How G.W. Peoples Reduced AP Turnaround Time from Days to Hours by Automating AP

G.W. Peoples needed to improve their turnaround time on its accounts payable (AP). They turned to hh2's automation AP software and increased efficiencies throughout their AP processes. 

Using hh2’s Document Flow, G.W. Peoples streamlined their entire accounts payable process down to less than two days by: 

• Automating invoice acquisition into one email account 
• Speeding up the approval process with role and user-based routing and notifications 
• Reducing time spent on mundane tasks, like data entry and searching for physical files 
• Consolidating and integrating all AP data into their ERP system
  

Adam Lutz oversees GWP’s job costing operations as Controller, which presents unique challenges. He reviews contracts, loads budget information into their ERP, verifies expenses and invoices, and evaluates information gathered from construction site reports to ensure job costs align with their budget. He’s also responsible for mitigating any issues. 

These tasks were complicated by information that wasn’t easily consolidated or accessible among staffers. Lutz explains that “trying to collect reports from field guys, getting them in on time, and being able to look at them in one system was not easy. A lot of people wrote in a book. And the book pages were usually scanned, or they were taking a picture of the page of the book and sending it to me. So that was, again, just a difficult way of trying to manage all that.”  

GWP’s accounts payable process was time-consuming and inefficient. Invoices arrived in various formats — by email, fax, and regular mail. Gathering and formatting invoices took a great deal of time. They also didn’t have a way to organize their files digitally, so they printed all invoices to keep physical copies of everything.  

Ensuring managers received, opened, and responded to invoicing emails was difficult, slowing down their entire AP process. In addition, GWP had no way to track where an invoice was in the AP process, which led to more work and delays. 

Manual invoice handling bogged down their reconciliation process. They had to locate expense documents in their filing cabinet, scan and save them, and then email them to the right manager for review and approval.  

 The Goals 

Many aspects of G.W. Peoples’ accounts payable process were operating as separate units that couldn’t talk or work with one another. Organizing, managing, and approving invoices through their existing system was challenging. GWP wanted to find a solution to further streamline their AP process, reducing invoice turnaround time and the burden on workers.  

GWP wanted construction AP software that could automate many of its manual tasks to increase efficiency and reduce delays between invoice acquisition, routing, and approval. The company wanted to be able to track individual invoices throughout the AP process. 

Frustration over the inefficiency of their job costing and AP workflows led him to research construction software solutions that integrated with their existing accounting ERP system, Sage, because Lutz “didn’t want anything that didn’t integrate, I wasn’t even going to go down that route.”  GWP ultimately chose to migrate to hh2 due to its seamless, built-in integrations with popular construction ERP systems.  

hh2’s Document Flow offered the custom AP automation that GWP sought to streamline their invoicing and job costing processes. The fact that hh2 is well-established in the construction industry and the software is cloud-based was also a major selling point for him. 

 The Solution 

Lutz had an overwhelmingly positive experience using hh2’s Remote Payroll as an accountant, so he turned to hh2 for a solution to improve AP processing.

With hh2’s Document Flow, accounts payable (AP) automation tool, he can easily organize and manage GWP’s invoices and other digital financial files. Its email extraction feature allows GWP to acquire invoices through their preferred method and quickly code and route them for approval. They now have a dedicated accounts payable email address, and invoices are automatically uploaded to their system. AP staffers use hh2’s workflow engine to easily add general coding for vendors, determine which job its for, and route invoices through one system.  

For invoices requiring a manager’s approval, Document Flow lets them notify and route an invoice directly. Then, the manager can quickly review it, adding any necessary coding or notes before approving it. The best part? hh2 allows GWP to monitor invoices throughout the AP process to see where they stand and reduce bottlenecks or delays.  

In addition to streamlining GWP’s invoice handling, Document Flow also improved its reconciliation process. Instead of having to search for physical files, Lutz now has immediate access through Document Flow’s simple search feature.

“I can just get a date range and pick a job, get my list of invoices. Select the ones I want and do a quick export. And there's my stuff in PDF, and I get it attached to my bill, and it takes me ten minutes. And that's a lot less difficult.”  — Adam Lutz, Controller

 The Results 

Using Document Flow and Field Reports allowed G.W. Peoples to significantly reduce the time and burden of job costing and invoicing. hh2's AP automation tools increased GWP’s overall efficiency and cut down mundane tasks, like data entry, to allow their payroll and accounting staff to focus on more important duties. Since partnering with hh2, G.W. Peoples has reduced their AP turnaround time down to an average of one to two days.  

Document Flow streamlined many of Lutz’s responsibilities as Controller. He expressed that separately mapping all aspects of a construction project was challenging and time-consuming. With hh2’s solutions, data is consolidated and integrated into their ERP faster.

“It’s all feeding into one system, so I can just log into Sage, and basically everything’s already there…and it’s much easier to run one report than it is to go to individual places to start digging it out.”  

— Adam Lutz, Controller

hh2’s cloud-based features and mobile app also played a critical role in G.W. Peoples’ success in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company’s AP workflow remained uninterrupted and without delays as workers went fully remote because of the cloud capabilities of hh2 products.  

Lutz strongly believes in hh2 and its products’ abilities to improve construction companies' AP processes, even acting as a reference for hh2. G.W. Peoples has no plan to leave its decade-long partnership with hh2 anytime soon.