procore’s 300+ marketplace integrations, like Docusign and Sage, to ensure the process was streamlined and cohesive. They also take advantage of Invoice Management and Analytics, pulling key financial data into high-visibility monitors in their office lobby.
"We have a row of monitors in our bullpen with several KPIs and live job site cameras connected. When we see any invoice state that hasn’t changed or open invoices at the end of the month that haven’t been approved, the team can easily see that on the monitor without having to dig through spreadsheets or emails." - Cameron Pumphrey, VP Business Operations
The Results
Cumby Group has seen huge increases in both time saving and accuracy with Procore’s Invoice Management tool. "We’ve cut our data entry time in half. Accuracy is so much better - we’re not having to review and make corrections from errors in invoices." says Melinda Ramsey, AP Manager. The time savings across the process have effectively given them back a full time team member, with the AP team now freed up to work on higher level accounting projects rather than data entry, uplevelling their skills and making greater contributions to the business.
They’ve also seen more partnership and collaboration across stakeholders. With a more unified process and greater visibility, their relationship with subcontractors has improved, all while saving their teams time and getting everyone paid faster.
