7 Benefits of Enterprise Automation for the Construction Industry
Whether you’re a project manager, general contractor, or developer, you understand that successful projects are fueled by the contracts between the various parties involved both on and off the project site. You can’t afford to make payments to a general contractor or supplier without a sound agreement in place. It’s simply too risky. Unfortunately, with so many contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers involved in each project, ensuring that everyone in your network gets their due can be a challenge — unless enterprise automation is integrated into your business processes.
Although contracts are oftentimes considered the lifeblood of the construction industry, the invoices tied to these contracts are equally important — especially when you consider that invoicing works differently depending on the type of construction contract being used (i.e., Fixed-Price, Cost Plus, Time and Materials, Unit Pricing, etc.) What’s arguably even more complex is the process of routing all your invoices to the proper entity, confirming receipts, and satisfying payment obligations. Fortunately, construction industry professionals can streamline their processes with IntelliChief’s enterprise automation solutions.
Enterprise Automation for the Construction Industry
Enterprise automation for the construction industry includes world-class document management and AP automation. In construction, document management that supports project accounting is crucial to keeping projects on track and under budget. Even a single misplaced “0” or misfiled document can send your entire project into a tailspin.
Even though all parties working on a project ultimately play a role in its overall success, they’re equally as concerned with protecting their own best interests. Therefore, when a project is delayed because a dispute has arisen over late payment, it can complicate matters for everyone, especially when timelines are pushed back to resolve a dispute. IntelliChief can improve the speed and accuracy of Accounts Payable invoicing and other crucial business processes to help you take advantage of several benefits, including:
1. Mitigate Risks With Full Visibility Into Your Construction Projects
IntelliChief makes it easy to store and retrieve an array of important project-related documents, including:
- Contractor Contracts
- Subcontractor Contracts
- Change Orders
- Lien Waivers
- Supplier Contracts
- Invoices
- Purchase Orders
- Municipal Building Permits
- Bids and Estimates
- Plans and Specifications
- Schedules
- Code Inspection Documents
This is accomplished by converting your paperwork into electronic files that can be imported directly into your existing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. Your back-office team will be able to retrieve documents quickly and efficiently without ever being forced to shuffle through a cluttered file cabinet. Whether a document is stored at your office or on-site in a construction trailer, it can be retrieved on-demand as long as the user searching for it has permission. By establishing custom profiles that limit permissions based on your business rules, you can control who can access which documents — even out-of-organization entities. With all your construction documents stored electronically, you gain full visibility into every aspect of your projects, allowing you to glean highly specific insights to help you mitigate risk.
2. Eliminate Noncompliance With Automated Retention Policies
With full document storage and retention policies based on government/state/county regulations, your business can obtain peace of mind whenever an audit is performed. Retention policies are completely configurable to align with your company’s policy and those of the aforementioned regulatory bodies. In most cases, construction-related documents should be maintained for 10 years or longer to avoid any legal or administrative issues. For example, in the State of Florida, a latent defect has a statute of repose of 10 years stemming from the date the defect was (or should have) been discovered. In a case such as this, having the relevant files in storage could mean all the difference. Here’s how it works:
- Documents are electronically imported into your ERP system
- You decide how long to save each type of document based on business and regulatory rules
- IntelliChief manages the file accordingly
The alternative? Purchase space-consuming file cabinets, store all of your paper files manually, hire more processors, and diminish your bottom line with avoidable back-office expenses that could be spent elsewhere — raising worker wages, hiring new talent, purchasing new personal protective equipment, investing in recruiting, combating the labor shortage, and more.
3. Reduce Human Errors and Delays by Automatically Generating Accurate Documents
When your Accounts Payable team is forced to manually enter all of the information from paper documents into your ERP system, every keystroke is a potential error. IntelliChief can virtually eliminate human errors and delays by automatically generating accurate electronic documents using integrated Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology. OCR can read invoices and pull their information into your ERP system. Then, IntelliChief can help you retrieve these documents using any number of identifiers logged in your index.
4. Improve Your Company’s Cash Flow With Faster Invoice Processing
Managing your cash flow is essential for growing your construction business. If you want to keep your current projects running smoothly while adding new projects to your pipeline, you’re going to need to have an accurate understanding of where you stand in regard to cash flow. IntelliChief can accelerate the invoice review, approval, and payment process to eliminate unexpected charges and prevent billing issues. With IntelliChief Analytics, you can determine financial bottlenecks in your organization and take action to correct them. You can also take advantage of more vendor discounts by paying on time — every time.
5. Allow Product Manager to Code AP Invoices Remotely
IntelliChief can boost connectivity between project managers and your back-office without the need for shared office space. Project managers can approve invoices, give the green light on purchase orders, and even assign GL codes by project number — all while in the field. They can even attach notes electronically to decrease the number of back-office errors. With remote access, IntelliChief can be utilized on the project site, at home, or in the office to improve your job cost accounting processes.
6. Gain Financial Visibility Into Activity Status for Better Timing and Communications
IntelliChief automates the seamless transfer of key financial data to your ERP system, providing your business with the financial visibility it requires to accelerate timelines and streamline communication between departments. You can track project progress by retrieving invoices to examine payment schedules or identify late payments. Furthermore, IntelliChief can recognize other documents related to a particular project or portion of a project to provide you with a global view of your company’s financial health.
7. Strengthen Relationships With Partners, Investors, and Contractors to Gain Competitive Advantages
The most successful construction professionals didn’t get to where they are today by isolating themselves from the rest of the industry. On the contrary, they worked diligently to form strong bonds with other industry professionals. These bonds give your company a decided advantage over your competitors, but even years of collaboration can be undone by a single payment dispute.
IntelliChief enterprise automation helps your company strengthen relationships with partners, investors, and contractors by facilitating faster payments, more reliable communication, and greater transparency. Your vendors will be pleased with prompt payments, your partners will be relieved to discover that projects are wrapping up on time and under budget, and you’ll benefit from a greater degree of control over the future of your business.
With IntelliChief, you can work smarter, not harder. Grow your business by cutting out repetitive, error-prone tasks and replacing them with industry-leading enterprise automation that understands your company’s processes and helps it achieve its growth objectives.
