Universal Metro, Inc.

For over 40 years, Universal Metro, Inc. has been recognized as one of Southern California’s premiere commercial flooring experts. Known for their exceptional workmanship and dedication to the community, Universal Metro, Inc. has maintained a loyal customer base for more than three decades. This level of commitment extends to their employees, too, with Barbara Millette—Universal Metro, Inc.’s Administrator—dedicating 28 years to the company. In her current role, Millette focuses on process improvement and training, which is where our story begins. 

Before Siteline, Universal Metro, Inc.’s billing responsibilities were divided among seven project coordinators (PCs). Each PC managed billing workflows in “Structure,” a system that only generated invoices, which meant that all other forms and waivers had to be manually completed. This made the time-consuming process of pulling pay applications together even more cumbersome, often resulting in incorrect or late submissions.

Millette explained, "It takes a lot of time to gather and submit waivers and forms. And if you make a mistake, the customer won't pay, requiring you to repeatedly revise the pay application until it's correct. I’d say we were spending 20-30 hours each week just on pay applications alone.”

These inefficiencies caused frustration within the team and further delayed the company’s already lengthy billing cycle, with payment for their work often taking more than 70 days to receive. “Each day without payment diminishes the value of our hard-earned dollars,” said Millette. “It also puts us in a tough spot since we have other vendor invoices to settle each month.”

Most of these payment delays stemmed from the lack of a centralized tool and a standardized process for generating and submitting accurate pay applications and lien waivers. Fortunately, Siteline provided a solution to address both of these issues.

With Siteline, the company has successfully streamlined its billing process, centralizing it under Millette’s management for all GC-related work. This move from siloed project coordination has significantly reduced the time spent on form creation and revisions, resulting in faster payments. “Siteline spits the full package out to the customer—from invoices to waivers to forms—and all in one email. It’s incredibly easy,” said Millette.

The Universal Metro, Inc. team also loves Siteline’s automated reminders, which are crucial in preventing oversights and ensuring prompt action on lien waiver collections and pay application submissions. “If there is something wrong with the project schedule or the materials, that’s one thing,” explained Millette. “But we never want to see payment delays for invoicing or paperwork issues. That was our goal in working with Siteline—nothing falls through the cracks.”

In addition to its functionality, Siteline's exceptional customer service has been a standout feature for the Universal Metro, Inc. team. Millette expressed her satisfaction with Siteline support, stating that she typically receives “an answer within an hour, if not sooner. It’s been such a huge help to our team’s success with the software.”