"Getting our bills out on time has been a huge improvement. The faster you get your bills out on time, the faster you get paid by the owner. That’s the whole reason we got Built, and I think that it’s definitely served its purpose well."
— Justin Frank, Executive Vice President
Combining the capabilities of a large-scale general contractor with the dedication of a family-owned construction company, the Cardella Construction Company has been successfully building commercial and residential properties in Florida for two generations. Built upon the values of integrity, hard work, and dedication to the craft, the company combines time-honored techniques with the latest technologies to provide superior service and premium results to their clients.
With such stellar work, collaboration across all channels is a necessity; from working with high-level architects and designers, to managing subcontractors, vendors and materialmen on each and every job, Cardella understands the critical role that teamwork plays in their daily operations. And it’s why they choose, time and time again, to invest in technology and tools that help every team member perform at their best. But with so many moving parts to manage and track within a single job — let alone multiple projects transpiring simultaneously — Cardella noticed inefficiencies in their processes that imposed major delays on other large-scale, high-value projects. As loyal users of Procore, the industry leading software for project management, the company had tasted the benefits that technology could provide, and were eager to take a bigger bite. Once they discovered the efficiencies that Built could bring to their lien waiver processes, Cardella Construction was ready to dig in.
Coming from an antiquated system in which manual data entry was a key component, the improvements that Cardella has experienced since implementing Built have been sweeping. Not only has productivity gone up and turnaround time improved, but the margin of error has been almost completely eradicated.
Valuable Integrations - Built works with Procore and DocuSign to streamline processes and enhance organization
Improved Accuracy - because Built syncs with accounting and project management software, lien waivers can be populated by simply pulling information straight from those systems, which means errors and duplicate data entry are eliminated
Faster Turnarounds - coupling technological integrations with document accuracy leads to expedient money exchange so work can begin sooner
Although Cardella had long been enjoying the project management efficiencies afforded them by Procore, they had maintained an outdated, manual workflow in regards to lien waiver management. In this method, subcontractors’ bill submissions were essentially the spark that ignited the lien waiver process. Because of this, Cardella had a lack of control from the outset of the process, leaving them vulnerable to error and subjecting them to the loss of valuable time. Whether the subcontractor billed for something that hadn’t yet been approved, or the lien waiver ended up on the wrong form or with the wrong invoice, the process almost always proved itself tedious, laborious, and oftentimes incredibly confusing. What’s more, accurately tracking these constantly-evolving documents through emails, phone calls, and complicated excel spreadsheets proved futile. On the whole Cardella recognized an extensive loss of time — time that could amount to weeks, or even months — due to preparing, sending, receiving, approving, and documenting lien waivers. It was a flawed system that left them vulnerable to error, and victim to time.
As loyal users of Procore, Cardella was thrilled to discover the software’s connectivity with Built and the astonishing capabilities this integration could facilitate in regards to their lien waivers. Not only did the Built integration to Procore give the company a completely automated system for creating, sending and tracking lien waivers, utilizing approved templates that save some serious time, but the synthesis with DocuSign was the cherry on top, ensuring all transactions transpire securely and electronically, from signature to storage. With Built in play, Cardella was able to cut weeks off their billing timeline. Gone are the days of sending bills to project owners at a two or three week delay due to inaccuracies in documentation and inefficiencies in their lien waiver system; with Built Cardella has been able to complete the loop in as little as a matter of minutes.
"We are getting unconditionals and conditionals typically back within 24 hours if not sooner. And the fact that they are correct every single time -- and that there’s no possibility for people to write notes that invalidate them -- has been huge."
— Ali Cardella, Director of Project Controls
Because implementing Built into Cardella’s workflow took only a matter of days, the team was up and running with improved speed and agility almost immediately. Due to their preexisting predilection for Procore, the team is especially fond of the lien waiver capabilities that transpire directly from the project management software from which so much of their business is conducted already. With the option to now send conditional lien waivers and invoices directly from Procore with the help of DocuSign, both documentation and payments can transpire at an exceedingly accelerated rate without any additional manpower.
SENDING CONDITIONAL LIEN WAIVERS WITH PROCORE AND DOCUSIGN
What’s more, Cardella is now further leveraging Built’s features to bulk-create unconditional waivers for invoices that have already been approved, saving hours of time that had been previously devoted to sending them one-by-one.
BULK SENDING UNCONDITIONAL LIEN WAIVERS WITH PROCORE AND DOCUSIGN
Ultimately, Built has given the Cardella Construction Company an efficient and easy-to-use solution that allows them to nimbly customize and exchange lien waivers so they can more quickly get back to doing what they love most: exceptional building.
"[Built] has a fantastic ROI. We’re definitely getting our money’s worth out of the tool."
— Justin Frank, Executive Vice President
