VanKirk Electric
The Challenge
Vankirk Electric, founded in 1943, has built a legacy of excellence as one of the Southeast's leading electrical contractors. However, as the company has scaled its operations, its success began to outpace its existing processes. With more than 70 active projects nationwide, VanKirk's reliance on cumbersome Excel spreadsheets and outdated document management methods began to strain its dedicated team.
"We were doing everything manually," explains Sarah Vang, the company's Accounts Receivable (A/R) Manager. "All our billing data was in Excel, with separate folders for supporting documents. Each pay application took me 20 to 30 minutes to prepare—it was a super time-consuming process.”
Because of the company’s high project volume, the A/R team spent 40-50 hours a month on billing preparation alone. Plus, revisions were common, which added more to their workload. Even with three staff members, the company was looking to hire two more just to keep up.
Time spent processing paperwork hampered the team’s responsiveness and diverted resources that could’ve been better focused on collecting payments and growth. VanKirk knew it was time to modernize. And fortunately, Siteline came knocking.
The Solution
Siteline—a construction billing software built specifically for subcontractors—offered VanKirk Electric a powerful solution to streamline their A/R process. With seamless integrations into VanKirk’s client portals (Textura and GCPay) and automated pay application form generation and submission, Siteline eliminated the tedious work weighing down their A/R team. Real-time editing capabilities within the system also significantly improved pay application and lien waiver management, freeing the team from disparate spreadsheets and minimizing the risk of human error.
In addition to addressing their immediate billing challenges, Siteline provided a comprehensive solution for change order management. Previously relying on Smartsheet, VanKirk was able to consolidate this workflow into Siteline.
“Siteline opened our eyes to efficiencies we never knew existed,” says Paul Sanchez, VanKirk’s Controller. “We might not have realized how much we needed this change if Siteline hadn’t reached out. Now, pay applications and lien waivers—our biggest pain points—are much more streamlined.”
The Results
Since implementing Siteline, VanKirk Electric has experienced a significant transformation in its billing and change order processes. The system’s automation and real-time features have led to tangible improvements across the organization:
5 days saved each month on pay app processing
Siteline’s streamlined workflow has drastically reduced the time spent on processing pay applications, saving the equivalent of five full days of work. Plus, project managers who previously would email their billings to Vang every month—often resulting in long, confusing back-and-forths—can now update their billings directly within Siteline, saving time and headaches. These efficiency gains have enabled the team to reallocate time and resources to higher-value tasks.
16 hours saved on change order management
Managing change orders—once a 15-minute ordeal per project—now takes the team under a minute. With an average of 62 change orders each month, this translates to a considerable time savings of 16 hours per week. This improvement goes beyond simply freeing up time; it reduces the potential for errors that trigger pay app rejections. “Construction businesses are constantly juggling an influx of information,” Sanchez points out. “Anytime you can cut through that and get the information you need immediately, it makes a huge impact.”
Enhanced collaboration and efficiency
Siteline has significantly enhanced VanKirk Electric's team efficiency and productivity. The intuitive platform has halved onboarding time, allowing new hires to become productive contributors in just one month. This increased efficiency not only streamlines operations but also ensures that even with potential team fluctuations, VanKirk can maintain high billing standards and consistent output.
"Siteline has given us the confidence that even if our team size were to change, we could still maintain our high standards and meet our goals," says Vang.
These new efficiencies have enabled the team to focus on strategic improvements, using meetings to discuss financial performance, material procurement, and labor projections. This shift fosters a collaborative environment where everyone has visibility into project finances, which is a perfect segue to the next and final improvement.
Real-time insight into billing health
As VanKirk’s Controller, Sanchez particularly appreciates Siteline’s real-time visibility into billing statuses across all projects. Previously, surfacing data required digging through paperwork and dealing with scattered aging reports. “Before Siteline, visibility was an ongoing challenge,” recalls Sanchez. I’d need financial information, but the team would be buried in data entry.” Now, he has up-to-the-minute financial information in one centralized location.
The cumulative gains have revolutionized VanKirk Electric’s operations. According to Sanchez, "Siteline has been a game-changer. Its automation capabilities and real-time editing features have significantly reduced the time spent on processing draws and improved overall efficiency. The software has allowed us to streamline our billing process and better manage our workload, ultimately leading to increased productivity and better results."
Featured projects on Siteline
Want to see these results at your company?
Contact us
More case studies
